How Supernatural’s Sirens Reference Disney (& What It Means)
Supernatural season 4's Disney princess reference brings an amusing hidden meaning to the show's siren monster. Sam and Dean Winchester are no strangers to things that go bump in the night, but "Sex and Violence" sees one plucky siren almost get the better of The CW's hunter siblings. The duo first realize their services are required when multiple reports of men murdering their wives arise out of a single town. Sam and Dean quickly deduce the culprit is a siren - the creature from Greek mythology who would lure sailors to their deaths with their enticing songs and beautiful forms.
Supernatural's siren is a little different. This abhorrent creature is capable of casting perfect illusions, allowing victims to experience their deepest desires before committing unspeakable acts of violence. Operating out of a strip club, the monster is magicking men into falling in love, then convincing them to kill their wives, purely to enjoy the sense of complete devotion.
When Sam and Dean begin investigating, they discover the strippers (all different guises of the same siren) went by the names "Ariel" "Jasmine" and "Aurora." As any Disney fan can attest, these names are references to The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Sleeping Beauty, respectively. The Easter egg goes even deeper when Dean is briefly heard uttering the strippers' descriptions to the club owner, revealing, "one's a redhead about 5'9", the other one's Asian..." Though it's a fleeting line cut off by the manager's disinterested protests, Dean is clearly describing the actual Disney princesses here, suggesting the siren wasn't merely using their names, but also taking the forms of Disney's most famous animated heroines.
Linking siren strippers to Disney princesses is certainly a fun (if somewhat icky) nod toward wider pop culture on Supernatural's part, but there's more to the connection than simply mimicking Mickey's finest merch-shifters. The siren's most perilous power isn't shape-shifting, but telepathically understanding a person's desires and manifesting them. In the Winchester brothers' case, this means the siren turns into Dean's ideal brother at a time when Sam was being distant and deceptive. Though not stated outright, the clear subtext of Supernatural season 4's "Sex & Violence" is that the siren's victims all envisioned (perhaps subconsciously) Disney princesses as their ideal women. One might've taken a fancy to mermaids, another to cursed blondes who can't stay awake, but all of them had Disney characters somewhere in their hearts.
Supernatural's siren monster bewitching men by impersonating Disney princesses might act as some kind of social commentary on how childhood movies affect expectations of romance as an adult. All too often, the media accuses women of unrealistically expecting to find "Prince Charming" in their local bar. Supernatural levels the playing field somewhat, suggesting men are just as guilty of harboring dreams of Disney romance.