If Mermaids Were Real

[Joy&RaptorsUnrestrained!]

hmmm i view mermaids as a classification of Fey, and most fey are terribly beautiful, fickle, generous, lusty, hungry, and as extreme as the elements they personify. Mermaids,Undines, Krakens, etc. personify water and more specifically: the ocean, which can be as gentle as when the tide is out to as severe as a tempest or a hurricane.....plus its a general rule in mythology that if its a female creature it generally just wants to play with you first then eat you I.e. The Sphinx, the Sirens, and most instances of Succubi.

Hey Koiboi, I forget, did you see this thread? It deals with a discussion of whether mermaids count as fey or not.

http://mernetwork.com/index/showthre...ies-Yea-or-nay

merboy78xy, that is an interesting take on it. Some of us mermen are gay, though, which takes the question off in a third direction as well. Would straight mermen (or even bi ones) have the same take on wilder mermaids that I do? And what do any bi ladies or lesbian mermaids among us think of the more lighthearted image of mermaids?

[koiboi]

i once read this article about why many of the LGBT community has a preoccupation with mermaids and more specifically the story of the little mermaid. its clear why, say a transgender person would find the story of a mermaid gaining legs and changing her form, especially captivating. but i think gay men identify with the aspect that theres always a price to pay for whomever we love, i dont mean to speak for a demographic or to generalize just stating my own personal observation. I've loved mermaids since i was a child and saw the little mermaid for the first time and performed "part of that world" for any family member that so much as breathed the word "ariel". As i've matured and gotten older, my perspective has shifted. In life theres rarely a clear black/white, good/evil answer but rather an ambiguous yes and no and sometimes neither. it would only make sense that my views of the fantastical would correlate to this belief. Sorry to go on a rant btw everyone. and thanks for the link to the thread

[merboy78xy]

Hey Joy:
true. I am likewise a gay merman... so i can't postulate on that. But it's an interesting thought. Who can say!?
I think I have a leaning toward the wilder look because I have a strong interest and intense studies in Zoology and marine biology, so I see the wildness of nature and love to impose that on the look of what a "wild person" (such as merfolk) would have. Not that I discredit the look of fanciful, sparkly, swirly, fluffy, "pinks and purples", etc. I mean, after all-- as a gay man who has worked for Disney, I DEFINITELY prescribe to my amended addage: "all that glitters IS gold." So I respect those who want a "disney-fied" glamorous look to their merfolk. Nuttin' wrong wit' it.
Koiboi:
Thanks for the tidbit! I never stopped to think of that. It does make a lot of sense! the same reason that the butterfly is a huge symbol for me: Metamorphosis, change, etc. And I named my company Chimaera after the many faceted/changing beast!

[Prince Calypso]

i don't think its all mermen. I've always though mermaids were darker, honestly its only been in the past few decades that they got this girly dainty persona about them

in truth i love all mermaids and view them as a combination of magical and tangible, fairy and beast, human and inhuman.
but for me when i view a mermaid in my mind and think of their nature in general it comes back to the fact they live in one of the harshest and most dangerous environments on earth so i feel that their nature, personas, and physical descriptions would fit this. as well as being magical and beautiful and and colorful and dainty and all that. nothing that live in the ocean is all cuddly. dolphins for all their cuteness are still wild and if encountered in the wild can be dangerous, the same goes for seals, whales, hell even large groups of fish can be dangerous.

[Prince Calypso]

and i don't like the term "dark" or "evil" i prefer the term wild because that's what i think mermaids are wild humanoid creatures.
we don't refer to a wolf as dark or evil if it attacks someone, nor do we a big cat, or shark or killer whale. its their nature

just think of it. a beast with all the intelligence and cunning of a human, all the strength of power grace and predatory skill of the animal kingdom and the magical ability to enchant, hypnotize, control all aspects of water, predict the future, heal and call storms. we are looking at something truly freakin epic

[Mermaid Photine]

I love your thought, Calypso. I think where the word dark comes in is the fact that all of the hypnosis, predatory skill, drowning, and storms will affect the humans negatively. It's awesome for these merfolk, but for us people, it means it is so much easier to get eaten.

[Princess Kae-Leah]

Here's a curious trend I might be noticing... (and this may be "stereotyping" so: no offense meant!!!)
but it seems like the mermen on here tend to like the image of merfolk being somewhat darker/wilder and the mermaids on here tend to see the image of merfolk as lighter and more "fancy-fantasy"...

does that seem an honest observation? (Not that there wouldn't be exceptions to this observation)

I'm a girl, and I 1000% subscribe to the latter interpretation of merfolk, so I think there is truth in your generalization. For me, living a mer-lifestyle is about being peaceful and taking care of nature, especially the oceans and its creatures.

[merboy78xy]

I also use the term "dark" to mean mysterious. Not evil. I think that there is beauty and peace in the dark, as there is in the light. Black can be a color that is grounding, nurturing and healing. but the dark also means shadowed, hidden and the unseen/unknown. Not necessarily bad-- just unknown

[Mermaid Photine]

In ancient egyptian beliefs, black is a colour of good and fertility, as it was the colour of the soil by the nile. Colour meaning are all relative to where you happen to be. I believe that in Asia, white is the colour of death. I definitely like your definition of dark better than mine, Merboy. Mine is what the general meaning is.

[Amethyst]

My mermaid persona is definitely the H20 sort of mermaid lol I'm a very happy and playful person

[Mermaid Momo]

im all for the dark mermaid who lurks in the depts of the oceans watching divers curiously(i probably spelled that wrong) but always ready to go on the defense when needed. they like to play like disney mermaids but again, always on edge. they have a sort of wilder look to them (small all black eyes, thin faces, long and thick sometimes matted hair, long think fingers and really long tails) and the same for merman but they're lanky and thin so they can move really fast in the water. but like octopi, they're made almost completely out of muscle. maybe i'll draw a picture and post it to give you guys more of an idea of what i think a mer looks like. :3

[Prince Calypso]

i once read this article about why many of the LGBT community has a preoccupation with mermaids and more specifically the story of the little mermaid. its clear why, say a transgender person would find the story of a mermaid gaining legs and changing her form, especially captivating. but i think gay men identify with the aspect that theres always a price to pay for whomever we love, i dont mean to speak for a demographic or to generalize just stating my own personal observation. I've loved mermaids since i was a child and saw the little mermaid for the first time and performed "part of that world" for any family member that so much as breathed the word "ariel". As i've matured and gotten older, my perspective has shifted. In life theres rarely a clear black/white, good/evil answer but rather an ambiguous yes and no and sometimes neither. it would only make sense that my views of the fantastical would correlate to this belief. Sorry to go on a rant btw everyone. and thanks for the link to the thread

I LOVE YOU!!!!! you are actually the first person to every really make this connection besides me and my brother

[Prince Calypso]

Hey Joy:
true. I am likewise a gay merman... so i can't postulate on that. But it's an interesting thought. Who can say!?
I think I have a leaning toward the wilder look because I have a strong interest and intense studies in Zoology and marine biology, so I see the wildness of nature and love to impose that on the look of what a "wild person" (such as merfolk) would have. Not that I discredit the look of fanciful, sparkly, swirly, fluffy, "pinks and purples", etc. I mean, after all-- as a gay man who has worked for Disney, I DEFINITELY prescribe to my amended addage: "all that glitters IS gold." So I respect those who want a "disney-fied" glamorous look to their merfolk. Nuttin' wrong wit' it.
Koiboi:
Thanks for the tidbit! I never stopped to think of that. It does make a lot of sense! the same reason that the butterfly is a huge symbol for me: Metamorphosis, change, etc. And I named my company Chimaera after the many faceted/changing beast!

agreed!!

[NorthernPearl]

merboy78xy, that is an interesting take on it. Some of us mermen are gay, though, which takes the question off in a third direction as well. Would straight mermen (or even bi ones) have the same take on wilder mermaids that I do? And what do any bi ladies or lesbian mermaids among us think of the more lighthearted image of mermaids?

Lesbian mermaid here. My imagining of mermaids is somewhere between the lighthearted and the darker visions of them, or rather... includes both, I guess. I'm still figuring out what I imagine mermaids would be like if they were real, but thus far my tentative opinion is that there would be variation among the mer just as there is in the human world. Not to say that I think it'd just be a watery version of our world - I think different culture, environment, and physical makeup would shape them collectively and individually in a different way than we've developed. But every time I try to imagine a mer-world of all dark-and-mysterious mer, I see the exceptions, the mer who run opposite to that image. And the same happens when I try to imagine a mer-world of the more lighthearted slant; I see the exceptions, the mer who hang back, run contrary to their culture, who seek the deeper and sometimes less pretty mysteries.
So I don't know. Maybe I'll come back to this thread a while from now and have a different answer, but for now my imaginative stab in the dark would be toward a complex mix. Which I'm not sure answers the question at all. x) But I tried?

[NorthernPearl]

Oh! And one other little thing that was rolling around in my brain today after I'd skimmed this thread last night. One of the things that I think appeals to me on a subconscious level about mermaids is that they thrive in an environment capable of taking human life. I think some part of me is really attracted to the mermaid myth because as a girl alone in a cold sea, I'm drowning. But when I change that scene to make myself a mermaid, I'm not drowning - I'm just swimming. It's just a perspective shift, but it changes things from failure and doom to function and life and peace.
Now that I type that out, I'm not sure it will make sense or seem relevant to anybody else. (Which I promise is okay. ) But I did find it interesting when it surfaced in my thoughts today.

[Mermaasai]

Did any of you see Avatar?
I just watched it again since seeing it in theaters once when it came out. So gyaddern visually stunning..

Having grown up in a very tribal environment and surrounded by a hunter/gatherer people group, I loved how Avatar portrayed the indiginous peoples.

I think of mermaids/men very similarly to this movies people group as well as my people, the Maasai.

Hunter/gatherer peoples with strong ties to their tribe or pod.
With history abounding and stories that leak back as far as their own primordial beginnings. A natural respect for their home and environment because of how delicate their eco system is.

They are different, they have a mindset that isnt like ours because their environment is different, their food source, their daily dilemmas, their belief systems, and their social constructs.

But they are the same. They love, they feel deeply and passionately. They hate and have anger and vengeance as well as deep sadness and empathy.
They love their children, they love their family, they interact on a deeply personal level and share their weaknesses and strengths to combine into a healthy and functional pod unit.

They war with each other and come together in great need or sorrow.
They are as diverse as we are, with differing social rules in different areas and pods.
There are vegitarians and carnivores, human sympathizers and human hunters, deep sea dwellers and coastal sun bathers.
They have princess' and prince's as well as hunters and warriors.

Some migrate, some stay in one general area, or move according to food availability.

I also like to think of them as able to change their sex in neccessity as a Rana Rugosa frog can trigger chemical changes that activate the genes that can recreate their reproductive organs, the frogs can still have the same sex chromosomes(ie: XX for females) and change their gender without the sex chromosomes changing to XY.. (its complicated), which would bring mers a bit closer to an amphibeous relation.
In this way genetically male or female mers can reproduce with same sex mers (technically) and there is still the ability for more "conventional" relationships between male and female. (its all about love, baby)
Its just an idea.. I just like the idea of a mated pair of mers able to have beautiful little splashing merkin of their very own regardless of their gender.
Its all a very touchy idea I know.. its just kind of a thought i had after watching discovery channel..

Any way, those are my thoughts ^.^ Its a very big blue world so there is room for all sorts of differences and opinions.

[Prince Calypso]

Did any of you see Avatar?
I just watched it again since seeing it in theaters once when it came out. So gyaddern visually stunning..

Having grown up in a very tribal environment and surrounded by a hunter/gatherer people group, I loved how Avatar portrayed the indiginous peoples.

I think of mermaids/men very similarly to this movies people group as well as my people, the Maasai.

Hunter/gatherer peoples with strong ties to their tribe or pod.
With history abounding and stories that leak back as far as their own primordial beginnings. A natural respect for their home and environment because of how delicate their eco system is.

They are different, they have a mindset that isnt like ours because their environment is different, their food source, their daily dilemmas, their belief systems, and their social constructs.

But they are the same. They love, they feel deeply and passionately. They hate and have anger and vengeance as well as deep sadness and empathy.
They love their children, they love their family, they interact on a deeply personal level and share their weaknesses and strengths to combine into a healthy and functional pod unit.

They war with each other and come together in great need or sorrow.
They are as diverse as we are, with differing social rules in different areas and pods.
There are vegitarians and carnivores, human sympathizers and human hunters, deep sea dwellers and coastal sun bathers.
They have princess' and prince's as well as hunters and warriors.

Some migrate, some stay in one general area, or move according to food availability.

I also like to think of them as able to change their sex in neccessity as a Rana Rugosa frog can trigger chemical changes that activate the genes that can recreate their reproductive organs, the frogs can still have the same sex chromosomes(ie: XX for females) and change their gender without the sex chromosomes changing to XY.. (its complicated), which would bring mers a bit closer to an amphibeous relation.
In this way genetically male or female mers can reproduce with same sex mers (technically) and there is still the ability for more "conventional" relationships between male and female. (its all about love, baby)
Its just an idea.. I just like the idea of a mated pair of mers able to have beautiful little splashing merkin of their very own regardless of their gender.
Its all a very touchy idea I know.. its just kind of a thought i had after watching discovery channel..

Any way, those are my thoughts ^.^ Its a very big blue world so there is room for all sorts of differences and opinions.

i really like and agree with this idea.
i think the aliens from Avatar are a great example of how mermiad culture and scioty would possiblly be.
i also love the idea of mermaid being amphibious. idk why but is just clicks with me a bit more

as fore mermaid sex and gender i get what your saying and it's a very different and epic view of things.
personally i think mermaids since they live in a predominantly female culture, that the males are bore in two groups.
first group is your stereotypical mermen, big, muscler and aggressive.
second grouplare hermaphroditic or inter-sexual males born with both working sets of sexual organ, who besides being a bit more masculine in appearance don't look that much different than their female counterparts


this allows the population to be maintained because males can become pregnant too
i believe the culture would an opposite in ours in that they would a predominantly female, females would the majority and males the minority

[Coradion]

Let's see if merfolk were real... well for me I would have highly vascularized tissues in my mouth and a modified swim bladder/lung so surface breathing would be possible. I do like the darker, predatory appeal. The ocean is a harsh place and I feel intelligence and an almost wrathful approach is often needed for larger animals especially. To support the amount of food needed for the colder waters opportunistic feeding upon other animals would almost be a must. I do like the POTC mermaids in not only their actions, but their morphology. Most tails I've seen are truncate or lunate which is more characteristic of slower moving and reef fish. The POTC mermaids had heavily forked tails similar to many predatory pelagic fishes. My tail would be forked for swimming quickly and chasing down food, to look like a Ken doll is ideal as seen in POTC luring large prey items to their demise is advantageous in a potentially low food environment. I would most likely stalk and hunt divers.

[Nemefish]

maybe like this but darker :P

[Nykur]

I believe I have read that mermaids are beautiful but vicious, and the males are more ugly looking but with a more gentle nature then their opposite gender.