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[sydneypaulinaborchert-blog]

The Little Mermaid, 1989

My brother Sam and I enjoyed a relaxing Friday night by watching The Little Mermaid. Being the most passionate, avid Disney fans out there, we were pretty stoked. Once the movie rolled around to the scene where Ursula (the evil witch) sings “Poor Unfortunate Souls” to Ariel, I was immediately appalled by the sexist, angel in the house-like lyrics. At 2:45, Ursula goes on to say… “The men up there don’t like a lot of blabber - They think a girl who gossips is a bore - Yes on land it’s much preferred for ladies not to say a word - But they dote and swoon and fawn on a lady who’s withdrawn - It’s she who holds her tongue that gets the man.” 

My mind immediately went to the scene in Orlando where Nell was “prattling”. I could not believe that this film made in 1989 still has evidence of sexism. I was also astounded that I had never caught this before, given that I’ve seen this movie 8 million times. 

[izzybellz34-blog]

Wow. I don’t remember those lyrics either! The lines “It’s she who holds her tongue who gets the man” are straight out of what we are studying. But I wonder if that’s the point of having Ursula (the witch) say them in the first place? It’s obvious that Ariel’s friends see this exchange as a bad decision, and the whole scene is reminiscent of Faust signing his soul away to the devil. I think its plausible that Disney has Ursula singing those lines to Ariel as a bewitching lie that she unfortunately falls for. However, I haven’t seen the rest of the movie in a while, so I don’t recall if they end the movie by valuing her voice in the end.  

[sydneypaulinaborchert-blog]

Women Left Out of Straight Outta Compton

Over this past weekend, I watched the Oscar nominated, Straight Outta Compton. I had heard nothing but incredible reviews from both friends and family. However, I was deeply disturbed and appalled by the misogynistic behavior throughout the film. Women were simply the back story. In Dr. Dre’s lyrics, “[he] made hyperbolic claims about all these heinous things he did to women. But then he went out and actually violated women. Straight Outta Compton would have you believe that he didn’t really do that.” 

Here is an article I found that expresses the issue at hand: http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/08/straight-outta-compton-dee-barnes-michelle

[izzybellz34-blog]

Sydney, I thought your article was really interesting. I think more and more the media is becoming aware of the women who are the mothers, wives, girlfriends and daughters of stars, who are abused and ignored in the “main” story. The movie looked like it was trying to tell a certain story but totally ignored the huge influences (and tragic treatment) of the women behind the scenes.