I never for one second, as a child watching this, thought that Ariel gave her voice up for a man. If you remember correctly, she wanted to get her ass on land even before she met the prince dude. (First, she had to literally get an ass.)

The way I remember it, Ariel had a dream of traveling and existing outside of the confines of her world. She didn’t want to stay where she had been born. She didn’t want to limit herself to the ocean. And by the way, she’s a fish. If that’s not thinking outside the box (err, fishbowl), I don’t know what is.

And here’s something: THE ENTIRE FREAKING OCEAN WAS TOO SMALL FOR HER. The world is what…70% ocean? That’s a girl with pretty big dreams.

In Defense of Disney Princesses (Okay, just the Little Mermaid)
I didn’t grow up with Disney dolls. I was one of those lucky kids that grew up surrounded by books with free reign of the outdoors. I didn’t live on the glamorous side of town either—it was governm…