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Statue to honour Wollstonecraft

719 replies

MedusasBadHairDay · 10/11/2020 01:08

www.theguardian.com/books/2020/nov/10/mary-wollstonecraft-finally-honoured-with-statue-after-200-years

It's a naked woman..

Currently reading A Vindication of the Rights of Woman for an OU course, and - unless the tone changes dramatically in the second half of it - I'm not seeing how an idealised nude is the right statue to convey anything about her?

OP posts:
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ArabellaScott · 10/11/2020 14:50

I like that you're knitti g her a cloak, catspaw. Feminists- please #sendmaryclothing

RuffleCrow · 10/11/2020 14:42

It's not just a naked woman, is a tiny, grumpy naked woman! Which is exactly how the patriarchy views us!

Call me unreasonable but I was actually expecting the statue to be of Mary Wollstonecraft?! Is that asking too much?!

terryleather · 10/11/2020 14:41

I'm old enough to remember Maggi Hambling as one of the team captains on Gallery, which I loved - a quiz about art that Channel 4 showed when it first started broadcasting in the 80s alongside George Melly as the host. For anyone interested here's a link to an episode I found on youTube, with Joanna Lumley as one of the guests.

I don't think I'd ever seen a woman like her before - hugely knowledgeable, unsmiling, wearing a suit and smoking like a lum - I thought she was magnificent...in fact I'm looking at a photo of her now stuck on my pinboard but sadly I have to agree that this sculpture is not what you'd want to honour Mary Wollstonecraft.

Seems like a lost opportunity to me.

fatblackcatspaw · 10/11/2020 14:36

@chicklingpixies

I just went to see it and it’s also TINY. And rather than having a nice bench or steps or seating area to sit and contemplate the quote (or for the school kids of the Newington Green School which is on the site of the girls only school Wollstonecraft founded) it has been plonked right next to the massive puddle which always appears as soon as it rains. Jeremy Corbyn was there, too. I didn’t pluck up the courage to ask him what a woman is.
Can I ask for rough estimates of size like is the weird mary about the size of a sindy doll? and how big is the thing she's standing on? I am trying to knit her a feminist cloak but its really hard juding sizes from the photographs online.
NeurotrashWarrior · 10/11/2020 14:33

I will tell you another thing Maggie Hambling did not sculpt this, some anonymous minion did her bidding. She is 75 not physically strong enough to do this herself. It was her concept carried out by others.

Artists have done that for centuries. Most of the great masters were not painted by the artist themselves.

ArabellaScott · 10/11/2020 14:30

Okay. Am buying AVOTROW and reading as a corrective.

fatblackcatspaw · 10/11/2020 14:26

patons Dame Fiona Woolf
Shami Chakrabarti
Jude Kelly
and it looks like Bee Rowlatt are prime movers Shami June and Bee are on twitter

Butterer · 10/11/2020 14:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BreatheAndFocus · 10/11/2020 14:23

Very disappointing. I look at that statue and all I think is “Tits”. The overall concept is ok but why on earth couldn’t she have had some clothes on?

I heard the interview on the radio this morning about how clothes dictate something to the wearer of them (I don’t remember the exact phrase) but she, Everywoman, could easily have had some neutral plain clothing.

It would have been a thousand times better.

Original poster
MedusasBadHairDay · 10/11/2020 14:23

@HecatesCats

MH explanation in the standard:

"As far as I know, she's the shape we'd all like to be"

I, I don't know what to say...

Pretty certain Wollstonecraft would have something to say about that, and I suspect it wouldn't be in agreement with the artist
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NeurotrashWarrior · 10/11/2020 14:19

@Butterer

This is a monument to Maggie Hamblin not Mary Wollstonecraft Nailed it

On that score I wonder if voters felt they couldn't vote for the male entrant despite his being more appropriate?

SapphosRock · 10/11/2020 14:18

Fucking hell the irony!

Also agree with Pumper.

Thecazelets · 10/11/2020 14:16

I agree Pumper.

Pumperthepumper · 10/11/2020 14:15

I’m being a bit pathetic today but I actually find it really upsetting. All the millions of ways they could have celebrated her and instead, as always, generic woman with boobs out. Just feels like such a fucking insult.

HecatesCats · 10/11/2020 14:11

@ArabellaScott

I apologise for that, above, I don't mean to swear at anyone. Sad
Been swearing about it all morning
Butterer · 10/11/2020 14:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Annasgirl · 10/11/2020 14:09

@Antibles

FFS. Would there be a statue of John Stuart Mill being 'born anew' in the buff?

If Mary Wollstonecraft, famous for her writing, had power over her statued form a couple of centuries on, I reckon she'd want clothes on it Hmm. As I would mine (for all my insightful feminist expositions, natch).

From that article: “I hope the piece will act as a metaphor for the challenges women still face as we confront the world.”

Well I suppose it does inasmuch as women still struggle to be recognised for their achievements but are often still reduced to tits and ass.

@Antibles, oh such eloquence, this is just what I came on to say.
ArabellaScott · 10/11/2020 14:09

I apologise for that, above, I don't mean to swear at anyone. Sad

justasking111 · 10/11/2020 14:08

I will tell you another thing Maggie Hambling did not sculpt this, some anonymous minion did her bidding. She is 75 not physically strong enough to do this herself. It was her concept carried out by others.

ArabellaScott · 10/11/2020 14:06

Oh, fuck off, Maggi. Come ON.

Thecazelets · 10/11/2020 14:06

FFS

Butterer · 10/11/2020 14:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

HecatesCats · 10/11/2020 14:04

MH explanation in the standard:

"As far as I know, she's the shape we'd all like to be"

I, I don't know what to say...

Statue to honour Wollstonecraft
ArabellaScott · 10/11/2020 13:55

www.hackneycitizen.co.uk/2020/11/09/mary-wollstonecraft-sculpture-unveiled-decade-long-campaign/?fbclid=IwAR1yK5wclyPwSIAoQaUJIF6ThVTyonlrI1WWoQ0aFPxlMbwtfYGIDZyPMQ8

This article shows the full length sculpture. It's not quite so much fanny-in-your-face, but it's still a bit odd, I think. I also prefer the maquette (presumably?) shown in the top image - softer and less Tamara De Lempicka -esque.

Thecazelets · 10/11/2020 13:50

I'm so cross and disappointed about this on so many levels. My teenage dd knows more about politics and the history of feminism than I do these days, so we won't be making a little trip to have a look, but a few years ago it would have been the kind of thing we might have done. The idea that one of the very few statues of notable women in London is yet again all about the tits enrages me. What message does that send out to women and girls? Quite apart from the fact that it's tiny and faintly comical.

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