One of the major themes that I found when reading Vaughn Scibner’s, Merpeople: A Human History, was the degradation and defamation of feminity and womanhood as a whole. This stood out to me because my personal beliefs revolving around mermaids focus solely on their beauty and praise of feminity, not on their negative associations. Keeping this in mind many questions arose when thinking of this concept, how does the role of mermaids attempt to tame and train women? What do depictions/ texts about mermaids reveal about women’s relationships at the time? How did a mermaid’s sexual appeal build over time” And What does the depiction of mermaids and mermen express about genre roles, specifically opinions on women? I would love to touch on every one of these specifically but I want to dive into the overall concept and think of all of these questions under one bubble.

On page 41, he states the idea that medieval church men had the “ultimate goal remained tethered to decentring the feminine. Hence the repeating image of mermaids as dangerous, passionate, sexual beings…”(Scribner, 41) Mermaids were often depicted to be enticing representations of sin and deception, which I believe was to scare human women. Depictions and stories constantly disrespect the mermaid figure and blatantly say that their depictions were intended to tear down the representation of women. A similar concept continues with the idea of “equating femininity with inferiority. Renaissance woman accordingly experienced a fringe existence in public society” (Scribner, 61) where one can truly see the connection drawn between mermaids and women. The intention behind this quote is a negative, and attempts to degrade/ oppress not only the mermaid but the woman as a whole.

“Nevertheless, mermen remained clear reflections of the Church’s ability to merge the wondrous and the religious sin in an effort to denigrate femininity while vaulting men to positions of prominence and piety ” ( Scribner, 53) Rather than focus on the mermaid, this quote focuses on the depiction of the mermaid to express the concept of opinions on women and taming the woman figure. The words hold negative connotations and denotation, using the words, ” denigrate feminity” yet the “prominence” of the male figure. These phrases juxtapose each other in the most clear way, showcasing a revelation about women in literature and art in a negative light.

While I focused on the negative depictions/relationship between womanhood and mermaids, mermaids can be depicted to signify beauty, strength, and popularity. Throughout the book, one can clearly see the changing attitudes and depictions, from beauty to fear to sin, etc. This is the duality of the mermaid in the most pure form and represents a tie between womanhood and the depiction of mermaids.