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The Little Mermaid’s “Kiss The Girl” and Modern Rape Culture
Disney recently released a somewhat controversial live-action remake of the 1989 film, The Little Mermaid. Part of the uproar was around the race-swapping of the lead character, Ariel. I liked the performance by Halle Bailey so I won’t complain about all that.
One thing that did get me was the modern update to the popular song, “Kiss the Girl.” In an attempt to make Prince Eric sound less “rapey,” and to highlight the explicit need for consent when making a move on a woman.
In the original, the lyrics go:
Possible she wants you too
There is one way to ask her
It don’t take a word
Not a single word
Go on and kiss the girl
Prince Eric would be making the wild assumption that the girl sitting across from him wants a kiss. If you have any context of the storyline or the movie, the viewer knows that Ariel desperately wants Prince Eric to kiss her. But, apparently making this type of move on a woman is a problem.
In the live-action remake, these lyrics have been edited now to say,
Possible she want you too
Use your words, boy, and ask her
If the time is right and the time is tonight
Go on and kiss the girl
