For the First Time by PinkDuskStone on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

In The Little Mermaid, Ariel's greatest wish was to live out of the sea and learn about humans. She made a significant transition from mermaid to human, not backing down from her ideals even when odds were stacked against her. Although she did have a few stumbles in her new life and form, she loved being human and could not have it any other way.

With the sequel's introduction of her daughter Melody, Ariel is the first and only Disney Princess confirmed to be a mother. This raises a lot of interesting implications about her human learning experiences. One of them would certainly be that she had no idea about periods until she had her menarche since becoming human.

While not impossible or unheard of for girls to have their first period at 16, it is another thing to have zero education on the subject of menstruation until it actually happens. With Ariel, she was a mermaid for the first 16 years of her life; while merfolk biology is subject to interpretation, humans and only a handful of other animals (primates, elephant shrews, bats) have periods. I can imagine Carlotta/Lashana and Selina (remake only) reassuring Ariel that menstruation is a healthy, natural process for her body and helping her any way they can.

I think it's quite serendipitous that The Little Mermaid (1989) got in the National Film Registry the same year as Carrie (1976), another coming of age story about a 16-year-old girl whose quest for normal includes an obstacle in the form of an abusive single parent. Both films joined Disney's 1946 short, The Story of Menstruation, which was added to the NFR 9 years prior.

The Little Mermaid (1989) belongs to Disney.

I never understood why females would period shame other females.