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Little mermaid

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Kleanthis Sotiriou
Kleanthis Sotiriou

The document summarizes and analyzes the representation of women in the Disney film The Little Mermaid through a feminist lens. It discusses how Ariel is portrayed as subordinate to male characters like her father King Triton and how she trades her voice to the sea witch Ursula in exchange for legs. The analysis draws on feminist film theories from Mulvey and Cowie to argue that Ariel and other female characters are presented as objects for the male gaze and narrative.

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Kleanthis SotiriouRepresentation of Women in T.V
SummaryAriel is a headstrong sixteen-year-old mermaid whose father just so happens to be King Triton, the ruler of the "Mer" people. Ariel is fascinated with the world above the sea's surface and is curious about the many artefacts she's collected from shipwrecks. She longs to be a human and along with friends Flounder and Scuttle, a seagull, she occasionally pops up to the surface for a quick look around. Triton is furious over this, for he thinks that humans are barbarians and dangerous to the Mer people. So he assigns the court composer, Sebastian the crab to watch over her.
SummaryHe's horrified to find that Ariel has fallen in love with Prince Eric , a human she saved from a shipwreck. Her attraction to the above water world continually grows, while Prince Eric longs for the mysterious woman with the beautiful singing voice who saved him.Despondent and knowing that her father will try to stop her by any means, Ariel accepts an interesting, but very dangerous invitation from Ursula, an underwater witch. Ursula transforms Ariel into a human in exchange for her beautiful voice, and for Ariel's soul should she not be able to get the prince to kiss her within three days. Thus Ariel and her friends must race against time to make that kiss happen, while Ursula does what she can to prevent it.
CharactersThe characters who are going to be discussed are : The protagonist Ariel, her antagonist Ursula in relation to feminist theories which are going to be expand according to Laura Mulvey Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, by explaining the representation of the female form in a symbolic way.Elizabeth Cowie in her book : Representing the woman : Cinema and Psychoanalysis makes also some interesting points about the representation of women and how her image applies to reality comparing to Cinematic approaches. Such theories question gender construction and body motion meaning.
Little mermaid
Visual Pleasures and Narrative CinemaMulvey is using the psychoanalytic theory, investigates the sexual differences of men and women. In which she states; “Woman’s desire is subjugated to her image as bearer of the bleeding wound; she can exist only in relation to castration and cannot transcend it.” ( Mulvey, 1989 )
Patriarchal SocietyThere is an obvious interest in this analysis for feminists, a beauty in its exact rendering of the frustration experienced under the phallocentric order. It is evident within the opening sequence of The Little Mermaid that the film is based around the concept of a ‘patriarchal society.’
Hollywood“The formation of the cinematic apparatus responds to a desire to figure a unity and coherence in the spectator that has long since been lost in the spectator-subject’s entrance into the symbolic of difference” ( Metts,2001 )
Little mermaid
Ariel's dialogue with Ursula"What I want from you is ... your voice!""But without my voice, how can ...Yes on land it's much preferred for ladies not to say a word and she who holds her tongue will get a man!"
Gender is constructed :In terms of ‘binary opposition’ the active male is responsible for driving the narrative, Triton destroys Ariel’s human collection therefore she goes to see Ursula to turn into a human. Now a passive female Ariel is the product of cinema’s unequivocal positioning of females as attractive, subordinate objects.
Representation of Women“Representation is not a system of signs referring to reality and therefore there can be no recourse to an original essence against which the achievement or shortcomings of images, produced by cinema, television, literature etc. can be measured.” ( Cowie, 1996 )
Little mermaid
ConclusionIn conclusion the feminist film theory in particular to the initial work of Laura Mulvey is extremely significant in understanding women’s positions in relation to men in cinema. Women have been described as objects which permeates cinematic constructions of gender. This of course appears in The Little Mermaid which was the product of its time when males were prevailing in the production of films. However ‘counter-cinema’ produced a series of successes to challenge the ideological view of women as subordinate to men.
ReferencesMulvey, L., 1989 [1975], “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, in her: Visual and other Pleasures, pp. 14-26, Indiana U. Press.Cowie, Elizabeth,1996 “Representing The Woman: Cinema and Psychoanalysis”. Univ Of Minnesota Press; 1st edition. Metts,Rob,2001, “The images of Calvin Klein Visual Anthropology” http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a922280731/access 11.05.2011Cook Pam, Bernink Mieke, The Cinema Book 2nd Edition, 1999, British Film Institute, London.Thornham, Sue, 1999, “Feminist Film Theory A Reader”,Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.Burnet, Ron, 1991 “ Explorations in Film Theory selected essays from Cine Tracts”, Indiana University Press.

More Related Content

Little mermaid

  • 2. SummaryAriel is a headstrong sixteen-year-old mermaid whose father just so happens to be King Triton, the ruler of the "Mer" people. Ariel is fascinated with the world above the sea's surface and is curious about the many artefacts she's collected from shipwrecks. She longs to be a human and along with friends Flounder and Scuttle, a seagull, she occasionally pops up to the surface for a quick look around. Triton is furious over this, for he thinks that humans are barbarians and dangerous to the Mer people. So he assigns the court composer, Sebastian the crab to watch over her.
  • 3. SummaryHe's horrified to find that Ariel has fallen in love with Prince Eric , a human she saved from a shipwreck. Her attraction to the above water world continually grows, while Prince Eric longs for the mysterious woman with the beautiful singing voice who saved him.Despondent and knowing that her father will try to stop her by any means, Ariel accepts an interesting, but very dangerous invitation from Ursula, an underwater witch. Ursula transforms Ariel into a human in exchange for her beautiful voice, and for Ariel's soul should she not be able to get the prince to kiss her within three days. Thus Ariel and her friends must race against time to make that kiss happen, while Ursula does what she can to prevent it.
  • 4. CharactersThe characters who are going to be discussed are : The protagonist Ariel, her antagonist Ursula in relation to feminist theories which are going to be expand according to Laura Mulvey Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, by explaining the representation of the female form in a symbolic way.Elizabeth Cowie in her book : Representing the woman : Cinema and Psychoanalysis makes also some interesting points about the representation of women and how her image applies to reality comparing to Cinematic approaches. Such theories question gender construction and body motion meaning.
  • 6. Visual Pleasures and Narrative CinemaMulvey is using the psychoanalytic theory, investigates the sexual differences of men and women. In which she states; “Woman’s desire is subjugated to her image as bearer of the bleeding wound; she can exist only in relation to castration and cannot transcend it.” ( Mulvey, 1989 )
  • 7. Patriarchal SocietyThere is an obvious interest in this analysis for feminists, a beauty in its exact rendering of the frustration experienced under the phallocentric order. It is evident within the opening sequence of The Little Mermaid that the film is based around the concept of a ‘patriarchal society.’
  • 8. Hollywood“The formation of the cinematic apparatus responds to a desire to figure a unity and coherence in the spectator that has long since been lost in the spectator-subject’s entrance into the symbolic of difference” ( Metts,2001 )
  • 10. Ariel's dialogue with Ursula"What I want from you is ... your voice!""But without my voice, how can ...Yes on land it's much preferred for ladies not to say a word and she who holds her tongue will get a man!"
  • 11. Gender is constructed :In terms of ‘binary opposition’ the active male is responsible for driving the narrative, Triton destroys Ariel’s human collection therefore she goes to see Ursula to turn into a human. Now a passive female Ariel is the product of cinema’s unequivocal positioning of females as attractive, subordinate objects.
  • 12. Representation of Women“Representation is not a system of signs referring to reality and therefore there can be no recourse to an original essence against which the achievement or shortcomings of images, produced by cinema, television, literature etc. can be measured.” ( Cowie, 1996 )
  • 14. ConclusionIn conclusion the feminist film theory in particular to the initial work of Laura Mulvey is extremely significant in understanding women’s positions in relation to men in cinema. Women have been described as objects which permeates cinematic constructions of gender. This of course appears in The Little Mermaid which was the product of its time when males were prevailing in the production of films. However ‘counter-cinema’ produced a series of successes to challenge the ideological view of women as subordinate to men.
  • 15. ReferencesMulvey, L., 1989 [1975], “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, in her: Visual and other Pleasures, pp. 14-26, Indiana U. Press.Cowie, Elizabeth,1996 “Representing The Woman: Cinema and Psychoanalysis”. Univ Of Minnesota Press; 1st edition. Metts,Rob,2001, “The images of Calvin Klein Visual Anthropology” http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a922280731/access 11.05.2011Cook Pam, Bernink Mieke, The Cinema Book 2nd Edition, 1999, British Film Institute, London.Thornham, Sue, 1999, “Feminist Film Theory A Reader”,Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.Burnet, Ron, 1991 “ Explorations in Film Theory selected essays from Cine Tracts”, Indiana University Press.