Ariel is Black Washing Away With the Sea

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Female characters who are associated with water can't catch a break can they. First it was Water Type Pokemon Trainer Nessa being “whitewashed” and people outraging. And now we got Ariel being blackwashed and people...praising it?

Now of course there’s people complaining about Disney choice in making Ariel black in the new live action movie, but they’re not as loud as when Nessa was “whitewashed”. The thing that hurts me the most is the double standard that comes with this whole debate. It’s okay to blackwash a white character, but not okay to whitewash a black character? Pick one. It’s either okay for every character, or no character.

Now my whole stance on this is that it’s okay to white or black wash a character if that character isn’t an actual character. Let me explain. Batman. I’m fine with him being black, but I’m not okay with Bruce Wayne being black. Bruce Wayne is a white guy, while Batman is a costume. So if you want to make a black Batman, you’ll have to change his name for me to accept it. I’m pretty sure the people who are okay with Ariel being black, wouldn’t be okay with Luke Cage being white :/.

This Cyborg right here! Now that's just wrong!

A Twitter user by the name ViciousTrunk drew a beautiful black Ariel. Now the drawings are great and amazing, but to make this okay with me, I would like her name to be changed. Instead of making Ariel black, why not just make another little mermaid? Why does she have to be Ariel, why no Arielna The Little Mermaid. Why do we have to make Ariel, who was white, with red hair, a black girl?

Are you okay with Ariel being black in the new live action movie? Do you think they should make a completely different little mermaid that isn't Ariel? Is this movie going to be a flop? Tell us in the comments.

wesst1 5 years ago

It's another shameless cash grab by Disney. I'm actually more irritated that everything seems to be getting a live action remakes with them. It's like they ran out of ways to advertise their rereleases of the animated classics so they switched to live action.

Reply 15

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jupmod 5 years ago (edited 5 years ago)

Yet I do agree that it is double-standard for people to say "blackwashing* is okay but "whitewashing" is bad. If "washing" is okay overall, no one have the rights to complain. Either you accept it overall or you don't. It's unfair and unjust to accept one form of "washing" over another.

Reply 11

Anon - Random Anon 5 years ago

I'm just sick of the "we cast a black lady as Ariel, look how progressive we are!" tone that it seems they (and a lot of the public) have taken. That, combined with another case of "replace redhead with black person" for the disconcertingly large pile is enough to annoy me. Thankfully any actual outrage I had burnt itself out quite a while ago, but I wasn't planning on seeing this anyway.

Reply 10

jupmod 5 years ago (edited 5 years ago)

I don't think what Disney is doing is going to hurt, given people will watch for the character, not for the race of the character, anymore than switching genders, for people will judge base on the story, not the gender. *ahem* Ghostbusters *ahem*

Reply 5

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Anon - Sarcasm 5 years ago

I don't get the big problem with changing the color of her skin, it opens new possibilities. Bambi can be a panda in the remake, Princess and the frog can become Prince and the Lynx. Just think of it, Dumbo not as an elephant with large ears, but a sheep with very woolly wool which makes him float instead of flying. Change Moana to a Chinese guy and we will enjoy Heater more than Frozen, brr. Thnx

Reply 4

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hentai09 5 years ago

This is legitimately ignorant. Ariel wasn't even originally white in the folklore. She's a fish. Not to mention that Nessa being whitewashed was an issue because she's ACTUALLY BLACK. Screw off with your bullshit.

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Hectotane 5 years ago

I'm getting sick and tired of Disney et al going into everyone's favorite lores and turning them into race statements.

Disney's the most powerful company out there; and "Princess & Frog" was their best ANIMATED movie out there. They can do it but somehow they need to go to the past movies to do it because they've just ran out of ideas.

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SirDemos 5 years ago

I actually like the depiction above, but she's not black more of a cross of Pakistani and Spaniard. Black girls don't have long straight hair and their noses and check bones are more pronounced. Plus, the whole thing is nothing more than easy way for Disney to separate stupid sheeple from their cash. Until all the stupids are dead this is just how the world is going to be, Welcome to Idiocracy.

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tanakaba 5 years ago

I don't mind the change, although generally speaking I would expect people that live at the bottom of the sea to receive little sunlight and be very pale, like creepy fish with see-through skin, which would have been a more interesting approach.

If they just want to add dark skin, it would make more sense to change the prince and his people.

Reply 3

WM-R 5 years ago

I would've been fine with the movie's title being "The Little Mermaid" because, like your Batman example, it'd just be the title rather than the particular character. But I draw the line at them using the name Ariel. It's the same reason I hate MCU Nick Fury now: to match the movies the Marvel 616 Nick Fury from the comics was disposed of so they could introduce a Black Nick Fury.

Reply 3

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