I don’t really approve of this very much, but room 101 has several Disney CDs that are played relatively often in the mornings. You know, like the soundtrack to Aladdin or Lion King or The Little Mermaid. I despise the mermaid one most of all because it bolsters all the little girls in the room with a fetish for those damned Disney Princesses. Disney plays it off like it’s supposed to be some great self esteem booster for girls, but come on. I’m not a raving feminist, but I am educated in the principles of feminism and the Disney Princesses are yet another way of keeping developing little minds cemented in the patriarchal bent that our culture prefers it to be in. Think about it. All the princesses, despite their “multicultural” backgrounds are all more or less, the same build and body structure. And who are the princesses that are in all the merchandising? Not Mulan, not Pocohontas, no…. it would cost too much at the toy factory to change some facial molds, I’m sure. “But what about Jasmine?” you say. She is from the Middle East and she frequents the Princess propagandizing. But alas, if you look at Jasmine in the very first Aladdin, you can see she has a fairly aquiline nose, much like most residents of the Mediterranean/Middle Eastern area. But take a look at her now. She has a cute little button nose, just like the rest of the Caucasian Princesses that represent the majority of the whole marketing schema. Take a minority and make her more appealing…make her more white. Nice Disney. Real nice example to be pasting into the minds of our youth.

Hold on a tick, let me step off my soapbox here.
Okay.

One of the little girls in the class has gotten pretty into the Little Mermaid CD. Every morning she sits and sings along with it. It makes me cringe. Of all the good children’s music she could be singing (Tom Chapin, Raffi, Laurie Berkner, etc.), she’s plastered to the image of a redhead with a wasp waist (granted it’s all mounted on the butt end of a mackerel, but still, you get my point) who sells her own identity to get closer to a man. But the thing that I’ve been noticing lately is what she sings along to:

Until today I had thought it to be a one girl show, but after nap four of then gathered around the CD player and all started singing the tune of Ariel’s voice being sucked from her throat. Imagine that tune from that clip I showed you being sung, breathily, determinedly by four little 3 year old girls. It was like taking a stroll through the Village of the Damned. Or perhaps the Under Sea Grotto of the Damned. Either way, those are some damn spooky mermaids.