Gay little mermaid

In an era when queerness was so outcast, "The Little Mermaid" represents Andersen's frustrations and desires in a metaphorical fantasy. He was lonely, longing for a world he didn't belong to and a love he couldn't have, and just wanting to feel like everyone else.

Expressing Queer Identity Through "The Little Mermaid”

Leah Rachel von Essen reviews genre-bending fiction for Booklist , and writes regularly as a senior contributor at Book Riot. Her blog While Reading and Walking has over 10, dedicated followers over several social media outlets, including Instagram. She writes passionately about books in translation, chronic illness and bias in healthcare, queer books, twisty SFF, and magical realism and folklore.

Queerness, Hans Christian Andersen, and The Little Mermaid

Updated July 1, Reviewed by Gary Drevitch. I identify as a Latinx, Gender Queer person living with a disability. Those are only some of my intersections, among many others. At 4 years old, I knew the ability to transform her fins for feet felt familiar and yet also dissonant.

Born in Odense, Denmark on April 2, , Hans Christian Andersen was born into a poor working-class family, with a washerwoman as his mother. However, fueled by an active imagination and aspirations of social elevation, Andersen left his home at the age of 14 to travel to Copenhagen in the hopes of finding success as a performer on stage.