Why is it not called Merpersons?

[toocuriousnottoask]

I don't know if this has been asked before, but I couldn't seem to find it. This forum seemed like the right place to ask.

Why exactly is the transgender charity that assists children called Mermaids? Is this naming in itself not exclusion? For example, I would have thought it would be something more like Merpersons since there were I though the idea of Mermen.

I get that the founder created the charity after having a son that identified more as a daughter and so it may have history in regards to that, but I would've thought as it assists transition both ways around, it would be much more appropriate to be named Merpersons.

I ask this question as I am quite curious about the idea of misogyny in this movement. I see that the rates of girls transitioning in the NHS

I think you may have answered the question OP

Merfolx, surely.

But, yes, interesting question.

Merfolx 🤣🤣

I think it's because 'the movement' couldn't give less of a fuck about ftm transitioners.

It's a misogynistic movement above all else.

I suspect it was chosen because its pretty and magical.

Susie Green isn’t the founder of Mermaids.

She took over an existing support organisation - which a decade ago advocated precisely the same watch and wait approach to gender questioning children that is now branded as ‘transphobic’ - and turned it into the stereotype fuelled monstrosity it is today.

"Beauty Beyond Binaries: The Mermaid Trend Has an Extra-Special Meaning for Many Trans Women"

www.allure.com/story/trans-women-mermaid-trend-meaning

I think it’s very unpleasant and sad name to pick. It makes me think of that awful fairy story of The Little Mermaid giving away her tail and getting human legs painfully so the prince would love her. Every step was like walking on knives. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Mermaid

This site looks at the difference between sirens,harpies, and mermaids, so could be useful here.: www.travelpirates.com/captains-log/fact-or-fiction-mermaids-sirens-and-harpies_11260

"In some lore, mermaids are depicted as kind souls that try to save sailors from their ultimate doom or even fall in love with humans, while others are perceived as beacons of danger and lure sailors to the briny depths. Mermaids are thought to have been inspired by the Greek Sirens."

Selkies would make more sense anyway

Ariel is the ultimate submissive female, she gives up her voice, her fins, her family and her home for her prince. It's a dubious association to say the least.

Sorry x-post Chatty

Agreed Hecate, The Little Mermaid gives up everything for him and ultimately she dies solely because of his rejection of her when he marries someone else so all her sacrifice was pointless anyhow. It’s awful! I read it as a kid thinking it was like a horror story. No voice, dependent on a man you don’t actually know to love you, so you can continue to exist in the world at all. Anyway I was thinking more about the resonance of the agonising requirements for physical transformation in exchange for the chance to be loved - but it’s a horrible story whichever way you look at it!

It really is!

Because mermaids are females with tails instead of vaginas.

@ChattyLion I begged Santa for the little mermaid video when I was little. I wanted the Disney one with the rewritten to happy ever after ending. What I got was a cheaper cartoon version from boots the chemist with the original ending. I watched it because my parents made me and I cried my eyes out.

Mermaids don’t exist, silly. And the little one came to a sticky end in the Anderson fairy tale. So not a brilliant piece of branding imho...

Anyone seen Miranda and Mad About Men? Two British films with Glynis Johns as a mermaid who tries out life as a socialite on dry land.
She's a bit of a man-magnet, and one of her rivals, checking out her room, discoveres that Miranda doesn't seem to believe in knickers.

Well,I laughed!

Oh I saw bits of one of these a while ago, was obviously busy pre-Christmas. Couldn't say which one but remember Glynis Johns. Was the one where someone couldn't sing or something....... totally off thread, sorry. Was as realistic as transgender kids anyway......

All very dreamy to begin with, all very tragic by the end.

Mermaids are imaginary, and also neither one thing (woman) nor the other (erm, fish). As well as all the other odd associations and connotations. So yes, odd choice. I read that the Spanish version is called Chrysalis, which makes a lot more sense branding wise.

Aye, very strange. But I imagine it's the 'transformation' element that is considered relevant. Or wanting to be something else. Or something.

Not sure how that reconciles with always being that

Also interesting that the fragrant mimmymum no longer has a mermaid on her Twitter page. Probably doesn't make sense in her circumstances.

Regardless, one thing is for sure, to even ask the question will be considered 'transphobic' because everything is

I like the depiction of mermaids in the Goblet of Fire they gave me and my daughters an alternative view of these mythical creatures. Though I always told them that Disney Ariel was not in a healthy relationship!

@ifchocolatewerecelery Was it this one? www.imdb.com/title/tt0070326/

With Fritz the dolphin? I don't know anyone else who remembers it!

“But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more.”
― Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid.

Personally, I don't want to call anyone who isn't a woman, a woman. No prefix, no suffix. No thanks.

There's a Benny Hill line about a man "Who's as nervous as a nudist climbing a barbed-wire fence". Should there be a mishap, the nudist would be a cresfallen man. He wouldn't be a woman. It's just silly to think so. Neither more nor less than someone who has stayed on his side of the fence, this bloke is a man.

@jay55

Because mermaids are females with tails instead of vaginas.