So often I see this idea floated around online that trans people take up more space than we should. Our voices are supposedly everywhere. Trans issues are said to occupy an unfair amount of online discourse. Here’s one reason why I think the view is wrong.
I love the part in The Little Mermaid where Ariel gives up her voice to Urslua for the ability to walk. She feels held down, not free to explore the world, to see all the things…to fall in love. Her heart yearns for an external force to come along and help her with her yearning.
Enter Ursula.
The Sea Witch offers Ariel the thing she’s always wanted, the ability to walk on land. Surely, Ursla must be kind and benevolent if she is doing such a thing. Surely, Ursula must have Ariel’s best interests at heart. Right?
The last couple weeks the story of The Little Mermaid has been floating through my mind as I’ve watched right wing cancel culture reach nearly unheard of levels of open transphobia. First it was with Dylan Mulvaney and Bud Light. Dylan, a transgender Tiktoker with around 10.8 million followers, was sent a can of Bud Light with her face on it as a “gift”. That gift sparked a massive wave of cancelling. Anheuser Busch, the company that makes Bud Light ended up playing down support for LBGTQ people after the backlash.
