Last week I attended a talk given by Dr Monica Germana about 'The History of Mermaids, Sea Spirits and Women', one of the Seed Talks held at the Friends Meeting House in Manchester. Not only have I been a life long fan of mermaids but this topic also crosses paths into the work I've been doing about monstrous women so was not to be missed.
We began by looking at the traditional mermaid found in art, represented to both reveal and conceal her true nature; Sometimes she's on land combing her hair, sometimes in the water hiding her tail. She is both woman and animal, a double agent and duplicitous. She is the natural and supernatural combined. The mermaid's nature being like the water she lives in is shifting. She embodies both the living and the dead. Existing on the edge of our world, she is liminal and elusive.
When Westerners first began to sail the oceans and create maps of the lands they'd discovered, mermaids were often drawn in the great swathes of water between the land masses. This represented uncharted and dangerous territory, otherwise called, 'the unknown', and Dr Germana explained that these deadly women were the place holders for anything the sailors didn't understand.
Personally, I found this idea intriguing when put in a wider context. Even today, we still demonise that which is unknown, not understood or feared, and in relation to the female experience, women who do not comply to the patriarchal roles assigned to them are often referred to in derogatory animalistic and freakish terms, 'othering' them to shrink into a more acceptable narrative, or in other words a warning that, 'Here be monsters'.
Mermaids are often nowadays confused with Sirens, like those which were mentioned in Homer's Odyssey from the 8th or 7th Century BC. Here, the hero Odysseus and his crew were almost lured to their deaths by the sirens beautiful song, only escaping the jagged rocks where they lay by plugging their ears and tying their captain to the mast to stop him from diving to his doom. These sirens were in fact half woman and half bird, but like mermaids they share the alluring aspect of sonic interaction that tempts men into dangerous situations. A wider interpretation could be that women are dangerous if listened to.
The talk covered the cross contamination over the centuries of tales from around the world, a fluidity of sea stories where depending on location the mermaid and her character changes;
In Africa Mami Wata is a deity who reins over the water embodying it's duel nature to both give and take life. She is sometimes depicted as half woman and half fish or snake or crocodile. Her identity as a mother makes her powerful and protective, a symbol of fertility and mortality.
In Japan the Ningyo, which translates to 'Human Fish', is more fish than human. These monstrous beings are bad omens if seen and are fierce in nature. It is said that to eat a Ningyo brings the eater eternal life and youth. (interestingly a conspiracy theory currently doing the rounds on the web claims that the likes of today's world leaders and super rich are eating mermaids... could this be a reemergence of the Ningyo myth for the modern world?)
In Inuit mythology Sedna is the Goddess of the sea and the life within it. Sedna starts out as a maiden who rejects the suitors put before her but eventually is deceived into marrying a shapeshifting bird spirit in disguise. Upon realising her mistake Sedna's father tries to rescue her but the shape shifting husband sends a storm to capsize the kayak they sail away in
Her father throws Sedna overboard in his terror to appease the vengeful bird spirit, but she clings to the side of the boat. He then cuts off her fingers until she lets go but each digit that falls into the water transforms into the the creatures of the sea and Sedna herself does not drown but becomes half woman half fish.
Today Sedna has been adopted as a figurehead of environmentalism and a protectress of ocean life, but in tradition hunters must reckon with her anger and shamans sooth her rages to ensure that the catches are bountiful, for Sedna's moods are changeable like the waters.
Finally from Scottish, Irish and Nordic folklore we heard of the Selkie, seal maidens who shed their skins to become beautiful women and more often than not have those skins stolen by love struck humans who force the selkies to marry them and live on land. Only when the skin is found some years later, can the selkie escape and return to her true home leaving husband and children behind forever.
As melancholy as these tales are they offer up questions about consent and even fetishism concerning power and ownership.
The standout similarity in all these stories of watery women is their fluid nature. Perhaps because water equals life and women bring forth life is why the two together form such a powerful iconography that occurs globally. As Dr Germana stated, wherever there are coastlines their are tales of mermaids.
Yet there is also a misogynistic undercurrent of many of the mermaid myths that defines a mistrust and fear of women. The hybrid nature of the mermaid in all senses makes her both enchanting and threatening and leads to an idea of women being desirable yet taboo, that duplicitous nature underlying everything once more.
Another strong characteristic in these tales is the mermaid's shape shifting, hybrid quality, which over time has allowed her to change from a creature serving the male gaze to one that today symbolises queer identity. A great example of this is Ursula the sea witch from Disney's Little Mermaid.
Originally based on the drag artist Divine, Ursula defies the usual beauty standards and laughs at them. She is powerful and autonomous and glories in her full figured tentacled form. There is power in her difference, a potent emblem for those that don't fit in the mainstream narrative.
Dr Germana ended by saying that the mermaid in modern popular culture is reclaiming her power in other ways too. Like Medusa of legend, the mermaid was once a figure that had only been viewed through misogynistic eyes but can now be seen as a rebel redefined by female and queer culture alike. The mermaid and all she represents doesn't have to be victomised or blamed for her nature. She can be celebrated for it. She offers escapism from the modern world and exists by her own standards.
With her long fair hair and floor length skirt, Dr Germana could have been a mermaid in disguise as she held the 300 strong audience, of mostly women, enraptured throughout the talk. An indication that the pull of the mermaid's song is as strong as ever.
