Posted In: comic
Hey, it’s kid Jenny! What’s she up to?
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Don’t be mean to our Jenny!
Ouch. Wait, legs? But I thought she prefers tentacles?
Something changed.
I don’t remember the tentacles thing.
https://modestmedusa.com/comic/mermaid-magic/
Tentacles have fallen out of fashion; the new hotness are consentacles…
Ouch. What a dick.
I mean, racism is a thing, especially when one race (her’s) constantly attacking everyone …
In his place i could have thought “maybe she is a spy or something, even if she is just a child”.
:'(
The people who feel sorry clearly don’t know what Mermaids eat in real world lore.
Hint: it’s not kelp
Sure, but real world Mermaid lore doesn’t have much to do with this comic. I think most readers know that even though Jenny grows up to be a jerk she isn’t eating people.
Huh, I could have sworn that you said something along the lines of them needing to attract specifically men.
I may have? Who knows? What I meant in the comment you’re responding to is that the Mermaids (and other creatures) of Yeld don’t really have a lot in common with their fantasy counterparts our world is familiar with. Or maybe a better way to say that is a Jenny and other Mermaids aren’t going to nessicarily behave like mermaids from stories we know. They live in water and have fish tails, but the Mermaids of Yeld are more like Captain America style generically altered super soldiers that have been sent off to capture and occupy a foreign land then the Little Mermaid.
The Mermaids are specifically designed and instructed to have children with the people of Yeld to create more Mermaids though. So that’s where the “attracting men” thing comes from. And of course thats just the soldiers. A lot of Mermaids deserted, or were born in Yeld and have no interest in making war for the Deep. And don’t feel a drive to reproduce to create more soldiers. Jenny is one of those Mermaids.
Raw fish? Stinky breath?
I really suspect that the cannibalism thing is not part of “original mermaid lore”, I’m pretty sure that it came later as part of black comedy, primarily as an explanation for siren behavior, who were originally bird women anyway. Although do be fair, I think that the sea nymphs in the odyssey had similar powers.
Who knows? Probably what we know of as “mermaid lore” comes from lots of different sources with their own history.
This whole situation that the mermaids are in really both sucks and blows, it’s a shame that they can’t just join up with an all male race like dwarves or centaurs that’s in a similar situation and flourish together, all female races are dominant in popularity, plus I get the vibe that they aren’t the sort of thing that Jake would put in his setting, but I think that making dragons all male as an explanation for the kidnapping damsels trope would be pretty clever. On a half related note, I recently stumbled across a setting with all male dwarves, but it was actually pretty child unfriendly in contrast to this, so it’s best not even to say it by name.
I was interested in the all male/all female trope, so Fairies and Mermaids are my answer to that. So often the all female race in fantasy/sci-fi is just there to be attractive babes for the setting. That’s certainly an aspect to our Mermaids (they’re all very attractive) but I wanted that to be a weaponized feature as part of their role as pioneers and soldiers. Which is pretty terrifying, I think. on the flip side, Fairies are “all male”, except none of them are actually male at all. Thats just a trait projected onto them by other races of Yeld. They’re in fact a mono-sex race.
I an intrigued, which setting do you mean?
A bit heavy-handed, don’t you think? :/
What do you mean?
I think I get it. I mean, does the world really need another racism sorry in 2022? I know it’s still a thing, and it sucks, but it isn’t always so blatant. And it’s hard to do a modern racism story (or sexism/female empowerment, for that matter) without it feeling forced and insincere.
I disagree completely.
To elaborate, I encounter racism and other forms of bigotry on a regular basis. Most people in my life do too. When I was teaching I had to deal with bigotry directed at students, their parents, my co-workers and sometimes myself on a near daily basis. You’re right that bigotry isn’t always blatant. Sometimes its subtle, which can be even more insidious. But often it is blatant.
Are stories addressing bigotry still relevant and nessacary? Yes. I mean, bigotry hasn’t gone away. At least in my country its alive and proud (and that seems to be the case in most parts of the world). Maybe this isn’t something you have to deal with on a regular basis (or maybe it is an you have your own ways of dealing with it)? Not everyone has to, thankfully. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t prevalent. Until bigotry is a thing of the past stories like this will still be nessacary. The point is to reassure people that bigotry is not normal and remind bigots (and people who have fallen under the sway of bigotry because it has been normalized) that their behavior is unacceptable. I think this is worthwhile even in small ways like this strip.
Additionally, this isn’t just a story about bigotry for the sake of addressing bigotry. Its part of Jenny’s history and a major reason she is the way she is. Everyone is shaped by their experiences, and this is part of what shaped Jenny.