Barber, Mckenzie. “Disney’s Female Gender Roles: The Change of Modern Culture.” Sycamore Scholars. http://scholars.indstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10484/12132/Barber_McKenzie_2015_HT.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Accessed 7 February 2021.

 

Cusumano, Katherine. “Why Ursula Is So Important In The Little Mermaid.” Bustle Digital Group: The Fastest-Growing Publisher In Modern Media, 16 Feb. 2016, bustle.com/articles/142296-why-we-have-to-change-the-way-we-think-about-ursula-from-the-little-mermaid. Accessed 7 February 2021.

 

Guo, Jeff. “Researchers have found a major problem with ‘The Little Mermaid’ and other Disney movies.” The Washington Post: Democracy Dies in Darkness, 25 Jan. 2016, washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/01/25/researchers-have-discovered-a-major-problem-with-the-little-mermaid-and-other-disney-movies/. Accessed 7 February 2021.

 

Hochstuhl, Christopher R. “Poor Unfortunate Gender Stereotypes: Gender Transgression and Masculinity in the Music of Female Disney Villains.” The Avid Listener, 27 July. 2020, theavidlistenerblog.com/2020/07/27/poor-unfortunate-gender-stereotypes-gender-transgression-and-masculinity-in-the-music-of-female-disney-villains/. Accessed 7 February 2021.

 

Murrow, Vita and Bereciartu, Julia. Power to the Princess: 15 Favourite Fairytales Retold with Girl Power. Good Reads. 2018.

 

O’Neil, Louise. The Surface Breaks: a reimagining of The Little Mermaid. Google Books. Juvenile Fiction. 2018. 

 

Sharmin, Tania and Sattar, Sanyat. “Gender Politics in the Projection of ‘Disney’ Villains.” Journal of Literature and Art Studies, vol. 8, no. 1, 2018, pp. 53-57, doi: 10.17265/2159-5836/2018.01.006. Accessed 7 February 2021.

 

The Little Mermaid. Directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, Buena Vista pictures, 1989. https://www.amazon.com/Little-Mermaid-Rene-Auberjonois/dp/B07MG5JJHJ

 

“Ursula Through the eyes of Disney”. Fairy Tales Through the Eyes of Disney: Ursula Performs Femininity. (n.d.).https://people.southwestern.edu/~bednarb/su_netWorks/projects/ramos/ursula.html. Accessed 7 February 2021.

The primary sources I used helped me with understanding and visualizing the context of the film better in-order to detect areas of the story that could be related to the influence fairy tales in the media have. I also cited two other books that incorporated a reinterpretation of Disney’s The Little Mermaid. These books include the breaking down of gender norms and can give me good examples of how to formulate my children’s book which aspires to do the same. The secondary sources I used provides articles as well as reviews about the film and the characters, regarding how they are perceived based on their gender
and age. They focus more on Ursula and her role as an older woman, completely confident and empowered by her sexuality but question, why are these traits seen in the villain, not in the hero? These sources also provide statistics about the inclusion of females in Disney films throughout history and talks about Disney’s “Renaissance” era. The information I have learned from these sources will aid me in the planning and understanding of my final project however, I plan for further research as I have more to know about the production of children’s books and what children find interesting in fairy tale books. It would also be beneficial if I were able to hear a first-hand opinion on how children perceive Ursula today or if young people see Ursula in a different way than what critics describe. Finally, I would like to learn about the influence Disney’s portrayal of gender norms have on adults and how it carries out from childhood to adulthood.