Showing My Black Daughter The New Little Mermaid

About

Showing My Black Daughter The New Little Mermaid or Daughters React To New Little Mermaid is a trend on TikTok where Black parents film their daughter's reaction to the trailer for the 2023 live-action remake of Disney's The Little Mermaid, which stars Halle Bailey (a Black actress) as Ariel. The posts notably followed a controversy around casting for the movie that occurred before and after the September 2022 trailer reveal. The earliest videos in the trend show young girls reacting with joy at the trailer, purportedly because they feel represented through the character's portrayal as a Black woman. As the trend became more popularized, users began posting parodies of the videos where grown Black women either react with fake shock towards the trailer or react negatively or inappropriately to it. Some users also filmed their white daughters reacting to the trailer, who were also largely supportive of it.

Origin

On September 9th, 2022, the trailer for the 2023 live-action remake of The Little Mermaid was released, showing actress Halle Bailey as Ariel. That day, TikToker^[1] @adeliachai2 posted a video where she shows her Black daughter the trailer. Her daughter reacts with surprise and says, "I want to watch it," garnering over 1.4 million views in 10 days (shown below).

Spread

On September 14th, 2022, TikToker^[2] @armlina posted a compilation video of young Black girls reacting positively to the trailer, saying things like "she's like me," captioned, "Representation matters!!!!" garnering over 29 million views in six days (shown below). On that day, the New York Times^[3] reported on the trend.

As the videos went viral, TikTokers began posting parodies of the format. On September 15th, TikToker^[4] @lauraprendiville061 posted a parody video where she shows a Black high school friend the trailer, claiming she's her daughter, garnering over 7 million views in four days (shown below, left). On September 18th, TikToker^[5] @onyxkidsslime posted a similar video, garnering over 530,000 views in a day (shown below, right).

On the same day, TikToker^[6] @hipster.ibster2 posted a video where a Black friend reacts to the trailer, calling Ariel the N-word, garnering over 68,000 views in under a day (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

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External References