Why everyone’s talking about... Mermaids
FINALLY, indoor swimming pools will reopen next Saturday, to the delight of parents, fitness buffs and mermaids.
Excellent… wait, what? Mermaids?
Yep, there’s a growing global community of professional mermaids. Some teach ‘mermaiding’ – which is swimming with a fake fish tail and is increasingly popular with children despite its difficulty. Other full- t i me mermaids i nclude models. There’s even a British hire- a- mermaid agency. Fun fact: reality star Katie Price’s granny used to pose as a topless mermaid in a tank on Hastings Pier – until she was sacked for smoking, destroying the illusion of being underwater.
So ‘mermaiding’ isn’t as odd as it first seems?
More extreme are those women who identify as ‘mer-people’ and fully embrace the lifestyle. Biology graduate Caitlin Nielsen, 35, from Seattle, gave up a proper job five years ago to live as a mermaid. ‘I was born with a terrible birth defect – legs,’ she complained. In California (where else?) there are mermaid conventions while in London, mer-people meet up to display t heir outfits and sell t heir, erm, merm-orabilia.
What odd fish!
You might have seen self- styled ‘ mermaid whisperer’ Karen Kay recently on ITV’s This Morning. When she claimed she could speak with the creatures in the sea near her Cornwall home, presenter Holly Willoughby struggled to contain her giggles…
So where does the idea of mermaids come from?
Half-fish, half-human figures feature in folklore around the world, and were first depicted in Babylonian art 4,000 years ago. Durham Castle has an 11th Century image of a mermaid, and Christopher Columbus spotted three in the Caribbean in 1493. He reported that they were not as beautiful as he’d been led to believe – which suggests what he actually saw were manatees, the ‘sea cows’.
Has it been a good week to be a professional mermaid?
Not for 28- year- old Grace Page, from Reading, Berkshire, who was devastated to learn that after reports of a 13th sign of the zodiac, she’s is no longer the water sign Scorpio. She said: ‘It feels like something has been taken away from me. I’ve always been happy to be a Scorpio. It’s a very sensual and sexy sign.’