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| Matelot Beguiled |
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| Sailors Orders |
I've posted quite a lot of mermen images at this blog, and many of them are preoccupied with what mermen look like. In folklore, though, mermen are more than just biological oddities. They are, by necessity, the sirens of the gay persuasion (since women have always been verboten in ships). They existed to lure sailors onto their rocks with powers of persuasion which are left largely to the imagination to this very day.
Hats off to AI then for coming up with this contrasting pair, although they are largely viewed through the (mainly, straight) prism of AI. It's produced a disconcerting combination of muscularity and boyish/classical faces with a slightly feminine cast that's not dispelled by their seduction techniques.
What great men, though, playing the role of sailors.
There's an interesting difference in seduction approaches. No 1 goes for teasing, whilst projecting femininity with flowers in the hair. This is likely to confuse the average sailor who likes his love interest to be one thing or the other, and for whom old-fashioned romance like this is a bit 'niche'. Especially for those men in 'reserved' (i.e. butch) occupations, like mariners.
I'm not sure many gay men would fall for the Marlene Dietrich technique of No 2 either. Although they usually appreciate a good Dom's sternness, they expect to be compensated with a bash at the very thing these creatures haven't got. Fishiness doesn't really help in this department either.
The lack of historical documentation of merman seduction may be because gay men don't have the same barriers to intercourse as straight men. If the first port of call is proving difficult, they just go back to their shipmates, the ones who lack the same powers of attraction, or these days they can go on Grindr (or whatever the principal on-line knocking-shop is when you read this). That applies doubly for sailors who have the benefit of shipmates all too willing to live up to the promiscuous stereotype and go foraging, en-masse, in foreign climes. You didn't thing 'a girl in every port' was a literal, uni-gender truth, did you?
Images by RomanAI
