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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?

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WhereYouLeftIt · 15/11/2020 13:07

"Bee Rowlatt's tweet doesn't make sense. What's infantilising about wearing clothes?"
twitter.com/BeeRowlatt/status/1327526914223902725?s=20

She's quoting from the FT article written by Helen Barrett which mentions two recent statues, the one of "suffragist Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square stands plaintively in long skirts" ("firmly costumed in the past") and "Fearless Girl, a 2017 piece of corporate art" ("infantilised").

So the 'infantilised' is about a completely different statue, and not Bee Rowlatt's own words.

Butterer · 15/11/2020 12:57

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Butterer · 15/11/2020 12:57

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IloveJKRowling · 15/11/2020 12:54

I had a dream about taking a sledgehammer to the statue last night. Knocking Barbie doll clean off her perch. I wish that dream could come true.

There is no way I want my daughters seeing this. The message does seem to be if, as a woman, you do something completely remarkable with your mind in your life, you'll still be reduced to a naked body sooner or later.

They say they've got people talking but an awful lot of them are not talking about Wollstonecraft or her work. Just the naked body.

ErrolTheDragon · 15/11/2020 12:32

Bee Rowlatt's tweet doesn't make sense. What's infantilising about wearing clothes?

Indeed - infants are the one demographic in which nakedness is unremarkable.

Butterer · 15/11/2020 12:29

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DidoLamenting · 15/11/2020 12:28

Both sides seem to assume that this is supposed to be a statue OF Wollstonecraft. It's a tiny, generic woman with a carelessly made face, standing on a giant pile of something nasty

From that twitter feed. Very true.

Bee Rowlatt's tweet doesn't make sense. What's infantilising about wearing clothes?

Butterer · 15/11/2020 12:24

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Circusoflove · 15/11/2020 12:13

It’s the least threatening image possible. What’s threatening about Barbie? She’s a woman put firmly in her place.

Prestel · 15/11/2020 11:11

Imnobody4
Well, I'm just baffled by that tweet.
Why do I need to feel "threatened" by a feminist?
Or challenged.
As a woman.
Surely it's men who should feel threatened or challenged, if anyone, and since when did men feel "threatened" by the opportunity to view a perfect female body in the buff?
I don't think anyone feels threatened or challenged by it, just disappointed.

ErrolTheDragon · 15/11/2020 11:05

... 'done so much better'

ErrolTheDragon · 15/11/2020 11:03

I think the 'barbie' looks, if not 'infantilised' then very young and unthreatening. The static, pose with its little arms just hanging there.

Again compare and contrast the Hodgkin! Hanbling could and should have some better.

Imnobody4 · 15/11/2020 10:48

Well I was calming down but have just come across this tweet from Bee Rowlatt, yesterday 14th Nov.

Bee Rowlatt
@BeeRowlatt
"Fury over a new memorial suggests we want feminists firmly costumed in the past or infantilised and unthreatening"
@FinancialTimes

@maryonthegreen

twitter.com/BeeRowlatt/status/1327526914223902725?s=20

DidoLamenting · 14/11/2020 23:03

I don't think it becomes a joke by being dressed, if the dressing carries a message - the AFH shirt, a suffragette poncho or whatever women come up with

Well we will have to disagree there. How many people are even going to notice the significance of either of these items? They are still turning the statue into a dressing up doll. For what it's worth even knowing what the t- shirt is supposed to mean I thought the statue looked even sillier covered up than naked.

nauticant · 14/11/2020 22:27

Maggi Hambling could put her ego to one side and welcome the additions to the statue as being part of its purpose, the artistic intent interacting with the audience.

Not what was intended but it would be a route to a compromise.

ErrolTheDragon · 14/11/2020 21:53

@DidoLamenting

I don't think the crowdfunder will make it's target.

This statue will be a joke. It's going to be permanently dressed up. I don't think the garment or the motives for dressing her matter. It's awful as it is and becomes a joke when it's dressed.

I don't think it becomes a joke by being dressed, if the dressing carries a message - the AFH shirt, a suffragette poncho or whatever women come up with.

Re the t shirt and Observer caption, that seemed spot on for this context - clothing a nude female. Ending the objectification, but with clothing that did not limit, or define her as anything but precisely as a woman.

Maireas · 14/11/2020 21:30

I think they did! Good t-shirt.

bumpertobumper · 14/11/2020 20:43

Was just reading article in the observer with Hambling's reaction to the criticism.
They mentioned that Object had put a t-shirt on her ... I was pleased to see the message on the T-shirt, but am wondering if the photo caption writer, and journalist, deliberately missed the point being made... Hmm
Screenshot attached

Statue to honour Wollstonecraft
DidoLamenting · 14/11/2020 20:31

I don't think the crowdfunder will make it's target.

This statue will be a joke. It's going to be permanently dressed up. I don't think the garment or the motives for dressing her matter. It's awful as it is and becomes a joke when it's dressed.

Maireas · 14/11/2020 20:20

It is classy. Also dignified!

DidoLamenting · 14/11/2020 20:20

@Maireas

Dear lord, NoCureForLove, sooo depressing. Young people as well. Sorry, young "ladies"! It grinds my gears that people think "woman" is an impolite or even offensive term! We're doomed.
Oh don't be so silly. As several posters have said on the thread that you are talking about behind its back - context is all.
RedDogsBeg · 14/11/2020 20:18

That willow sculpture is fabulous, very classy as opposed to the melting tinfoil naked barbie poor Mary got.

Butterer · 14/11/2020 20:14

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littlbrowndog · 14/11/2020 20:11

Skipton Woods I just read.

On a sitv called womensart on twitter

Maireas · 14/11/2020 20:08

That's a great statue, littlbrowndog.
Really strong and clever. Where is it?