When it was recently announced Halle Bailey, a 19-year-old singer and actress was casted in the role of ‘Ariel’ in the upcoming remake of The Little Mermaid, every social media platform broke. Several celebrities from the likes of Mariah Carey, Zendaya and Chrissy Teigen took to Twitter to express their excitement by showing solidarity and support for Halle Bailey.
However, with all good things, there are a couple who can’t help but try to spoil the party – they were up in arms, but not over the fact that in 2019, we’re seeing a story of a young female sea creature in a sea-shelled bikini top, who desperately gives up her one passion of singing… for a man.
Rather, the outrage has sparked from the actual casting of Ariel with Grown-ish actress Bailey, a black young woman, with brown eyes black features and dreadlocks. Not long after the news broke, a trending hashtag began circulating amongst dismayed commenters Twitter, stating that Bailey is ‘#NotMyAriel.’ And they didn’t stop there – there was also a petition started, hoping to replace the replace the qualified black beauty, for someone who is ‘more physically suited’ to the role. Sounds pretty ludicrous right? As some complaints have suggested Ariel must mimic the likes of the 30-year-old animation that has red hair, big blue eyes and fair skin. This has subsequently led to scores of Disney fans pledging to boycott the film completely.
For many fans, however, this is amazing news. As more examples of black excellence continue to spread across the globe, there is an undeniable space for black women to now take on the roles that have portrayed these princesses as white in the past. Joni Benson, who voiced the original ‘Ariel’ in the 1989 animated flick, came to Bailey’s defence, supporting the live action casting. Benson stated: ‘No matter what we look like on the outside, no matter our race, our nation, the colour of our skin, our dialect, whether I’m tall or thin, whether I’m overweight or underweight, or my hair is whatever colour, we really need to tell the story.’
A week or so has passed and Disney has yet to comment. However, Freeform – the American television channel that is host to Grown-ish on which she and sister Chloe Bailey star – took to social media on Monday the 17th of July to clarify their position on the matter. They stated: ‘Ariel is a mermaid… and a work of fiction’ and ‘Halle Bailey is anything other than an INSPIRED casting because she ‘doesn’t look like the cartoon’ one’, boy do I have news for you…” Freeform addressed this message via an open letter to the Poor, Unfortunate Souls (of the internet), who cannot get their minds around a black Ariel.
One of the greatest gifts with fairytales is our ability to retell them in any shape or form. At this stage, it’s pretty unlikely that Disney would go back on their decision to cast Halle Bailey as Ariel – so it’s time all the naysayers to get over it, and go back to the animated version, if they need to. This is a time to rejoice diversity, equality and best of all fairytales for all – and the more of these we have, the better!
