Sexual Appetite and the Mermaid Archetype
Something's been bugging me about the mermaid image. The Disney image of the single tailed sirens lazing about on beaches combing their hair is a lovely one, but in my opinion it's saturated our understanding of what a mermaid could be. Especially given the inherently sensual nature of the mermaid it's frustrated me that there is little to no depiction of the two tailed mermaid that dominated many local variations of seaward tales.
I understand that for younger audiences a two-tailed mermaid, which is to say a mermaid who has tails similar to human legs, may appear too sexual but there's no excuse for the lack of depiction for older audiences. The caveat I can give though, is that I can't quite wrap my head around the anatomy of a two-tailed mermaid. It makes sense at first, since when it comes to scuba diving and snorkeling our fins go on our feet as well.
But I couldn't quite figure out how the swimming would work, with all of those pretty ruffles and natural fish-like fins.
So I sat with myself, and thought, what other kind of mermaids could exist. A small lizard was the inspiration for the answer. It makes perfect sense that there would be a mermaid — less like a fish than a snake or a crocodile — who would have not only human arms and legs, but a long thick tail that tapers into the typical, elegant ruffled fins of the traditional mermaid.
Thinking about a mermaid that looked like that made sense, especially given all of the myths that I'd read about women of the sea that had to hide their tails from men lest they be found out, or snake women that moved like anacondas on the Amazon River. Versions of mermaids that are beautiful but inhuman, more so than the typical Disney image.
That made me think back though on the primary reason why most of the depictions of mermaids have the single tail. Simply put, it's more palatable to a wider range of audiences, especially given the already beautiful and seductive qualities inherent in any mermaid depiction.
Sexual appetite, a need to chase what one hungers for, is often lost on the typical depictions of the mermaids who are almost skittish in nature. I want to see more depictions of mermaids as carnivorous, as sharks in the ocean as opposed to guppies. I want the seductive aspect of mermaidhood to be explored more.
Is their allure just a tool for hunting, can they actually get married and have children with human men, do they need sex? How does one distinguish the need for sex from the need for physical “relief”? Are the two the same to a mermaid?
I grapple daily with these questions myself, as someone who strives to have a healthy and active sex life. I wouldn't know what to do with myself in a dry spell. I'm sure any mermaid could relate. What does it mean to have a sexual appetite? What exactly about sex do I hunger for?
Is it the physical contact or the emotional levity of connecting with an equally desirable person? Is it the creativity and the spontaneity of sex? Or — not to be vulgar, but is it literally something about the sharing of one's body — the sweat, the sexual fluids, the breath — that over time one becomes so accustomed to that it is like drowning when that contact is suddenly ripped away.
Perhaps the excitable scent of another does things to a person, changes them in a way, reminiscent of that inhuman beauty of the mermaid.
Regardless of how they are depicted though, I will always be grateful for their symbolism and potency in everything their image touches. It may be presumptuous to say I see myself in them, but we all have our affinities. Mine just lay somewhere in the deep blue of the ocean.
