Episode 72: Not My Disney Princess

We were planning to talk about preference vs. prejudice on this episode of ALS2WA… and we did, but not as initially intended. So, back in 2019 Disney announced its casting for the role of Ariel in their live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid” and adults took to social media to have a fit and express their outrage with #NotMyAriel Fast forward three years to 2022 and the first trailer for the movie – due out in May 2023— is causing the same, tantrums, hysteria, and keyboard conniptions among adults. As two women who grew up in the Renaissance Era* of the Disney princesses – with the classics and the modern ladies sharing spaces on lunchboxes, backpacks, blankets, and so much more merch! – we’re talking about our favorites, our perspectives on their legacies as they are physically diversified, the repetition of history (ala Brandy as Cinderella in 1997**), anti-blackness thinly hidden behind righteous indignation, the exploitation of children, and so much more. We didn’t intend to discuss preference vs. prejudice in quite this way, but the tides turned, and we leaned full steam into them because, if nothing else, on ALS2WA sips get real! Grab your glass and let’s stir up some controversy.

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The Little Mermaid (2023) Full Cast and Full Credits – https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5971474/fullcredits

*The Renaissance Era of Disney princesses, also called the “rebel children era,” appears to have been in response to a wake-up call for a needed transition from being conventional to being a reformer. This era includes Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas and Mulan. https://stanforddaily.com/2021/08/12/the-evolution-of-disney-princesses/

**Cinderella (1997 film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinderella_(1997_film)


Episode Timeline

0:00 Intro

0:05 Welcome to the couch

02:28 White September and upcoming December events

03:32 Popping Grapes: Apothic White Blend by Apothic & Pinot Grigio by Josh Cellars

07:50 Triggered into a topic switch

08:55 #NotMyAriel – you damn right!

10:25 Pros and cons of “The Little Mermaid”

15:24 Stop exploiting black children with reaction videos

19:20 Looking for self-validation in media

20:30 Princesses of the Renaissance Era

22:00 “It’s a Danish fairytale”

23:11 “It’s erasing European culture”

25:53 Where’s the red hair? Cheers to the gingers / natural-born reds!

27:13 All white/European cultures are not the same

27:50 The defiant princesses: Jasmine, Pocahontas, Merida

31:17 Changing the races of characters (whitewashing and blackwashing)

33:16 Brandy in Rogers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella

35:46 Racism and anti-blackness are not new

39:50 Remembering Brandy and Whitney Houston in Cinderella

43:55 When and where representation matters

45:30 Black people and the black community always get the backlash

46:06 Black people didn’t make The Little Mermaid

49:29 Black people have been supporting Disney for decades

51:07 Leave black people and Halle Bailey alone

51:46 Coming soon: preference vs. prejudice, for real

52:58 False righteous indignation

57:13 Watch it or don’t; those are your options

58:22 Inclusion is not abuse

59:35 Trigger Warning: A Little Something 2 Be Mad About… while drinking wine

59:52 Cheers to that wine review: Apothic White Blend by Apothic & Pinot Grigio by Josh Cellars

1:03:52 Thank you for wining with us!

**All opinions are our own. Episode not sponsored.**

**All images used for illustrative purposes. No copyright infringement intended**