Mermaids Are Real… If You Want Them To Be
One of my earliest childhood memoires was singing under the sea and watching Ariel with her long red hair swim with such beauty as a mermaid in ‘The Little Mermaid’ … A mermaid was such a fabulous fantasy, that idea of being both fish and human. It was that fantasy of being a part of both worlds that drew me in.But it seems I’m not alone in my fantasies and Animal Planet has proven this by drawing millions of viewers to their weekly mockumentary “Mermaids: The New Evidence”. The documentary style show plays on this desire to believe by showing science fiction in a unique way that also dabbles with real life stories and theories, leading some to question the mythical creatures’ non-existence.Mermaids were first seen depicted in cave paintings some 30,000 years. They have long been a popular icon of fantasy told in tales, seen in pictures and portrayed on films. They are in essence an idealized version of humans, majestic and powerful. But the power of their myth is still strong and the new show from Animal Planet proves that we as humans are still so curious about the mysterious world of the ocean.The show despite its disclaimers caused quite a stir on social media as the world began to debate the existence of mermaids. ‘Common White Girl’ wrote, “90% of the ocean is undiscovered and you’re telling me mermaids don’t exist”. David Shiffman on the other side of the twitter argument put it quite simply by tweeting “It’s completely fake”.Like the unicorn, the leprechaun and even the loch ness monster- mermaids will remain a mythical creature until evidence proves otherwise. People will however continue to argue their cases based on their own beliefs and experiences. Personally I still like to believe that there is more to this world then what we see at face value.So if you want to believe in mermaids, I say more power to you… Because don’t we all want to be a part of that underwater world?