模倣子 chubby mermaids

 Memetic Essay Index 

Thanks for this. Mermaid stuff is always good. A lot to unpack here. 

The dark bit may be that the well-insulated mermaids as depicted are considered non-skinny 🧜‍♀️ ie, walrus-like, compared to the emaciated “normal” one (Ariel from Disney). In fact, they are not “fat” (read “obese”), just not emaciated.

From a comedic deconstruction standpoint, the joke could work backwards as well. 

1. Skinny mermaids 🧜‍♀️ are dumb

2. They freeze 🥶 to death ☠️ 

3. Chubby mermaids survive

4. They are normal

5. Kind of like walruses and other arctic 🐻‍❄️ animals

6. But chubby mermaids are nowhere near as chubby as walruses 

6.1. (You might have to make the mermaids way fatter for the joke to work)

As opposed to:

1. Chubby mermaids 🧜‍♀️ are WTF

1.1. (Body shaming is acceptable, ha, ha)

2. Normal, familiar (skinny) mermaids 🧜‍♀️ freeze to death ☠️ 🥶 in front of walruses (for contrast)

2.1. They’re dumb, ridiculous

3. Being chubby is kind of okay, practical, in extreme situations 

4. Being a little bit chubby is exactly the same as being a walrus (reënforce bias)

4.1. (Body shaming is okay, and funny)

So it’s an example of how the conservative narrative (chubby is bad) is reënforced by interrogation of established tropes (mermaids v. other sea animals, chubbiness v. blubber, walruses, whales being icons for obesity and also insulation). So the chubby mermaid 🧜‍♀️ is drawn into the orbit of the conservative narrative around chubbiness, further anchoring icons like walruses, whales, blubber, etc. as tools of fat-shaming, and legitimizing them. One legitimization is that it’s maybe okay to be fat in the arctic, but you’re still fat (like a walrus) and if you’re NOT in the arctic, then WTF fatty? Also, the magical attractiveness to do with the skinny mermaid, specifically red-haired Arièl, ie, idealized female beauty is further anchored to icons of frailty, weakness, frivolity, tragic demise, etc. 

Does the joke only work because it opens with body-shaming and making it okay because it’s about mermaids 🧜‍♀️?