Paper short abstract:

Mercultures carry knowledge that empowers queer bodies, debunking and exposing the tools of cishet colonial violence. Re-visiting Paul Gilroy's Black Atlantic alongside Philip Hayward's aquapelagic assemblages, provides a pathway for healing and re-imagination for queer and BIPOC bodies.

Paper long abstract:

Looking at historical and contemporary examples of mercultures - in West Africa, Cuba, Newfoundland, and across the Nordic aquapelago - we find numerous references to gender and sexual diversity. The folklore of mermaids, sirens, and other anthropomorphic sea creatures is often framed as warnings to sailors. They remind us of the dangers of the ocean.

By re-visiting Paul Gilroy's Black Atlantic, we re-insert black enslaved bodies into the development of global capitalism and we remind ourselves of the colonial legacies of all sea-fairing nations that circle the North Atlantic. Combining this with Philip Hayward's aquapelagic assemblages, we reframe coastal communities as connected by the ocean, in opposition to terrestrial orientations that encourage narratives of isolation. Together, they empower the ocean as a space beyond colonization.

Using examples from Yoruba mythology such as Yemaya, Olokun, and Erinlé, we will explore how mer-creatures serve to restore pre-colonial understandings of gender and sexual diversity. Looking at examples from Newfoundland, we will show how contemporary mermen help combat hegemonic masculinity and embrace body diversity. Surveying mermaids and mermen across the Nordic aquapelago, we will see how ocean imaginaries help us reconceptualize and recover queer spaces and knowledge, complicating and debunking the gender binary (cis) and deconstructing heteronormativity (het) - a response to cishet colonial violence.