Script performance

Here, I am presenting the script that we will follow during our performance:

The class is dark. Abril and Candela place the paintings on the wall. Aina, Jose and Eva play the xylophone and the rain stick.

(Sound: curtain-Candela)

The 1st audio is played. Eva holds the painting, Candela plays the drum. Aina, Jose and Abril throw bubbles. Little representation of Abril without voice. All singing.

Audio 1:

When Ariel falls in love with Eric, Ursula, the villain, offers her to be a human. In exchange, she has to give her voice to the villain. When the little mermaid asks how to make the prince fall in love with her without having voice, Ursula, trying to convince her, says:

You will have your looks, your pretty face. The men out there don’t like a lot of blabber. They think a girl who gossips is a bore! Yet on land it's much prefered for ladies not to say a word. They're not all that impressed with conversation, true gentlemen avoid it when they can. But they dote and swoon and fawn on a lady who's withdrawn. It's she who holds her tongue who get's a man.

Sending this sexist message to the youngest ones is awful. Women being expected to be quiet and speechless, using only their body to impress men, gives kids a reinforcement of many stereotypes. As if men are the ones thinking and taking decisions while women are thoughtless, dependent and just a body to brag about. It highlights that the important part of a girl is how she looks rather than her thoughts, opinions, desires, etc. It leaves aside that we fall in love with how the other person is, the inner world, ideas, the way of being and behaving.

(Sound: curtain-Abril)

The 2nd audio is played. Jose holds the little drawing. Aina and Candela hold the big drawing. Eva breaks the drawing while Abril sounds the cymbals.

Audio 2:

In this movie we can observe two main good characters and two bad ones. The good ones are Ariel and the prince, they are beautiful and skinny, and they have perfect features. On the other side, we find Ursula and Chef Louis, they are portrayed as the bad ones and so, they look both ugly and fat. We might not give importance to this fact but in reality..... (break the paper)

Because of this norm that bad is ugly and good is pretty there is an effect of the “Beauty Is Good”  Stereotype on Children's Information Processing. There are many previous studies that have proved this. For example, one time an adult experimenter read a story to kids from 5 to 10 years old. In this story there were two main characters, a good and a bad one, in the end two pictures were shown of the characters to the kids and they were asked which is the good and which is bad, automatically all of the children chose the pretty one as the good one and the ugly and fat one as the bad one.

Also, this has been more visible in female cases. Females are much more vulnerable since society puts more pressure on them to be perfect on the outside.

These stereotypes have serious effects on children. Eating disorders typically develop during adolescence or early adulthood. However, they can start in childhood too. As especially in kids age there is a lot of bullying in school which is the main reason for the development of this disorder. And we believe that one of the reasons for this bullying is the impact the movies have on the kids. Unconsciously when you always see the pretty as good and ugly as bad in the movies, series, books, comics... you compare it to real life.

(Sound: curtain-Abril)

The 3rd audio is played. Candela holds the drawing. Little representation of Aina changing her heels for shoes and making her a ponytail. When the question is asked, Jose plays drum roll. While Aina acts, Eva plays bells.

Audio 3:

Continuing with the plot of the movie, once Ariel exchanges her voice for her new legs, the prince has to give her a true love kiss or she will belong to Ursula forever. 

Can you guess what Ariel was advised to do?

She had to look her best, bat her eyes and pucker up her lips.

With that, the film is not only perpetuating the feminine stereotypes but showing them to little girls and boys that have not discovered their taste and identity yet.

On the other hand, the outfit she chooses to make the prince fall in love with her is a pink dress with a corset and high heels.

The truth behind those pieces of cloth is that can damage the body significantly. To start, corsets compress the waist and part of the abdomen seeking to give it a slimmer, hourglass shape, that causes organs such as the intestines to turn over and that is not only harmful in the long term but also as soon as you start using them. 

A brace that is too tight can break ribs and displace them, often affecting not only the position and capacity of the lungs but also puncturing them, causing immediate danger to life.

Also, the use of high heels a part of producing visible changes in posture, if its use is prolonged over time, produces an overload of the structures, both bone and muscle, which enhances the appearance of foot and ankle pain, toe deformities, among others. 

It should be noted that Ariel is only 16 years old and the bones are not mature until the age of 20, which means that she would be more affected by the disadvantages of those clothes.

(Sound: curtain-Abril)

Dark again. Conclusions audio is played. All play body percussion except Eva, who plays the piano.

Conclusions audio:

Finally, let us reflect on all that Ariel has to do and sacrifice in order for Eric to "like" her.

She has to sacrifice her tail to adapt to the human world. 

She has to accept that her voice was not important, only her looks were important, that she would bore men if she talked to them.

She has to change her way of being, to change herself so that he accepts her, and not the other way round.

Here you can see how the only one who does something to change is her, that he doesn't have to do anything. 

Do you think it's worth all that she has to go through to (supposedly) get a guy to like her? Or is there something wrong here?

End