The Meaning of Mermaids from the Male Perspective (Part 2)

Let me start by saying that it’s a tad dangerous to divide an analysis of mermaid mythology into two gender categories. We’re all humans conditioned by our cultures. Therefore, people of all gender identifications will share a lot of the same concepts and feelings about mermaids and other mythical women of the water.

So, why do it?

Because I think it sheds light on the dualistic nature of mermaids themselves and on the complex history surrounding them. For the purpose of this post, I refer to all the mythical women of the waters: mermaids, nymphs and selkies.

Mermaids Created by Men

Most mermaid tales have been told from the male perspective up until very recently. The most famous mermaid story of our age, The Little Mermaid, was originally conceived of by a man, Hans Christian Anderson. And the screenplay written for the Disney animated version? Written by two men. How about the screenplay for Splash, perhaps the most popular live action movie about mermaids? Also two (different) men.

You get the idea.

No doubt this tradition of predominantly male-crafted mermaids goes back a long way, probably back to the earliest surviving narratives, not to mentions paintings, sculptures and the like. Anderson’s original story is definitely “problematic” by modern standards. If you’d like to hear a simultaneous retelling and critique of the original, I recommend the The Myths and Legends podcast episode on it.

The Meaning of Mermaids

So, why exactly have mermaids become such an enduring tradition? I think it is largely because of the rich dualism that they represent: land versus sea, domesticated versus wild, human versus animal, beauty versus monstrousness, lover versus destroyer.

According to mythologist Joseph Campbell, mermaids represent both the life-threatening and the the life-furthering aspects of water. The Mermaid’s Spell cites psychoanalyst Carl Jung’s concepts in relation to this mythology.

The mermaid represents Jung’s Dionysian consciousness: oceanic, unrestrained, primitive, ecstatic, orgiastic, sensual, euphoric, and transcendent. The human represents Jung’s Apollonian consciousness: dry, restrained, rational, subdued, mundane, puritanical, and civilized. When these two opposing forces come together, there is disruption, even disaster. Yet there is the possibility of a more positive outcome: the creation of a divine balance. This balance is delicate at best as we find ourselves to be wandering souls caught at the border between sea and land. We are all part land and part sea, part male and part female, part pride and part humility, part mortal and part divine.

The Sexy Sea of the Subconscious

When thinking about mermaids, it easy to slip into a web of symbols and archetypes. Here’s an example: The mermaid represents the sea which represents the subconscious which represents our hidden fears and desires which inevitably focus on death and sex, which in literature are often conflated with one another. (Whew, deep breath.)

First, let’s think about the sea or, for that matter, any significant body of water. It is both beautiful and dangerous. Alluring and terrifying. Necessary for life but easily ending in death. Sailing away on a ship is an exercise in freedom but we pay for that freedom by putting ourselves at risk.

So, from a male perspective, mermaids are as alluring as the sea and, perhaps, as sex itself. To that extent, the old trope about horny sailors seeing women in seals and manatees may have a nugget of truth. But, if mermaids represent sex, why do they so often symbolize disaster as well?

Because in Western cultures sexuality has long been a guilt-ridden pursuit associated with damnation. NorthStarGallery reports:

[Beatrice] Phillpotts in Mermaids states: “Faced with the mass of accumulated stories and reported sightings relating to a patent sinner who nonetheless clearly commanded a large popular following, the Western Roman Church countered by enlisting the mermaid as a spectacular propaganda aid in the cause of religious duty. Moralized, she now existed solely as a siren eager to lure the upright citizen from the straight and narrow. The censorious Church attitude reflected a central repressive approach to sex in general. Writing to St Augustine in 601 AD, Pope Gregory adopted a stern stand on the matter, declaring that ‘Lawful intercourse should be for the procreation of offspring, and not for mere pleasure’…for when a man’s mind is attracted to those pleasures by lawless desire, he should not regard himself as fitted to join in Christian worship until these heated desires cool in the mind, and he has cease to labour under wrongful passions.'”

Mermaid Misfortunes

Sex has often been associated by males as both alluring and dangerous. On one hand, they are predisposed by nature and, in many cases, culture to crave sex. On the other hand, sex can lead various dangers, from jealous rage to disease. They can also result in pregnancies that, in many cultures, lead to social, family and financial commitments that some men wish to avoid.

Psychologically, these may be all be viewed as disasters. Therefore, mermaids and their associated entanglements can sometimes be a stand-in for women in general. Every woman may be seen as dangerous from a certain male perspective. All women may leave to shipwrecked lives.

Domesticating Mermaids

Some mermaid stories wind up in domestic bliss. The mermaid saves the prince from drowning, they overcome obstacles together, and then she trades in her fishtail, the very symbol of her former wildness and freedom, for a pair of conventional human legs. From the male point of view, this is a happy ending. The alluring woman of the water is tamed, de-tailed, and starts producing children. A happy ending, at least from society’s conventional viewpoint.

But is this also a tragedy? The selkie stories present an interesting twist on the conventional mermaid tale. In this case, the story often involves the man literally stealing his wife’s freedom by finding her seal skin and hiding it away. This version of the mermaid does not voluntary submit and so is always seeking a way to find her original skin and return back to the wilderness of the sea. And she often does, abandoning her husband captor and even her own children to gain back what was stolen from her.

Mermaids Beyond the Troubling Male Gaze

As we can see, the traditional tales of mermaids were mightily shaped by men’s views of women, western religion and nature itself. Although the focus of this male gaze may be intriguing, the gaze itself is often troubling. There’s lots more that could be written on this topic, but let’s leave it there for now and move on the topic of mermaids from the female point of view.

Features image from File:Nymph of the Spring MET DP159773.jpg

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