Back before Prince Henry the Navigator came up with his sextant, ships stayed close enough to land when it came to navigation to keep from getting lost. With the sextant, ships could go further out without fear of wandering off into the great unknown never to be seen again.
What had been familiar gave way to new places, new creatures, and, eventually, new people.
Quite often, what was unfamiliar was compared to what was familiar, and when sailors told of things they had seen, they used comparisons to those things with which their audience was familiar. They also assumed some of the new things they saw from a distance were things rumored to exist, and were accepted as such.
In mythology, many cultures had room for strange creatures combining people with animals and attributing the best traits of both to them.
One of the classic sightings of a new creature from a distance encountered by sailors plying new waters in new oceans was the Sirenia, an order of fully aquatic, herbivorous mammals that inhabit rivers, estuaries, coastal marine waters, and marine wetlands that includes manatees and dugongs that stay in the water, and another would be the Pinnipeds, commonly known as seals, which often sun themselves on beaches and rocks and will slide off into the water if approached. Sailors first encountering the latter, could very well have seen them as women. They were the right size, had body types that matched what was considered beauty in those days, and, like the Sirens in the Odyssey, seemed to call out to passing ships. But, they couldn’t verify that as any seen would have been long gone when the sailors got to where what they had been seen had been.
But actual mermaids are works of fiction and are represented in art according to the culture representing them, so an Asian representation would look different from a European one.
Mermaids recently have become a topic of discussion.
Like the introductory phrase “I do not mean to offend anyone” is usually followed by an obviously offensive statement, the phrase “I am no scientist” is usually followed with those saying that offering their opinion on things scientific.
Some use selected Bible verses to bolster opposition to people, things, and ideas, but ignore those that don’t. To these people Homosexuality is unnatural, but a talking serpent in the Garden of Eden affecting all of human history is perfectly fine.
With science, while climate science is a hoax, the earth is flat, and there are no subtle areas when it come to gender because a penis says it all, science is relied on to support other opinions unquestionably.
With Disney casting a woman of color to play Ariel in the live action version of Little Mermaid, the selective, talking serpent accepting crowd is using science to show mermaids have to have white skin.
One person objecting to this decision about an invented character went to the classic argument introduction, “First of all I’m not a racist”, before then announcing a petition to have Disney give justice to Ariel by recasting the actor to have one who looks similar to the real Ariel replace her.
Another opinion that has taken many forms relies on science, and science supports the idea that since mermaids usually swim in deep water they do not need melanin to protect their skin.
To some, because this non-existing creature i Danish, she obviously has to be White.
The fact that no mermaid or merman in the original animation has gills, and none have bubbles coming out of their mouths when they speak or sing, accompanied by a full orchestra, might argue for their need to stay near the surface in order, like whales, to breach to gulp in some air before the next deep dive. But, this would only be a logical argument based on science if there was actually a whole species of creatures that were half human and half fish.
The scientific “proof” would seem to lose a little credibility when you take into consideration that that there is a singing crab whose red coloring would imply he has already been boiled and should be dead, an octopus that is half human and half octopus with purple skin, and a magic shell that prevents Ariel from singing, with the whole plot based on Ariel magically getting legs in order to meet a prince, and all that is simply accepted without argument.
But cartoon skin must follow the laws of science.
Conversely, with Melissa McCarthy being considered to play Ursula will the outrage spill out when, if she takes the role, it will mean a White person is playing a purple one?