Mermaids and related creatures such as sirens and selkies have a perennial appeal; we at OGOM love them and they have featured in quite a few posts here. There may be deep Freudian reasons for our fascination but we’re certainly not alone.
Here are some interesting mermaid-related links:
Sarah Hughes, in ‘Magical and gender-fluid … the enduring appeal of mermaids‘, attempts to explain the allure of mermaids and their resurgence in contemporary films and novels. She draws attention to the feminist possibilities of the mermaid figure and her reappropriation by women writers, and also to their gender fluidity
Kari Sonde’s piece ‘Imagining the modern mermaid‘ is another look at the contemporary mermaid of film and novel, concentrating on female sexuality.
Josh Jackman reviews the new TV mermaid series, Siren in ‘Meet the bisexual mermaid taking over your TV‘.
And Stephen Winick has a brilliant and fascinating account of the old ballad ‘The Mermaid’ and its variations from a folklorist perspective in ‘“The Mermaid”: the Fascinating Tail Behind an Ancient Ballad‘.
