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“Fearless Girl” Is Reaping What She Has Sown
In honor of International Women’s Day, Kristen Visbal created a statue called Fearless Girl, an image of a girl, hands on hips, striking a defiant pose. This image was then placed in from of another statue called Charging Bull (the one that represents Wall Street and America’s economic might). Fearless Girl recast Charging Bull as a symbol of misogyny, with the Girl acting as a symbol of “women in leadership.”
About a month ago, I argued that allowing Fearless Girl to permanently alter the meaning of Charging Bull would be wrong. My argument was that the sculptor of Fearless Girl should not be able to high-jack someone else’s art. To illustrate the point, I offered suggestions for additional statues that could be added to the Fearless Girl/Charging Bull scene that would undermine both artists’ intent.
What if…I added a slightly larger-than-life bronze statue called American Soldier next to Fearless Girl, demonstrating, of course, that girls can be fearless in this country only because of burly men who are willing to fight for their rights.
What if…I added a giant matador to the scene and surrounded Fearless Girl with a small group of cheering Spanish spectators. Then, the statue would be about bullfighting, and the little girl would be cast in a bit role as an obnoxious, morally preening American who disapproves of the sport.
What if…I added a lot of people in ancient middle-eastern garb, bowing to the great Bull. This would cast the Bull as the ancient middle eastern idol Baal (who was usually depicted as a bull or a man with a bull’s head). And the girl? She would be cast as an ancient Israelite who refuses to bow before the false god.
Nobody tried any of my specific suggestions, but one artist has made a similar point with his own statue called, Pissing Pug. New York sculptor Alex Gardega placed an ugly, malformed statue of a pug-dog several inches from Fearless Girl’s leg. The mutt’s own hind leg is raised and ready to mark his territory.
If you defended Fearless Girl’s moral right to stay, how can you object to Pissing Pug?
Published in Culture
Excellent.
Hilarious
Your re-contextualizing was brilliant–much better than the pug.
Yes, but imagine the work involved in the matador scene. The Pug gets the point across pretty easily. And the fact that it is ugly and malformed, I assume intentionally, or perhaps that’s just the limit of the artist’s skill.
I read an article that said the sculptor of the bull felt the pug guy used the bull statue as much as the girl used the bull statue. Therefore, the pug guy who likes the bull guy and was trying to be supportive is reconsidering putting out another dog because he wants to be respectful of the first sculptor’s work. The girl statue sculptor doesn’t seem to feel moved in any way by that sort of appeal to artistic integrity, however, as she had no comment.
From what I read the Pug was made ugly on purpose because the artist thought that that putting the girl in front of the bull was lazy, so he would also not put any work into his statue.
Did anyone ask the pug’s opinion? Maybe he’s an art critic.
She’s young enough to have been Mohammed’s first wife.
Pissing Pug is hilarious. Just tonight on Twitter, I saw an image containing a fourth sculpture, that of a woman squatting over the hapless canine, apparently ready to urinate on it. There could be a cast of thousands by the end of sumner!
Given my nom de plume, I strongly support Mr. Gardega’s sculpture (not the “ugly” part, though!). In fact, I would go so far as to point out that what my sculpted brother is doing is taking a “pug shot”!
Trav,
Looks like fearless girl can dish it out but can’t take it. Once the victim gimmick is challenged she doesn’t have much to offer.
Regards,
Jim
Feminists: Dumb as a fire hydrant and too dumb to get out of the way of a charging bull.
Is it feminists or just leadership in general that thinks there’s any upside to getting in the way of a bull market?
My color sense isn’t what it used to be, but I think the dog making the appropriate comment on the little girl’s shoe is a yellow dog. R. Crumb’s lawyers ought to show up shortly to add something to the unfolding and entirely apt for the times metaphor.