A New Take on The Little Mermaid

On authenticity vs. attachment, and the female sacrifice

In 2000, I visited the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen. Unbeknownst to me, it was the year I started to mirror the fate of the Little Mermaid. I was there, newly engaged with a Swedish man I barely knew, and had just moved across the ocean to start a new life which I believed was a happily-ever-after fairy tale. On the surface, he was my blond princ…