Mermaids and Manatees

I know that I should be working at something or another, but I really just want to write. So here I am. What I wanted to say is that I really like mermaids and manatees. I find mermaids and sirens so appealing as mythical characters ("Is mythology true? Like was there a time when people really lived like that? Or is it all just a bunch of myths?"--inside joke). I am entranced by this representation of powerful, seductive females. And I tend to associate water with some sort of female principle. It's like mermaids are these strong, self sufficient females. I'm not explaining this very well. Cixous talks about "the laugh of the Medusa," and I don't pretend to understand Cixous, but I really think that if I were going to write about female power, I'd choose the mermaid or siren as my metaphor, not Medusa, although she's interesting too. There's just more going on here than just a set of stories about mermaids and sirens. I think of Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" (let the record show that Andersen's story has very little in common with the Disney adaptation--my students are often shocked by this). . .anyway, I think of Andersen's story as implying that to become a fully functioning, healthy woman, a man is needed. The Little Mermaid, who significantly does not even have a name, must give up her agency to win the man she loves; she gives up her voice and can walk only with great pain. Yet, it seems that we are to praise her for these sacrifices, sacrifices for "love." Yet she doesn't even get what she wants in the end. She's turned into sea foam with the possibility of gaining an eternal soul, only if the child reader is good enough. I mean, what's that all about? Mermaids / sirens are powerful because they can exist happily enough in a community without men, it seems to me. In Andersen's story, the Little Mermaid's sisters are happy without human men. Oh, I get frustrated when I can't say things the way I intend to. I'll just write the best I can and revise later.

But then we also have the very real manatees. Although they are endangered, I hope they will be around for a very long time. I like manatees quite a lot. In part, I admit I like them because it is thought that when sailors first encountered manatees and other species of sea cows, they confused them with the mythical sirens. In fact, the biological order to which the species belongs is "sirenia," emphasizing this. But manatees are not particularly beautiful, nor do they appear at all seductive in the ways that we might associate with sirens. Manatees are fairly docile, which is probably one of the reasons why they are endangered. They get in the way of boat propellers and are often injured badly. I suppose it would be more accurate to say that humans invade the manatees' territory, creating havoc for the creatures. I know this is silly, but manatees make me think of really big puppies. And they are sea "cows," not bulls or steers. We implicitly associate them with the female. Oh, this isn't going where I'd hoped. I'm not explaining at all in the way I want to. I guess I think of manatees as kinder, gentler mermaids. They are mermaids in their own way, mermaids in our world. That's another reason I like them. It's a way to pretend that the line between so-called fantasy and reality is in fact blurred. To know that manatees exist maybe allows for the possibility of other so-called mythical creatures. I want to believe in mermaids. I know it sounds silly, but I do. And maybe manatees are close enough.