Hidden Meaning in Songs: Poor Unfortunate Souls

4/20/2016 – I edited the post for clarification. This is meant as a look at the song Poor Unfortunate Souls and how it relates to real life comments and thoughts by some people. I did not mean it as a look at the character or story of the Little Mermaid as a whole or as an analysis of the Disney Princesses. 

Now I am a huge Disney fan and I do love the Disney movies, but honestly a lot of it has to do with the music and the songs. I know all the songs by heart and I can listen to a Disney soundtrack over and over again. Well recently I was listening to the song “Poor Unfortunate Souls” that was sung by Ursula when trying to convince Ariel that she has the solution to her problem. At the same time if you think about the song comes down to convincing Ariel to trade everything about who she is to get a man, which actually cuts close to real life situations that women find themselves in. 

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Power Dynamics in Jessica Jones

Okay, so lots of people have talked about how amazing Jessica Jones is, and I don’t want to rehash too much of what’s been said. Like about how the Bechdel test was flipped on its head, or how this is what a female driven show looks like, or how it is an amazingly realistic portrayal of abuse survival, and how its hero doesn’t act like a perfect survivor or hero, and how awesome that realism is.

I don’t want to sound like a broken record of how absolutely amazing this show was in regards to female characters and their portrayal. I’d like to talk instead about how Power Dynamics are handled, because they are one of the leading forces of the show (and not just because Kilgrave has the power of Mind Control).

Spoilers abound

Image found on http://www.screenrant.com