Free Republic

When “Batman and Robin” came out in 1997, it seemed like everyone was focused on Alicia Silverstone’s body. The actor who played Batgirl was greeted with misogynistic and body-shaming echoes of “Fatgirl” by so-called fans of the franchise. In a particularly gross quip, late director Joel Schumacher laughed about how Batgirl’s suit came “with nipples. We’re an equal opportunity movie.” When it was announced last summer that an actor of color was going to play Batgirl in a live action film, racist trolls came for star Leslie Grace in the same way they came for Halle Bailey after she was...

Disney’s forthcoming live-action Little Mermaid is set to star actress and singer Halle Bailey, of the R&B duo Chloe x Halle, as Ariel, Variety reports. That means that one of Disney’s most iconic princesses is going to look quite different. This Ariel will be black. That’s a giant deal, and not just because Ariel is a popular Disney princess with arguably the best “I Want” song in the Disney canon. Ariel is also the princess whose character design set the mold for the astonishingly homogenous run of giant-eyed, small-nosed Disney princesses we’ve met since The Little Mermaid debuted in 1989....