[ SECRET POST #4597 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4597 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.



__________________________________________________



02.


__________________________________________________



03.


__________________________________________________



04.


__________________________________________________



05.


__________________________________________________



06.


__________________________________________________



07.









Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 14 secrets from Secret Submission Post #658.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

05. https://i.imgur.com/HjgyyR1.png

[(Anonymous)]

I think it's an interesting interpretation of the character, actually. I don't really see the point in getting into a big argument about whether it "officially" "counts" though.

[(Anonymous)]

Not OP

I'm trying to fight against my gut reaction of "really? really?" and remind myself that this kind of interpretation might be interesting to explore and it doesn't hurt me at all that anyone would prop her up that way. I am having a little trouble getting it, though. Is it because she was mute as a human? Or is the interpretation suggesting her inability to walk on land (being a mermaid) is a metaphor for physical disability? I guess I can see where either holds a little bit of water (heh) but at the same time, the film seems more literally about a mermaid to me so it's hard to look at it in terms of metaphors.

[(Anonymous)]

Seconding this entire comment very hard.

[(Anonymous)]

Both of them, to a certain extent, but especially the muteness - and I think what's important is not just the muteness, but the fact that it's such a big deal for the movie

I say it sort of counts.

[(Anonymous)]

It is difficult to get through life without being able to talk. And aphonia is quite literally a disability. But it doesn't fully count because it's temporary with a specific time limit.

[(Anonymous)]

I mean, it's temporary and the result of a curse, but I would think the muteness counts. While she is under the spell she has a disability that massively affects what she wants and needs to do. Her inability to speak to confirm her identity or explain why she's there affects what she's able to accomplish. It's not a permanent disability, because magic, but it is still very much in evidence for those three days.

[(Anonymous)]

It only counts if I was disabled when I lost my voice to bronchitis for a few days. I wouldn't have said so, but there may be those who disagree.

[(Anonymous)]

If they made a movie about you, where it was a central plot point and a major part of your progression as a character, it might be a different argument.

Anyway, I think that's more along the lines of what we're talking about here.

[(Anonymous)]

I mean, temporary/short term disability is a thing. If you're unable to do something you normally would be able to do (or required to do) due to illness or injury, or magic in this case, and it affects your ability to function normally, then yeah, it comes under disability. Ariel was unable to speak or communicate, and it did seriously affect her life, and almost cost her her freedom. So I'd count it.

[(Anonymous)]

You had a short-term disability, yes. I broke my foot and I only had to be off it for about a week, but it was definitely a disability for that time!

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I feel kind of skeptical about this as well. It was temporary, literally only a few days. It affected her life, absolutely, she had to learn to do shit without that ability. So sure, she had a short-term disability. But I think that's quite different, and rather presumptuous, to set her up as having identifier or being representation of a minority.

It'd be like saying Mulan was the first male or transgender princess because she dressed up as a dude and was treated as a dude for a few weeks.

[(Anonymous)]

What I don't get is why this has to be an either-or. The movie can have themes around disability, and be open to interpretation under that theme, and have a character who can be understood as disabled in one reading, without Ariel being an official representative of disability for all time.

Like with Mulan - I wouldn't necessarily call Mulan as a character transgender, but I would definitely say that gender is a major theme for Mulan as a film, and if someone talked about Mulan as a transgender Disney princess, I would understand what they meant by it. It's a little hard to say because we don't really know what the people OP is talking about actually said, but I just hate this way of focusing on things, where Ariel is either 100% Disabled Representation, or she isn't at all.

IDK

[(Anonymous)]

She's disabled...how? By not having feet?.....she has a fishtail instead! That's not disabled!

[(Anonymous)]

She's disabled when she is mute.

[(Anonymous)]

She had a temporary disability when she was mute (and I'd never thought about it, but the movie does show how hard it is for her to be understood and how people think she's dumb because she can't speak), but it was caused and solved by magic so it counts as representation as much as all those soap characters that go blind for a month or two.

[(Anonymous)]

The secret didn't say anything about representation. But I would say it counts as representation if a mute person sees it and feels represented. Which some will and some won't. There is no universal truth as to whether it counts as representation or not.

[(Anonymous)]

(I know we use "dumb" to mean "stupid" now but it literally means "can't speak" so... yeah, Ariel is dumb.)

[anarchicq]

I think they thought she was dumb because she combed her hair with a fork...

Badum Tshhhh

[(Anonymous)]

In the original story, at least, every step she took was like "walking on knives". That sounds pretty disabled to me.

[(Anonymous)]

She is certainly temporarily disabled-- doesn't matter that it happens magically OR that she willingly made the bargain, mutism is a disability.

Disney's Ariel isn't shown to have the chronic pain that HCA's little mermaid suffers when she gains legs, but I'd consider the character in the original fairytale to be disabled on that basis as well.