By Eduardo Paz and Anna Lee Mraz Bartra
Disney's new film, "The Little Mermaid", a remake of the 1980s cartoon, frames a new dispute within North American society and partially in Latin America regarding hegemonic cultural values. ?a remake of the 1980s cartoon movie? frames a new dispute within the North American society and partially in Latin America regarding hegemonic cultural values. The film's trailer has received more than one million dislikes on the YouTube platform and has received a large number of racist comments.
On September 6, 2022, the global film company Disney began promotion of the film with the release of the trailer the movie "The Little Mermaid" (Little Mermaid) ?which ceases to be a cartoon and becomes a film. Live-Action? starring Halle Bailey. The one minute and twenty-three second trailer has received over 220,000 comments in just one week.
The controversy is given by the change in the protagonist. While in the version of the late eighties Ariel was represented by a cartoon with white skin, fiery red hair and blue eyes.
In the new version, the red curls remain, but she is now played by an African-American actress. This decision by Disney - which was made in a non-traditional casting process where the character is not limited to one ethnicity or skin color - was considered an important step in the representation of African-American actors in leading roles. Such a process has always had an effect on the population, not only in the United States of America (USA), but also globally.
Because the American film industry is dominant in the world, casting decisions have repercussions in an industry dominated by white people. An example of such dominance is manifested in the few African-American actors who have been nominated for an Oscar. In this regard, the Statista platform notes that 81% of industry members who vote in the Oscars are white.
In this way, the Little Mermaid trailer is situated in the whirlwind of a dispute between a version of society - until now dominant - that now the status quo and the privileges it entails. Faced with a heterogeneous society that seeks to break with racial and gender stereotypes. For the same reason, it is not a dispute about the conditions of production but about the positions of racialized domination. These positions are disguised as ?nostalgia? or ?how it should be? according to the origin of the story, which is Danish.
Based on one of the possible origins of the story, one would have to consider Mami Wata. A deity from West, Central and Southern Africa that developed between the 15th and 20th centuries. This female aquatic spirit, half fish and half human, is highly respected, feared and venerated, as she presents a balance between dark, divine, mysterious and angelic existence.
In this way, the comments around the trailer allow us to observe the longing for a division between the different social roles within American society. It remains a segregationist society where according to the ?races? there is a division both spatially and on the positions they occupy within society. This would be reflected in the assignment of characters -beyond history- according to their race.
It is important not to reduce the situation to a conflict in cinematographic "tastes", but to make visible the confrontation between a racially and culturally homogeneous society and a racially diverse and culturally heterogeneous society.
The analysis of the comments written under the trailer The Little Mermaid offers a glimpse into the dispute over the representation of the character in the film.
The term princess is divided according to the two words ?white?white) and ?black?black).
This combat consists of the dispute to maintain the old positions by those who yearn for the status quo The company's goal is to cover it up in a fallacious argument that seeks to show the inappropriateness of representing Little Mermaid with an African-American woman.
Where the term Tiana and the term frog (frog) and are close to the terms "black" (black), "white" (white) (white) and princess (princess) implies the demand that African-American protagonists only star in "their stories". Leaving ?white? protagonists for presumably white characters.
Therefore, the key to the argument shown on You Tube consists in the longing for a de facto segregated society where "races" occupy the positions taught by tradition.
In the case of Twitter, the #notmyariel trend also allows us to observe this dispute in an open and clearer way. On the one hand, we find again those groups that long to return to a more divided society. Where skin color and ethnicity are associated with certain social positions and therefore the guarantors of white privilege. While at the same time we find the challenge of these "diverse populations" who propose a more democratic society where ethnicity and skin color do not constitute barriers in everyday life.
In this space, less controlled than the comments on the Disney-controlled YouTube page, the language of the Trumpist right-wing is unabashedly present. Thus appear the #WOKEGOTTAGO, #GOWOKE, #GOBROKE and its Latin American counterpart in #INCLUSION FORCED. In this regard, it is worth remembering that the term WOKE was coined within the African-American communities to remind the importance of pointing out racism in everyday expressions or mass media, now extreme right-wing groups have transformed it into a derogatory term by falsely using it as a way to denounce an intolerant moralism. Thus, the dispute between the "two societies" is not restricted to the video platform but can also be observed in other socio-digital spaces.
The trailer of the movie "Little Mermaid" offers us a glimpse into the cultural contradictions of late modernity. A time where after the long years of liberalism and the increase of inequality, we find the revaluation of identities. For the same reason, the confrontations move from the economic sphere and the struggles against material inequality; towards the space of confrontations for the legitimate control of domination through its cultural guidelines. Disputes animated by the search for the subjugated gaze of the "other", an indispensable element for the constitution of one's own hierarchical position: longing for domination.
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This publication was supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.
