Kulturkampf

[benji]

Autistics and ADHDers all around the world can rejoice because the live-action "Little Mermaid" is finally streaming on Disney+, meaning we can rewatch it a million times and analyze it frame by frame till everyone around us gets sick of us. If you're one of those people who had an issue with Ariel being portrayed by a Black woman, you're most probably not going to like where this is going, so this is your warning: even more representation of marginalized groups lies ahead.

It's late May 2023, and I'm sandwiched between my teenage brother and my little sister at our local cinema waiting for the live-action "Little Mermaid" to start playing. I had already grown up watching the original animated version and despite enjoying it, had already hammered into my brain that it was not feminist. This experience was not going to do anything for me. I was so wrong. I went in hoping my darker-skinned 7-year-old sister could finally see that she doesn't have to be white to feel like a princess. I never would've expected 21-year-old me to be the one who would leave feeling seen.

"Are you OK?" my brother asked, confusing my erratic movement for anxiety-induced shaking. Ariel's character (Halle Bailey) had just been introduced and I was already bouncing (literally) in my seat, flapping my hands and suppressing happy squeals.

"She's autistic!"

Makeisha Mirza is a journalist and writer from Pakistan, currently pursuing a journalism degree with a minor in media and politics from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, in Qatar. Her interests lie in mental health, race, gender and sexuality, disability justice and media.

This will go just fine.