Statue to honour Wollstonecraft

Laughing 😂

Well that was a totally missed opportunity 🙄
No one is going to see that statue then be motivated to find out about her work & life.

& yes as PP said this is 100% about memorialising the artist rather than MW.

I was delighted by the thread title but very grumpy now!

How long until there are complaints that the naked figure excludes some women because she has no penis?

I suppose we should be grateful that the "every woman" is at least female.

I know it's weird, but I always feel a bit sorry for naked statues (always female) in our climate!
I live in Aberdeen, and in the town centre there is a statue to some King I used to walk past every day. The king is high above the street on his plinth. At the base of the plinth, there are female figures representing... something. Maybe one of them is Britannia. Some are clothed, but there are also a couple of girls who are naked for some unfathomable reason. In the winter, when it is sleeting or blowing a freezing gale, I walk past those girls and I shiver on their behalf.

I wish they could build a statue of Wollstencraft. Actually OF her, like male writers get.
Not a naked every woman. That particular "every woman" is everywhere in art already.
She is almost always perky, curvy, young, flat stomachs and naked.

Just saw this on twitter and wondered if someone here may have done a thread.

If you're out with your kids and they see a statue of someone, like Wellington, they might ask who he is. Is any child going to ask who the naked lady is? I doubt it, because she's not presented as an important person, she's just a random part of some random piece of art.

Maybe once we've got to the hundredth famous woman honoured in the old boring traditional way, perhaps it will be time to move on to something a bit more artsy and provocative, but given that a regular likeness with plaque still seems pretty popular for men, is it really too much to ask that women are treated the same.

Ffs.

This is a monument to Maggie Hamblin not Mary Wollstonecraft. You could put quotes from anyone on the plinth. As a tribute to her life and work, her actual intellect it is meaningless. It could just as easily represent Eve.

I absolutely loath it. Was there really a public vote on this? Begs the question of who decided to vote, all the MRAs.?

Please can someone local hi and put som clothes on her? A Woman: Adult Female Human hoodie would be nice and cosy

I hate it, I don’t know what else to say right now. I’m going to have to come back to it later and think about it again, it’s making me angry. It’s not so much the nudity for me (although I also have issues with that) as how it diminishes her.

It’s a bit disappointing but I guess the statue isn’t her it’s a metaphor for her beliefs

Why aren't statues of naked men 'metaphors of beliefs'? (David excluded)?

But why naked mercedes. I don’t get that.

We contributed to the fundraiser - the kids with their pocket money and in other times were planning on attending the unveiling. It’s a bit disappointing but I guess the statue isn’t her it’s a metaphor for her beliefs.

so disappointed with this. An 'everywoman' emerging from a formless mass. yet again, not a material or a biological reality. Rather a naked form emerging / reborn out of ideas of 'woman'. Can we not have anything? FFS.

Yes, was shocked at the blob with typical sexual nude on top, reminds me of formula one imagery. I had pictured the statue of Wollstonecroft, in the dress of her time, striding forward or perhaps at her writing desk. Wollstonecroft was a brilliant and original feminist philosopher, this sculpture is a half assed overpriced pisstake.

It's fucking awful.

I love the runner up.

It gives Mary the dignity that she deserves.

Oh bloody hell, really. How disappointing. Famous woman's representation in the public sphere....back to being naked, not groundbreaking in the slightest just boringly repetative.

Miriam Brody did a great piece in Feminist Theorists (1983) edited by Dale Spender, Mary Wollstonecraft: Sexualities and Women's Rights (1759-1797). Brody writes about Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman being a herald for Enlightenment thinking looking for the discovery of truth through reason. Amongst other things Wollstonecraft wrote about the double standard of sexual behaviour in the 18th century that held women to a higher standard than men and was a great advocate for the right of women to be educated seeing it as a tool for improving civic and political emancipation.

Being reduced to a naked 'every woman' has totally missed the great legacy of Mary Wollstonecraft and her writing. What a damn shame. Yes, the statue needs a cardi but it definitely needed a pen.

It’s definitely an idealised nude too, look at those perky breasts and flat tummy.

Didn't catch the name of the man who was talking but he 'explained' that 'clothes define people' and she is 'challenging the world'.
I thought that was Maggie Hamblin talking???

I'd expect an artist of Maggi Hambling's stature to know better. This is so depressing.

I'm all over Butterer's suggestion of knitting her a cardi.