Wait…the Little Mermaid was trans? (part 4 of 4)
It won’t cost you much…JUST YOUR VOICE
Look at this face Isn’t it neat? Wouldn’t you say my transition’s complete? Wouldn’t you say I’m a girl? A girl who has…almost everything?
This article owes just about every inch of gratitude I can spare to the phenomenal writer, poet, and champion for anyone who loves to sing: Jenny Starr. Her ideas, insights, and experiences helped all of us at Transgender Soapbox see The Little Mermaid in a new way.
As for STEPHENIE!!
Hi, it’s Stephenie!
Believe it or not, I do this for a living. Here’s how you can support me.
| SUPPORT ME FOR FREE | SUPPORT ME FOR $5 | SUPPORT ME BY TELLING YOUR STORY |
READ PART 1 and Part 2 and Part 3 FIRST!
Hey, I know you’ve seen the movie a million times, but this is not the same story. Read part 1 and part 2 and part 3 first or forever be demoted to the back of Sebastian’s chorus.
LET’S GET STARTED!
SUMMARY OF PART 1
SUMMARY OF PART 2
SUMMARY OF PART 3
And now…the stunning conclusion to WAIT…THE LITTLE MERMAID WAS TRANS?
“Well, angelfish, the solution to your problem is simple. The only way to get what you want…”
Years later, Ariel could hardly believe how that decision had come to define her. Sometimes in all the ways she needed. Sometimes in unexpected ways she’d never dreamed.
There were, occasionally, heartaches. There always were. It was her responsibility to prepare her own family for those kinds of obstacles.
When she was younger, her love story with Eric had meant something so different. Now that she was older, it could mean something else again.
So much of what she’d “wanted” had been a reflection of what her father had demanded. The frame he’d set for her, as though his fulfillment mattered more than her exploration of her own feelings and limits.
Her voice, for example. King Triton had told Ariel that any man would only love her if she sounded like her sisters. He’d been wrong about that. Very, very wrong.
Just as he’d been wrong about so much else.
Just as SHE had been wrong about so much else. She’d swum in the ripples of his fin, after all. An observation her mother had often made before the worst had come to her.
The biggest truth her father had lied about? That the daughters of a king “needed” to find their prince. That a princess needed a prince. That a boy needed a girl. A girl needed a boy.
To think of all the time she wasted trying to satisfy the impossible.
She could change her body, but she could never change that inner part of herself. The one that was truest and loudest. The one her mother had held before she was even born.
That was the part of herself she knew to care for these days. The part that existed before it had a body and all the complications that came afterward.
That part was a pure soul. A pure life. One that simply deserved every opportunity that came with existence.
And finally, after these wonderful years spent reclaiming herself from the sea witch’s bargain, she understood more about love now, too.
In the breathless abandon of true romance, she understood that love trumps ambition. Or at least, they inform each other. She’d learned her heart could belong not just to a prince, but to another princess.
The feeling made itself known regardless of whether Ariel pursued it. As for whether she did? She deserves a few secrets…
But Ariel also thinks this one last secret is too good not to tell you. She likes secrets, yes, but she’s also gotten to know you so well. So she wants to tell you something else. She wants to confess —
Then she hears the gentle knock of two old crab claws at her door.
Years ago, she let Sebastian down.
She’s not going to again. Not this time.
This time, she will take her position on stage.
This time, for better or worse, she will use the voice that now belongs to her.
This time, she will sing.
THE END
COMMENTARY
JOS TRUITT: Ursula was only half a villain for me — she was also the twisted drag queen fairy godmother who could give Ariel the body she knew she belonged in (Ursula made that funny feeling shoot sparks). Ariel’s happy ending was far too good for my young self, who’d been pushed towards being a person I just wasn’t, to believe — Triton accepts Ariel as a human and lets her be herself! And, as commenter zes points out, Eric still loves Ariel after she’s outed as trans.
BONUS: What if Ariel had been a trans man?
REFERENCES/WHAT EVERYONE ELSE HAD TO SAY
^^^^^^^^^^^^ That legal analysis is thanks to no less than the fucking AMAZING writer, speaker (she’s a lawyer too?!), and all-around badass woman Shon Faye.
AFTER DARK NSFW (I’m serious): Disney Princes Strip Down For World AIDS Day In Italian Artist And Activist’s New Project
THE END (DAMN GIRL, THAT’S DARK)
Hi, it’s Stephenie!
Believe it or not, I do this for a living. Here’s how you can support me.