every time i see another version of the tired take that the little mermaid and beauty and the beast are sexist, heteronormative drivel i die a little inside because all you’re telling me is that you don’t know history. that you never took a second to look up the man to whom beauty and beast is so thoughtfully dedicated at the end of the film. it tells me that you don’t know about howard ashman.
howard ashman was brought on to the little mermaid by his friend and composer, alan menken, to write the lyrics and really guide the story of disney’s first fairytale in thirty years. he would go on to win academy awards for both the little mermaid and beauty and the beast and be nominated for his work on aladdin. by all accounts, ashman was the driving force behind the stories of the little mermaid and beauty and the beast, and it was his talents that ushered in what is now known as the disney renaissance. he wrote beautiful lyrics and crafted stories about two young women, both of whom felt trapped and like they didn’t belong, even though they had people who loved them. they were both a little different. they didn’t really fit in. they didn’t want to fit in. they wanted lives and had dreams that were outside of the norm. they wanted all of themselves, all of their eccentricities and passions, to be accepted. and, they were willing to leave their homes and families to find that acceptance. he wrote about a young man who was trapped by a curse with a deadline. one that had robbed him of his youth and family and friends. a curse that was ostracizing—made people fear him. they feared what they didn’t understand. their fear whipped into a fury by strong men who demagogued his pain and suffering. he wrote of a young man who wanted to be loved, to be saved, but didn’t know if he deserved saving.
in 1988, in the middle of writing the little mermaid, howard ashman was diagnosed with AIDS. he told alan menken of his diagnosis the day after they won an oscar for the song under the sea, in 1990. howard continued to work on beauty and the beast until it’s completion, with disney staff and animators traveling to his home every day to work with him as he withered away. howard died march 14, 1991, four days after the first screenings of beauty and the beast. he was just forty years old.
when i think of howard ashman, i think of my uncle, who was freshly out and proud and scared and so so young when the AIDS epidemic hit. i think of how many friends he lost—people who should have been with family and instead died alone in cold hospitals. i think of my dad, who was a young resident at a hospital in north philly at the time, and how, over thirty years later, he still chokes up talking about the patients and colleagues and friends they all lost to a treatable disease while politicians laughed. i think of the young queer people who have so quickly forgotten their recent history.
art doesn’t exist in a vacuum—it’s created by people. people have lives and dreams and pain and fears and love with all their hearts. it’s created by a society that shaped the artist and judged the art. every time someone creates, they’re putting a little more of themself into the world, asking us to accept them for all they are. howard ashman was asking us—children, queer people, lovers of art, those who believe in love and magic, and everyone who has ever been left behind or felt alone in this world—to accept him for who he was when society refused. no one talks about a painting without mentioning the painter, so why would you talk about the little mermaid and beauty and the beast without mentioning howard ashman? he died pouring his soul into those works. honor him.
jbbartram-illu
yousharknotpass
baratheonpilled
kaledo-art
annaxmalina
izzy806
blakekathryn
dededos
