Paloma Faith criticises messaging in The Little Mermaid remake

‘Wtf is this s**t?’

Paloma Faith has criticised Disney’s live-action version of The Little Mermaid for teaching girls what she believes is a bad message. The singer went to watch the new film with her kids, and although she was impressed by Halle Bailey’s performance as the titular mermaid, she didn’t think the film was teaching young girls a great message. In a post on her Instagram story, she wrote: “Just seen the new Little Mermaid with my kids, and while I think Halle gives an amazing performance and it’s great casting, as a mother of girls, I don’t want my kids to think it’s ok to give up your entire voice and your powers to love a man.” “Wtf is this s**t?! Not what I want to be teaching next-gen women at all.”

Paloma Faith slams new live-action ‘Little Mermaid’ movie:

“I don’t want my kids to think it’s ok to give up your entire voice and your powers to love man. WTF is this sh*t?” pic.twitter.com/POZIbKZ3Tx — Pop Crave (@PopCrave) May 29, 2023

Her comments were met with a backlash, with several taking to Twitter to voice their confusion at what she meant. Some said she had completely missed the message of the film. One person wrote on Twitter: “The Little Mermaid is one of the most misunderstood stories ever; it was never about a man. “Ariel sings her, ‘I Want’, song before she meets Eric cause she wants to go to the surface, be part of that world; Eric is just the representation of it, of everything she isn’t allowed to be.” Someone else said: “Not only is this the exact same plot from the original movie, but I’m tired of this narrative because if y’all actually paid ATTENTION to the movie you’d know Ariel wanted to be human WAY before she even saw and fell in love with Eric so she didn’t give up her voice for a MAN.” Meanwhile others were confused about what the singer was expecting, considering the original movie came out in 34 years ago. One person wrote: “Feel like it’s a little late to be mad about a movie that came out in 1989.” Another commented: “Surely she can’t be talking about the same Ariel who was dragging Vanessa by the scalp and stomping on that dress to get her voice back?” Meanwhile, many found a rather unfortunate old tweet from Faith:

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