5. Ariel - Compulsive Hoarding And Xenomelia
The teenage mermaid, Ariel, inspired a generation of kids to risk near-drowning try to swim like a mermaid, but it would seem that Ariel was fighting her own battles. Compulsive hoarders generally have difficulty parting with possessions that might seem to others to be inherently worthless. Ariel has a large collection of objects that are of seemingly little use to her, and yet she continues to accumulate them, even to the point of hoarding multiple duplicates of the same objects (e.g. 20 identical thingamabobs). The collection appears to an outsider to be chaotic, disordered and cluttered, yet Ariel appears to have a spot for each item. She also conceals her collection from others for fear that they wouldn't "understand" and socially distances herself from her peers. As compulsive hoarding is often associated with further psychological disorders, we should also consider a link with body dysphoria and even Xenomelia - a non-acceptance of one's own body parts, and the desire for them to be removed. Ariel rejects her mermaid identity and subsequently the physical characteristics that make her such. She has a desire to remove her tail, a psychical feature that is arguably essential to her current day-to-day life, and even replace it with a different body part (legs). She views this as essential to her future happiness. The compulsive hoarding is likely an expression of her frustration with her identity as the items that are hoarded are associated with the world she so desires to inhabit.