The Little Mermaid: Is Ariel A Good Role Model?

The Better Mermaid In Disney’s The Little Mermaid often the question arises “Is Ariel a good role model?”. The answer may surprise you. The answer is no she is not a good role model for young girls. This claim has value due to the fact that the original Little Mermaid cannot compete with the more modern films that young girls can watch. The more modern films have better Disney princesses to look up to. But what events happened in Disney’s The Little Mermaid to not make Ariel a good role model for young women? The reason Ariel is not a good is very apparent in the film. Her father warns her about the humans and she ignores him. She gives up the most beautiful voice in all the sea just for a date. Those are just two of the things she did and

The princess was a young girl who wanted a soul instead of a man. She was much younger in the start of the story as well. This gave her a chance to mature awhile longer before the rash decision she made to go to the witch. Eventually however in Anderson’s version a man is key to gaining a soul and the little mermaid does give up her voice. She is however tasked with being by the prince’s side dancing for a long time tell they married. Dancing hurt her feet extremely so and it was all for nothing. In both the film and the original both of the mermaids were met with competition. In Anderson’s version she danced for them instead of acting jealous in Disney’s version. Anderson’s shows that women should not be jealous and fight over a man just because he is cute and nice. Also Anderson’s version shows that women should mature more before they decided what they really want before making such rash decisions. However Disney’s more modern princesses are even better role

She also is not her own hero and lacks some of the qualities that make the more modern Disney princesses such better role models. Such as Moana,Tiana, and Merida. She also lacks the growth that Anderson’s mermaid had. Ariel also lacked the major sacrifice other than her voice she did not have to put up with pain and could not handle jealously with maturity. Ariel is not all lost however she does have potential to be a good role model for young women with the few characteristics that she does have but is again beaten out by the modern princess. These are all the reasons that Ariel is not a good role model for young