Every time a new film comes out in today’s day and age with a historically underrepresented group, media act like it is the first time this has happened while ignoring those which have come before. They did so with Black Panther while ignoring Blade being one of Marvel’s earlier and successful attempts at a Black superhero, and, now, some are saying Ariel in The Little Mermaid is one of the only examples of a redhead in media, though, thankfully a viral tweet is beginning to circulate to counteract this nonsense.
As the above post on Twitter with a healthy amount of likes, re-tweets and replies from earlier today indicates, there have been plenty of iconic redheads in children’s stories who came after or before the original The Little Mermaid in 1989 and before Pixar’s Brave in 2012. Audiences had Wilma on The Flintstones, Daphne in various incarnations of Scooby Doo, Misty in the Pokémon franchise and there has also been Princess Fiona in Shrek and Kim Possible from the titular show which aired on Disney, too. The tweet’s author has hidden replies from what she considers to be bigoted people, and, in her view, when you consider statistics, it appears redheaded characters are overrepresented in culture given their prevalence as opposed to those with darker skin colors.
It is true redheads are only about one to two percent of the global population while there are more than one billion people in Africa to go along with the world population of 7.8 billion. As this accounts for about 12 percent of humanity, you would think there would be a similar amount of characters in film, but, unlike television where a 2022 study from Arizona State University found this industry meets that target, on film sets it is more complicated. Here, the McKinsey & Company consulting firm found a similar percentage, but as of 2021 Black actors are only in leading roles 11 percent of the time and are often in smaller projects. The initial poster also says this disproves criticisms like the one below and, those who dislike it need to pick a lane.
The remake of The Little Mermaid is in theaters now. While some are upset it does not touch on the historical slavery which took place in the time it is set, others are enjoying it and it seems like its stars had a good time making the thing. Melissa McCarthy (Ursula) and Javier Bardem (Triton) are interested in a spinoff and you can read our review of the investor-satisfying piece here.