A few days ago, I read that the makeup artist for the live-action The Little Mermaid responded to critics that said the makeup should have been done by a queer artist. Peter Smith King, the MUA in question, said he finds those critics ridiculous. I say I find him ridiculous.
You can read the full story in the link above, but in short several drag queen criticized the fact that it wasn't a queer artist who did Ursula's makeup for the live action, to which King said:
"I find that very offensive. (...) Why can't I do as good a job as a queer makeup artist? (...) That's ridiculous. That's trying to claim it and that's fine, if that's what they wanna do, but don't put people down because they're not what they want it to be"
I need to point to the fact that the critics are not towards his job. His job is great. Ursula looks good. He's a good artists. The critics are about the fact that there's no queer representation in a film that was influenced by drag queens: Ursula's look was inspired in the drag queen Divine.
I remember there being some comments about how great it would be if a drag queen portrayed her and the disappointment. However, Melissa McCarthy acknowledged Ursula's origins when asked about portraying the famous villain:
Melissa McCarthy on embodying Ursula in #TheLittleMermaid pic.twitter.com/U4agTfvTgo
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) May 9, 2023
So, what's the issue here? Simple: the lack of representation, which also means a lack of respect. Divine influenced one of the most iconic movies in Disney's history, and they failed to respect that. What's even worse, King had the nerve to say he didn't draw on any inspirations:
I didn't really draw on anything. I played around quite a lot with different colors, different shapes, and stuff. (...) It just was sort of Melissa and I talking and creating. So I didn't really draw on anything at all.
Really? Let's see...
Yeah, well, I don't think so.
What do I have to say about this? Even if I've never been interested in drag queen, even if I haven't seen more than just a couple of episodes of Drag Race, I respect them for all the work and criticism they face, and I wished Disney did the same.
If not, King can acknowledge Divine in his work instead of taking the credit and robbing a queen of her legacy. He has 42 years of professional experience, and even worked on The Lord of the Rings, he doesn't need to steal from the queer community to prove he's a good artist.
He can be a good artist, but a questionable person if he fails to see the point.
And here's the point, for those who like it explicit: people can draw inspiration from whatever it is they want as long as they do it respectfully and acknowledge it. It doesn't make you less creative, less original, less important, or less relevant. It makes you more serious, professional, and socially responsible, even more if it's a marginalized, underrepresented community such as us queers. Disney has done it before, and things haven't improved.
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