Ariel's Lost Voice

The Silenced Voice

Disney is known for their classic films, but each one holds different morals and invisible narratives, but usually we are too young to even realize these invisible narratives unless it is pointed out to us. Thinking back to how much loved The Little Mermaid as a child, I never actually payed attention to the invisible narrative that was being told. I just saw it as a princess wishing to become a human so then she could meet her prince charming. Now that I look back to analyze what the background information was about I realized that it wasn't that simple, there was a deeper meaning behind the human transformation. The invisible narrative was actually Ariel sacrificing her voice which was her strongest trait, only to get the perfect husband as a partner. Why did Ariel have to give up her voice in order to get a man's attention?

The social norm that is put in place today is that females have to give up a piece of who they are in order to be acknowledged by a male figure. They have to step down from who they are and become vulnerable in order to be accepted by the man. the question is, who wears the pants in the relationship? Why must the male have the lead, why must the females follow their footsteps and act like maids? Why must these girls give up these traits that create who they are? These scarifies that are being made in order to fit in to be an ideal partner is unnecessary.  In The Little Mermaid Ariel gave up the trait she valued the most, her voice only in return to get human legs to meet her prince charming. She gave up not only her voice, but she also gave up her home under the sea and the feature that made her unique, her mermaid tail. There is also a section in the movie when she is forced to sign a contract that seals the agreement of the exchange for legs she looks reluctant to put down her signature. In fact, it looks like she is trying to convince herself to just sign it, but her heart it's not what she want, but it's the only method that she think will work. Why must she go that far just to be noticed by her ideal man?

Eventually, Ariel does get the Prince's attention and they get married and have a baby girl. Ariel dedicates her life to become a "good wife". What is considered a "good wife"? There are scenes where Ariel is the only one talking care of Melody the baby. Eric, the husband is not really present during these scenes. The common role that women portray are stay at home wives, where their own duty is to serve to care for the children and keeping the house tidy. Basically jobs that have not that much value or power. Ariel left her old life under the sea just to fulfill what her husband life is like on land as a human. She had to mold into something that was expected of her to become a wife of a prince.

The discourse that the movie brings up is how females have a certain role in life. Project MUSE stated "Since the inception of modern contract theory in the seventeenth century, the usual view of women's duty as citizens has comprised a conceptual paradox: the female activity of providing life-giving, life-enhancing care is at once natural and obligatory." Like the term the egg is carried, but the perm is traveling. The egg which represents the females, has a smaller role to just wait for the right sperm specimen to appear. Not only doe the women have to carry the child in their bodies they have to sacrifice part of their body to give birth to the baby. Additionally to that most females are seen to have the nurturing aspect that they should be the ones to look after the child and the male are just there as the financial background. Females have to shape themselves so then they are socially accepted in the community. Honestly, these females shouldn't mold themselves to be accepted, because this is not who they are or who they want to become. Unreasonable scarifies shouldn't be made.