Entanglements: an exploration of the digital literary work FISHNETSTOCKINGS Main Menu Start Cover page FishnetStockings Fundamentals A path of background and documentation of FishnetStockings Mermaids, Little and Otherwise a path on one of the most famous mermaid tales Hybridity Sub/Immersion Processing, Systems, and Code Movement/Dance Silhouettes Underwater Paper Cutting Swim Through the Code A path about the code of FishnetStockings Fellow Fish works of digital art that set precedent Works Cited Sources of our inspiration and edificiation

Sexuality and The Little Mermaid

39386
Just as reactions to casting of the live-action version of Disney's The Little Mermaid revealed the role of racial coding in that animated film, a popular urban myth about the subliminal messages in the cover of the original movie poster of the animated film, reveals a sexual undercurrent that attends the blossoming young woman in the shell bra.

In what Snopes.com calls a hoax, keen eyes have spotted what seems to be a large phallus in the center of the underwater castle in the background of that movie poster and the cover of the original VHS version.  Allegedly, the image was snuck into the advertising by a disgruntled Disney employee. In interviews, the artist claimed he was not disgruntled and had only inadvertently created the phallic shape (Mikkelson 1998).  Given the nature of the Hans Christian Andersen version of the tale, a bit of phallocentricism is not unexpected.  However, the fervor over the image also reveals a tide of sexuality that accompanies the animated film, even though it is wrapped in Disney innocence and marketed primarily to younger children.

This page has paths:

  1. Mermaids, Little and Otherwise Mark C. Marino

This page references: