Medieval Mermaids and Modern Beauty

Professor Kim Phillips is a historian with a special interest in the history of gender, sexuality, and women in the medieval period. Kim’s latest project delves into women who lived in the Middle Ages and the four iconic archetypal images that surrounded them: mermaids, nursemaids, milkmaids, and hags. She discusses the meanings attached to the female body during that time, and how the ideals of beauty shift in the modern, globalised world that we are in. Read more: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2021/05/13/of-mermaids-and-male-fantasies.html