As I was reading the introduction of The Penguin Book of Mermaids, something that stood out to me was the idea that humans “are strangely drawn to the other who is in part a mirror image of us and appears within reach, even if mentally ungraspable” (pg xi). There is this push and pull between humans and the unknown – where we are drawn but also fear what we cannot understand. While mermaids and other hybrid creatures have some sort of human element within them, there is also this otherness that accompanies the human aspect of the creature. Why, in turn, are humans engrossed in something that also repels them? 

As humans, we crave order and organization but mermaids and other “monsters” allow us to explore the messy and untouched aspects of our identities. Living in a society that champions heteronormativity, humans often want to stay within the norm for fear of rejection if they deviate from what is supposedly normal and lose their social status. However, hybrid creatures give us insight into what could be if the limits of social norms and expectations were lifted. Specifically, mermaids can tap into the desires and lust that humans are too afraid to explore in real life. This is particularly relevant for women since society frequently looks down on women who explore their sexuality or sexual desires due to it not being seen as “ladylike.” Therefore, mermaids scare us because they may represent this element of humanity that is repressed as a response of societal norms. These creatures permit us to envision a being that is ungoverned by the stresses of society, a version of us in a primal form that is untarnished by expectations. Who are we without the rules of society governing our lives or religion telling us what is right or wrong? It is this anxiety that produces our fear of hybrid creatures, such as the mermaid, because we haven’t lived in a world without guidelines on how to be. Yet, we are fascinated and continue to come back to these creatures because humans are curious by nature – we crave to explore the unknown and the other. Subsequently, mermaids and other hybrids provide the perfect canvas to explore the messy bits of humanity that we don’t want to confront in the real world.