When you go to college as an English major you spend years over analyzing, over evaluating, and over philosophizing everything. You spend hours breaking down sonnets line by line and you learn that the best grades come when you complicate the simple.
In a way it changes the way you interpret everything. When I read a book and there is more than one mention about a little girl’s dangling blue ribbon my mind instantly jumps to the symbolization in that. Why a second mention? Why blue? What does blue mean to me? How does it represent this little girl? In what way is this detail meaningful?
I’ve been taught that great authors don’t just throw those kinds of details around.
Everything is intentional.
Naturally while at a karaoke bar in the city to celebrate my friend’s 35th birthday this weekend, I was overwhelmed with pride when one young lady stood up to sing The Little Mermaid’s famous ditty Part Of That World.
She was singing to a bar filled with mothers and single ladies and bachelorettes who more than likely grew up watching movies like the Little Mermaid, a fact that became clear when each and every female in the bar stood up to sing along.
I wanted to shout, “YES MY SISTERS!! YESS!!!” Because while this song appears to be one about mermaids and love, it symbolizes much more. This is a song about not compromising your worth! A song about not settling for “gadgets” and “gizmos”. A song about wanting more. To BE more!
“Betcha on land
Somewhere there are people
They understand
Who get it.
Bet they don’t reprimand their daughters
They don’t hinder you from making more of yourself
Bright young women
We are smart. We deserve more.
Sick of swimmin’
We will not compromise for less.
Ready to stand
And we are ready to fight for it!“
Listening to the women at this bar belt out a tune about refusal to be confined or held back and watching them stand together and sing the song in unison, hand in hand…heart to heart…it was a moment
Granted they were all drunk, and I was the only weirdo with goosebumps shouting “GIRL POWER!” inside my brain…but it was still a moment!
CB says
No! That’s PERFECT and EXACTLY right!!!!
I get goosebumps and CRY at damn near every Disney movie my girls watch! They don’t even ASK why I’m crying anymore!
Nicole @ Defining Moments says
This was my favorite movie as a kid….love the interpretation! You also made it clear that it was a good thing I wasn’t an English major (Elementary Education instead)…..LOL. Although it might help my writing aspirations if I had! :-)
Michelle says
Sorry about asking Maile today if SHE made that little ditty you’re wearing in your hair this night… hahahaha. Now that I take a second look it’s CLEARLY sophisticated and classy, very adult appropriate and OBVIOUSLY not made by a six year old. I was crazy to assume otherwise.
Laurie Wallin says
I love that you’re sitting there analyzing at your own party. I totally do that too. I walk through life like a reporter…. looking for connections, things that are really funny but most people miss. It’s like having a sixth sense and it keeps me sane raising my four girls, two with mental illness and foster care issues. Too intense if not for the reporter-life I so enjoy. Nice to know there’s someone else out there analyzing everything and telling the world about it!
And thanks for your writing prompts each week too. They are such good brain-joggers!
-Laurie
Jill says
Ahem… 35th birthday?!?!?! Let’s set the record straight here… 6TH ANNIVERSARY OF MY 25TH BIRTHDAY… Thank you very much.
The rest was well said, so I’ll allow it…
And also, you’re a nerd.
CBG says
Sounds like an amazing experience! Would have loved to have seen it!
CBG
canadianbloggergirl.blogspot.com
ps. come check out my contest!
Making It Work Mom says
Love it! I have been having more and more of those moments. You know when I get all goosebumpy and emotional and have to “take a minute”. Maybe it is my advanced age (37), but everything around me seems to have an extra “deep meaning” destined to make me cry if I think too much. Not thinking at all helps.
It also does not help that I have 2 girls in addition to my boy and I get all emotional thinking about them becoming super strong women.
Oh god – here I go again.
S Club Mama says
your college must have been better than my college. LOL But I would have been up there singing it too :D
Jennifer says
…but why does Ariel’s dream and willingness to give up “her world” have to center around catching some man? She changers her entire being for the love of a MAN–ack! Oops, sorry leftover angst learned from my gender studies classes back in the day, lol…
Love the ladies night out–sheesh pretty people hang only with other pretty people. You all look lovely!
Mama Kat says
Well…I can’t argue with that. But love is love and let us not forget that Ariel was the one who saved Eric’s life!
Laura @ The Things I Said I'd Never Do says
The proudest moment of my life was in 6th grade when I got that solo in choir. It was the one everyone wanted and I ROCKED IT!
I love whoever it was that chose to sing that song!
erin says
LOL! I sang that at a drag club once……was amazing.
June Freaking Cleaver says
I guess I’m in the minority here. Why does SHE have to change to fit in? Isn’t that what girls do their whole lives?
I much prefer the message behind the Disney movie Mulan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A_Rl8aQxII
Mama Kat says
Mulan is lovely…though I admit I’ve never seen that movie. I don’t think Ariel is trying to fit in, I think she sees an opportunity to try more things…but her fins are holding her back.
Jennifer says
Even though English was one of my best subjects in school I would have never been able to survive as an English major. Whenever the teacher would talk about symbolism I would just think, “maybe that’s just what he thought would make a good story at the time, it probably doesn’t MEAN anything.” So that begs the question, who puts more meaning into the story? The author or the reader?
Mama Kat says
I hear you! I remember getting frustrated with a poem once and saying, “is it possible that the ribbon is blue because the author just LIKES the color blue!?!”
The teacher smiled sweetly and said no.
:) I disagree.
Molly Doe says
I love that somebody sang part of that world for karaoke. Love it.
jessica says
dude, kathy, i still love you. thanks for being such a hoot. :)
Alexis says
The English major in me just totally overanalyzed this post and made me realize that you and I have a lot in common.
*Abnormally tall
*Abnormally large feet
*Abnormally analytical
*Abnormally hot
Tristina says
*goosebumps*
Girl Power.
For Serious.
Kayemgi says
If only the rest of the movie’s theme wasn’t “change yourself to snag a prince”! Ditto for poor Cinderella. I still love all Disney movies… I just get irritated when I think too much about (some of) their underlying messages.
Kerry says
Love this! I was also an English major in college. I think once you spend years analyzing literature and poetry, it’s hard to stop, even if it’s a Disney song. :)
kisatrtle says
Great post. It made me laugh out loud. Truly.
KC says
This is fantastic! I remember in third grade we sang this song in chorus and I was in charge of playing the chimes! Oh it was one of my finest moments! What a fun girls night!
Love your blog!
xoxo
KC
Sugar Mama says
Oh, my daughter and I love that song! And I love it even more now. I was not an English major, but I tend to over analyze everything. Sometimes I wish I could just listen to a song and not break down the lyrics line for line.
Girl Power!
Amanda says
I would have done the same thing. I am obsessed with the Little Mermaid, its my all time fave Disney movie. We used to watch it in college when we were hung over :) I too over analyze music, I wasn’t an English major, I just love music a lot!
The Meditative Mom says
You’re hilarious. I think I have a mommy crush.
tulpen says
I do the same thing reading books. Even trashy vamp soft porn.