Recently, Disney released the live-action movie trailer of " The Little Mermaid " (2023), with black female singer Halle Bailey as the heroine Ariel, and sang the classic song "Part" in the trailer of Your World".
is different from the original red-haired and white-skinned image, which has aroused polarized comments on the Internet. Some of the negative reviewers felt lost because they felt that the degree of reduction was not high; however, some negative reviewers used vicious disgust. Female, racist and body-shaming remarks, personal attacks on Holly's skin color, appearance. Of course, there are also many people who give affirmation and encouragement, especially the excited reactions of black girls to the new trailer, which are widely circulated.
Mermaids do not originate in northern Europe
First of all, the earliest legend of female mermaid originated from in the two river basins of , which is the fish girl Kulullû created by Tiamat, the water dragon goddess. The image of the mermaid that we generally know now is mainly influenced by Siren, who changed from the original human-shaped bird body to the image of a mermaid during the Roman period, which is why the mermaid has a beautiful voice and singing. At least until the 8th and 10th centuries AD, when the Vikings invaded Europe, these cultural elements gradually became popular in northern Europe, where Andersen (descendants of the Vikings) are located. And the original fairy tale also has a strong Christian color. The kind mermaid princess turned into a bubble and went to heaven. Many people may have forgotten that Africa was exposed to Greek, Roman and Christian civilizations far earlier than Northern Europe. In Roman times, the Germans, let alone the Vikings, were still considered barbarians by the Roman Empire.
Secondly, there have been mythical creatures similar to mermaid images in Africa as early as BC, such as the water god Nummo in Dogon mythology. Not only that, there are many legends of mermaid circulating all over Africa from ancient times to the present, such as the well-known water goddess Mami Wata and Yemaya/Yemoja, and Erzulie, who combines folk Catholic culture in , Central Africa, , and sometimes in the image of mermaid. render.
Of course, they are not the mermaid princesses written by Hans Christian Andersen, let alone Ariel in the Disney animation movie. But no one, including Andersen himself, has ever said that the mermaid princess cannot be a black person, and even the original did not say that the mermaid must be white (although there was a description of "a pair of little white legs" in the original, but different ethnic groups Different cultures, such as India or Japan, have their own "white skin", not the same as "white"), she is just a fantasy creature in the ocean.
