Why Can't Mermaids Be Ethnically Diverse?: Legends and Legend-Making in Arthurian Studies

Abstract

Why Can't Mermaids Be Ethnically Diverse?:Legends and Legend-Making in Arthurian Studies Richard Sévère (bio) In Fall 2022, the internet lost its mind at the debut of the trailer for Disney's The Little Mermaid—a remake of the legendary 1989 childhood classic about a mermaid who falls in love with a human man. While some were ecstatic that the talented Black actress, singer, and songwriter, Halle Bailey, would play the lead role of Ariel, others were infuriated, giving rise to such Twitter hashtags as: #NotMyMermaid and #MakeMermaidsWhiteAgain. These attacks confirm the limitless boundaries of hate—unsurprisingly, even fictional fish-people can be fodder for racism and bigotry. Sadly, phantastic underwater civilizations are not the only places or things where cultural inclusion draws the ire of fans. The Star Wars franchise also dealt with a barrage of fanatics who were angered by the character Reva Sevander, played by Black actress Moses Ingram, in Disney+'s Obi-Wan Kenobi. Unmistakably, these reactions are indeed part of a larger pattern Moya Bailey terms misogynoir—the disparaging treatment of Black women, or in Bailey's own words '[t]he anti-Black racist misogyny that Black women experience, particularly in US visual and digital culture.'1 Certainly, these instances of intolerance towards Black female actresses playing traditionally white characters are not new. In 2016, and again in 2018, there was controversy at the casting of South African actress Noma Dumzweni as Hermione in the Broadway adaptation of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Erika Milvy in a Los Angeles Times article points out that '[s]ome Potterheads' heads practically exploded when they first learned that black actress Noma Dumezweni had been cast as Hermione in the original London production of 'Cursed Child' in 2016.'2 While Milvy goes on to mention that, since then, eight more Black actresses have played the role of Hermione, the examples above confirm that not much has changed with regard to how audiences continue to negatively react to Black women playing legendary characters.3 That purported fans have such averse and intolerant reactions towards fictional forms of entertainment is unnerving and outright worrisome. What does it say about us as a society that we can somehow imagine new worlds, beyond our earthly realms, limitless borders that allow for rich and complex [End Page 3] ideas and identities to take shape, worlds so different, heterogenous, and multifaceted, worlds meant to teach, entertain, sooth, challenge, affirm, confirm and excite—and yet within these bold imaginings, we cannot fathom people of color existing beyond the prescriptive parameters that reality has all but guaranteed? Melissa J. Monson's assertion of the fantasy genre that '[t]he intertwining of recognizable cultural histories, epistemologies, and geographies encourage readers (and gamers alike) to suspend disbelief and accept the more fantastical elements of such stories'4 appears to have its limits, particularly for those who believe that people of color cannot—must not—appear in roles that are erroneously perceived as exclusively white. André Carrington astutely notes that 'the creative acts and interpretive structures through which authors, readers, fans, and critics have shaped the genre tradition of speculative fiction draw on the same deep well of thinking about race that influences other segments of cultural production.'5 And thus, this inability to see representations of difference as a humanizing endeavor, even in fantasy, is a grim reality for those who look to fantasy for a glimpse of respite, empowerment, and validation. We must be on alert to the message that fans' reactions are explicitly telling us: fantasy is only accessible for a certain group. Monson's point that 'many fantasy realms have embraced essentialism, cultural allegory, and White supremacy,'6 is one of perhaps many underlying causes for the vitriolic response to inclusion and representation in film and media. The attempt to give power to segregationist fantasy has made it so that equal representation has become a threat to escapist communities—the boogeyman of the fantasy world. Representations of race in modern Arthuriana have also been met with negative reviews. Djimon Hounsou's performance as Bedevere in Guy Ritchie's film, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Kingsley Ben-Adir's role as...