so, I need to step in here for a minute
first, hans christian andersen wasn’t out and didn’t have labels to describe his experience at the time, so all we can do is theorize with the information he left behind and the labels we have today, which indicate definitely a queer experience, but saying he was a gay man isn’t the most nuanced and fair thing, some scholars today land on biromantic asexual (x, x, x), which given his correspondence, diary entries and expressions towards love and sex, I think is the most correct, despite most people often dismissing both or either of these things when talking about him
this doesn’t mean that you can’t read the story in whichever way you prefer, but both bi and ace spectrums get erased enough as it is
second, the mermaid doesn’t die in hans christian andersen’s version of the story and that’s the most crucial part of his input, he saves her
the little mermaid is a re-telling of undine by friedrich de la motte fouqué, where the mermaid does die, andersen chose to give his mermaid a second chance and she transforms into a daughter of the air, a sylph, as a reward, it will allow her to do good and eventually be granted the soul she wanted
“I have not, like de la Motte Fouqué in Undine, allowed the mermaid’s acquiring of an immortal soul to depend upon an alien creature, upon the love of a human being. I’m sure that’s wrong! It would depend rather much on chance, wouldn’t it? I won’t accept that sort of thing in this world. I have permitted my mermaid to follow a more natural, more divine path.”
he gave her the power to transform herself without the need for another to hold power over her transformation or her person, he did that
which is very in tune with the original aspect of this post, on ariel wanting to experience the world before eric with an agency of her own
if we’re reading the little mermaid under the queer lens, which is very accurate imo, we shouldn’t read it as a “sad queer story of impossible love” alone, we should also read it as a redeeming story in which a queer author changed a previously tragic ending to provide his lead character the agency to transform herself into who she wanted to become, despite everything, which adds more layers to the trans-lens for reading the story that many people above commented on
it’s a story of hope, not tragedy, the mermaid’s actions and forbidden feelings are a matter of salvation, not condemnation
and on howard ashman and ursula’s input
ursula isn’t making it “about eric” because she thinks that’s what ariel wants, she’s making it about eric because she’s making fun of the hetero allo experience
ursula, a well-known queer coded character (based on divine, etc etc) sings a song in which she mocks the desires of people she considers “pathetic”, which include wanting to be socially perceived as attractive (“this one longing to be thinner”, “you’ll have your looks! your pretty face!”), wanting to find a partner just because (“that one wants to get the girl”), misogynistic views on womanhood (“but they dote and swoon and fawn/on a lady who’s withdrawn/it’s she who holds her tongue who gets a man”), all things she clearly cares nothing about, given that she does not embody nor cares to embody any of it
much like gaston was, to howard ashman, a caricature of traditional manhood he was bullied by, ursula pushes forward derogatory sarcasm for a traditional heteronormative worldview as a car salesman who wants to sell ariel what she thinks a teen girl would want
much like the john waters filmography in which divine starred, ursula is parodying the traditional social views in song and underestimating ariel because of seeing her as part of that vision she’s mocking
everything is pretty queer here, is what I’m saying, but a lot more nuanced than people give it credit for
