Mermaid Tavern

Unicorns and Mermaids: Queer Obsessions

Stella the Siren: Real Life Mermaid

Queer Mermaid Books

Lexie Mermaid

Mermaid Images: Artistic Renderings

Denver Aquarium: Mermaid Show

Mermaid Melissa: Swimming With Dolphins

Stella the Siren: Do You Believe in Mermaids?

Intergalactic Lesbian Mermaids

Natural History and Cladistics of the Lesbian
Mermaid Aesthetic: Arts, Images, Tattoos

While there is a childhood fascination with mythical creatures among many of us, I have spotted a trend in the LGBTQ community towards mythical and hybrid creatures. Young queer youth proudly wear mermaid hair and unicorn t-shirts. Instagram and Tumblr are full of gay men and women posing in rainbow-scaled regalia and life-size fish-tails. Yet while my interest was piqued by this projection in contemporary queer popular culture, it wasn’t until working with the transgender youth network Mermaids UK, on a project for a new gallery, that I truly became fascinated.

Having spoken to parents and their kids who are part of Mermaids UK, they said that the mythological figures are a powerful symbol for them and the trans community because of their ability to transform, and because their physical genitalia are not visible and so irrelevant to their gender. Since then, I’ve fallen into a mermaid-queer-history vortex!

The reference that most of us have grown up with regarding mermaids is Hans Christian Anderson’s story "The Little Mermaid" (1837). This, and the later Disney film, has hugely influenced our image of mermaids. It’s worth remembering that the original story is not a happy tale. The little mermaid has her tongue cut out of her mouth, her legs are cursed so every step she takes is like treading on glass and, at the end, she doesn’t get the prince but is transformed into sea foam.

Queer Twist on Mermaids

Mermaidcore: The Biggest Summer Trend
Mermaids in Art and the Queer Community

Dubai Mall Aquarium: Mermaid Show
Mermaid Images: Artistic Renderings

Lexie Mermaid: Marina

Unicorns and Mermaids: Queer Obsessions

Stella the Siren: Real Life Mermaid

Queer Mermaid Books

Mermaid Melissa: Swimming With Dolphins

Stella the Siren: Do You Believe in Mermaids?

Intergalactic Lesbian Mermaids

Lexie Mermaid: Calypso
Natural History and Cladistics of the Lesbian
Mermaid Aesthetic: Arts, Images, Tattoos

Swimming With Mermaids

It is also a deeply queer story. When Hans Christian Anderson wrote "The Little Mermaid" he himself had been unlucky in love, having been rejected by Edvard Collin. Anderson had written detailed love letters to Collin, with passages such as ‘I long for you as though you were a beautiful Callibrian girl’. After being rejected by another man, Anderson’s response was to write "The Little Mermaid" while secluded on an island. So, this classic tale was inspired by an unrequited same-sex love story.

This story has since been identified with by a number of known queer artists and writers. Oscar Wilde wrote "The Fisherman’s Soul" in response to "The Little Mermaid." Artist Evelyn De Morgan used the story as inspiration to paint "The Sea Maidens" (which can be seen at The Queen’s House in Greenwich). This depicts multiple versions of her love interest Jane Hales languishing as identical sensuous mermaids. So it seems the modern-day queer icon of the mermaid has a very queer pedigree.

The Little Mermaid: How Disney Made a Classic More Queer

This story was made even more commercial and world-renowned in 1989 with the release of the Walt Disney adaptation of "The Little Mermaid." While the film gives Ariel both a name and a happy ending, it is worth noting that even here we see a strong queer influence. Howard Ashman wrote the songs for The Little Mermaid, including the hauntingly lonely Part of Your World. He later was diagnosed of HIV and tragically passed away while working on Disney’s follow-up "Beauty and The Beast," which includes an epitaph crediting him as the man ‘who gave a mermaid her voice and a beast his soul’.

Nowadays mermaids, unicorns and fairies appear at Pride parades around the world and even as episode themes in "RuPaul’s Drag Race." Like rainbows and unicorns, mermaids are synonymous with the LGBTQ community. But if you look deeper you can see that this connection is more than one of mere association. Mermaids have a queer history, and that is no fairy tale!

[Source: Sacha Coward, Royal Museums Greenwich, August 2018]

Mermaid Symbolism and Meaning
What Hides Behind the Mermaid Myth?

Mermaid Images: Artistic Renderings

Sailor Superstitions

Vivien Solari: Nude Cold Water Swimming
Lexie Mermaid: Tropico
Natasha Brooks: Blue Hue
History of Sirens and Mermaids

Mermaids are Officially Cooler Than Vampires

Mermaid Tattoos

Relaxing Mermaid Swim

Mermaid Aesthetic: Arts, Images, Tattoos

Imagining the Modern Mermaid

Joni Mitchell and the Mermaid Cafe

Fantasy Mermaids: Lake Michigan

Deep and Unfettered

"She's a queen adorned in pearls of the seas. The sweetest scent hangs in the breeze, calling her up from the depths so deep. She longed for these unusual treasures drawn from of the oceans so beautifully rare. She wishes for peonies for her long flowing hair."

-Pink Crayon

"Gentle shores wash over me, reminding me how many barely skim the surface of this ocean. I await someone willing to go the depths for my love."

-Pink Crayon

"Come evening sunset, the ocean sprays glitters in the low golden rays. She feels the salted waves flow through her hair as she writes the secrets of her heart in the pink tinted sands with hope her love is swept freely from its anchors."

-Pink Crayon

About Lesbians
Lesbianism and Feminism
Queer Sensuality
Unicorns and the Queer Community

Pagan Rites

Sisters of the tides are we, bound by sand and salt and sea. Selkie, mermaid, siren daughters, priestesses of the holy waters."

-A.M. Galdorcraeft

"Here and now, I invoke the elemental force of water, the fluid of infinite shape and form. O flowing source of resilience, emotion, and energy, I seek the pure spring within that I might drink deep of your life-giving nourishment and grace. I call you forth to wash away sorrow and sadness, grief and despair, and all that needlessly binds us. Flow through me, ocean and river, ripple and rain. Water, I call thee hence."

-Water Invocation

Aquarian Goddess

Storm in My Heart

"It all began with a mermaid. That's what she must have been. that girl who stood in the darkening sea, who tilted her face defiantly to catch the raindrops, who captured my heart without a single word."
-Octavia

"You were the storm in my heart. You were the waves that crashed against my soul and threw me into the tempest."
-Ariana

"A raven heart. A mermaid soul. Not meant to be loved. Not meant to be controlled."
-Conny Cernik

"Everyday we face challenges. Don't be afraid. Conquer your fears. Face your insecurities. Hold your breath. And dive deeper."
-Mermaid Melissa

Lesbians in Love

Under the Sea

Cosmopolitan Lesbian Erotica: Comings and Goings
Your Tango: Erotic Lesbian Stories
Skirt Club: Bi-Curious Women Invited

Literotrica: Lesbian Sex Stories

Multilesbian: Touch

Cosmopolitan Lesbian Erotica: Confessions of a Kinky Divorcee
Talk Dirty to Me: Collection of Lesbian Short Stories
Cara Sutra: Girl Date

Canção De Amor Sem Nome

Cosmopolitan Lesbian Erotica: Meeting Annie
No Guilt Hotel: Lesbian Erotica

Multifemlash: Into You

Nifty: Erotic Lesbian Stories
Late Life Lesbians: Our Stories

Multilesbian: You're Everything

Steamy Erotic Stories Written by Women

The Little Mermaid: How Disney Made a Classic More Queer
Mermaid Symbolism and Meaning
What Hides Behind the Mermaid Myth?

Sailor Superstitions

Mermaid Melissa: Crystal Clear Blue Water

History of Sirens and Mermaids

Mermaids are Officially Cooler Than Vampires

Vivien Solari: Nude Cold Water Swimming
Lexie Mermaid: Tropico
Natasha Brooks: Blue Hue
Mermaid Tattoos

Mermaid Aesthetic: Arts, Images, Tattoos

Imagining the Modern Mermaid

Joni Mitchell and the Mermaid Cafe

Mermaid Images: Artistic Renderings

"She would be half the world away,

floating in a turquoise sea,

dancing by the moonlight."
-Janet Fitch

Mermaids in Art

and the Queer Community

Certainly images of unicorns and mermaids are very prevalent in pop culture. But at various points these creatures have held different meanings. The unicorn can be a symbol of chastity and innocence, or can be used as a euphemism for something difficult to find.

Mermaids, too, can hold complex meanings in art and literature. They can be portrayed as beautiful creatures of the sea or as sirens leading sailors to their death – lovely and dangerous all at once. There’s a dichotomy there that’s reflected most obviously in their half-fish, half-human appearance.

The Little Mermaid: How Disney Made a Classic More Queer

It’s worth mentioning that there’s a charity in the UK named "Mermaid," that works to support transgender and gender non-conforming young people, which really speaks to the power of the mermaid symbol in the LGBTQ community.

There even exists a "Lesbian Mermaid" flag, a symbol of pride for lesbians who celebrate feminine power, an adventurous attitude, a rebellious spirit, and ferocious independence. Despite decades of oppression, she still persists. She is tossed by the waves, but does not sink.

Outside of mermaids, I was curious to find out about other mythical creatures that have found a home in the community. In particular, the unicorn has become increasingly popular and often, where you find a unicorn, you’ll find a rainbow – another strong queer symbol.

Sacha Coward has said, "A lot of my queer friends will describe themselves as unicorns. There’s even a whole cultural subset of people that wear rainbow unicorn horns. Then you’ve got fairies and the fact that fairy is a British slur against gay people, and we’ve taken that back. Then you have the whole thing with Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz. The high camp, high color, and the fact that we will often refer to other gay people as a Friend of Dorothy.

It’s not only about the colorful and whimsical nature of some of these creatures, it’s also that they blur the lines of what’s considered normal. The great thing about things like mermaids and fairies is they take features of one creature and mix them with another, and they break the rules of what an animal should look like, and in the same sense, the rules of how men and anyone should behave.

[Source: Ferren Gipson, Art Matters, Aug 2018]

Mermaid Symbolism and Meaning
What Hides Behind the Mermaid Myth?

Sailor Superstitions

City of Dreams: Mermaid Show

History of Sirens and Mermaids

Mermaids are Officially Cooler Than Vampires

Mermaid Tattoos

Lexie Mermaid: Calypso
Mermaid Aesthetic: Arts, Images, Tattoos

Imagining the Modern Mermaid

Joni Mitchell and the Mermaid Cafe

Mermaidcore: The Biggest Summer Trend

Mermaid Musings
Mermaid Melissa: Swimming With Dolphins
Lexie Mermaid: Marina

Mermaid History

The mermaid has been swimming through human consciousness for millennia. She appears in early religious texts, including the Jewish Talmud, and in the mythologies of countless separate cultures. Rome's Pliny the Elder described a mermaid-like creature in his first century reference work "Natural History." She has since become a Disney princess, a Starbucks Coffee logo, a metaphor for transformation and dangerous desire and, most dramatically, an occasionally photographed flesh-and-blood animal.

In most incarnations, the mermaid has the head and torso of a woman, with long hair and, particularly in reports from sailors, large breasts. Her fingers may be especially long, possibly webbed. From the waist down, she has the scaly tail of a fish. Mermaids are typically beautiful, graceful and irresistibly alluring to human men — the latter a defining trait that leads to trouble.

Wild Winter Swimming
Jane by the Sea: Winter Mist

Lexie Mermaid
Irish Ladies Swimming in Cold Sea Water
Swimming in the Niagara River
Wild Swimming in Eskdale
Skinny Dipping: 100 Women

Vivien Solari: Nude Cold Water Swimming
Lexie Mermaid: Calypso
Jane by the Sea: Late September
Cold Water Immersion In A River In March
Wild Swimming at Dorset
Natasha Brooks: Blue Hue

Basically, they are Daryl Hannah's character in "Splash." That's the most popular vision of the fish-human hybrid. But the mermaid has been imagined by cultures around the globe for thousands of years.

The ancient Syrian goddess Atargatis may have been the first, though she didn't start out as a mermaid.

Stories of the beautiful Atargatis date back to 1000 BCE in Syria. She is a protector goddess, associated with water and new life. In one of her common backstories, she falls in love with a human man. As usual, this works out poorly for the mortal: Atargatis accidently kills her lover. In shame and agony, she throws herself in a lake, set on becoming a fish. Her feminine beauty, though, is too powerful, and the transformation fails midway. She ends up with the tail of a fish but remains a woman above the waist.

Like Atargatis, mermaids may be benevolent protectors. They may be vulnerable, like the deeply suffering protagonist in Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid," who gives up her tail to walk on land with the man she loves only to be cast aside, turning to sea-foam in her heartbreak. Disney's "Little Mermaid" Ariel, based on Andersen's character, suffers but is ultimately rewarded for her goodness and bravery with a happily-ever-after. Ariel is a hero mermaid.

On the other end of the spectrum, mermaids may be flat-out evil. In German myth, mermaids called nixes use music to lure men into their river in order to drown them, similar to the sweet-voiced sirens depicted in Homer's "Odyssey."

Mermaids in Art and the Queer Community

The Gloaming

The Gloaming, by acclaimed Scottish novelist Kirsty Logan, begins with jellyfish washing up near a cliff by the sea, on an island where the residents die slow deaths by turning to stone. It’s a sad, strange and beautiful scene, just one of many sprinkled throughout this novel.

Our protagonist is Mara, who falls in love with Pearl, who is a selkie or a mermaid or perhaps neither? Myth and metaphor wind around one another, the author weaving multiple fairytales together to create one of her own. Nothing is quite as it seems in this book. All of this is set against the backdrop of an island with “dark, tarry magic” and the tragic loss of the protagonist’s little brother who was swept out to sea. The novel follows Mara and her family as they try to move through their grief, living their lives amidst the push and pull of the island.

It’s up to the reader to decide, in many places, how much of the island’s magic is real and how much is not. In that sense, The Gloaming is an excellent example of magical realism.

It’s also a beautifully written book. The island is painted so vividly it’s not hard to see how Mara and her family are drawn to it. Sentences flow like poetry (or dare I say, like water) with such careful, well-chosen language it’s easy to get swept up in it.

The novel asks big questions about grief and love and family, and answers them by waving its arms in wide, sweeping arcs. True to its title, The Gloaming is shadowy and mysterious and leaves much unsaid.

Queer Twist on Mermaids

Unicorns and Mermaids: Queer Obsessions

Stella the Siren: Real Life Mermaid

Mermaidcore: The Biggest Summer Trend

Vivien Solari: Nude Cold Water Swimming
Lexie Mermaid: Tropico
Natasha Brooks: Blue Hue
Mermaid Images: Artistic Renderings

Mermaid Melissa: Swimming With Dolphins

Stella the Siren: Do You Believe in Mermaids?

Aquarium of Paris: Mermaid Show

Intergalactic Lesbian Mermaids