Statue to honour Wollstonecraft

[MedusasBadHairDay]

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?

Resisting

Pic

If I lived in the area, I’d be campaigning to get it removed.

I bet there’s great artists out there who could craft a proper tribute.

The statue is very disappointing. I felt deflated when I saw the photo. I would like to see a fully clothed statue of Mary Wollstonecraft - that would be fitting and serious. Not another image of a naked woman to denote female empowerment.

That Julia Long pic (thank you for providing scale!) makes me think the surgical mask as cape thing IS real. The womanoid perched aloft is absolutely minuscule. How bizarre this statue is..

It’s so teeny and high up. You can’t even see Barbie.

I was perplexed and disappointed when I saw this design. Who exactly thought this was appropriate and necessary? It's the most extraordinary fuck up.

Thanks for sharing @littlbrowndog
Made me smile.
I looked up the person who took Emmeline's off her...trans female artist who seems to pose with handcuffs and in fishnets a lot, judging by their Instagram.

I'd buy that nudity was 'essential' or whatever if it had been a pregnant 38 year old (i.e. not the typical sexualised image) - perhaps bending over with the pain of the contractions and the childbirth that would kill her.

Most women don't look like that statue.

But obviously a naked female form actually representing women's biology and lives wouldn't appeal to men as much as the body of a perfect teenager, so.

The tits are more sharply defined than the face and very bouncy...

I was so in love with the book when I was thirteen. The message I took from it had nothing to do with her being the first clearly molded naked hottie clawing her way up and out of a blob of fuzzy womanhood. For me it was that girls are fully human, too, and deserve to be treated as such.

And nudity does not have the same interpretation for women's bodies as it might have for men's bodies because female bodies in the public sphere often are naked and displayed as commercial goods. There's no great freedom in that though obviously I am aware of the argument that it is empowering to own one's objectification and the power to titillate.

Not another image of a naked woman to denote female empowerment.

It's not just a naked female it's a very, very narrow type of naked female. A teenage female body. Most females don't look like this, certainly not after they've had children or after about 35. We're sold the idea we 'should' look like this and should waste as much of our time as possible trying to change bodies that don't look like this to get closer to the ideal. It's a waste of our time and energy.

When is actual real female biology going to be represented?

In all the 'art', how much of it represents women who've had kids and are over 38 (the age at which Wollstonecraft died, as a result of childbirth).

Isn't it absolutely astonishing that with all the many, many ages and stages and types of female nudity to choose from, artists keep choosing the perfect male ideal of a female teenage body over and over and over again.

Rather than, say, the postpartum woman, or one with lopsided boobs. Or the slightly fat 40 something women who's had two c-sections and stretch marks. Or the 70 year old grandmother.

Truly a mystery.

Or not.

Or the woman with endometriosis curled up in agony during her period.

I could go on.

I've found a model for future male statues. It seems to have scope for genital modifications to be fitted if a massive bush is more appropriate.

www.aaandj.com/vintage-early-1960s-mattel-barbies-boyfriend-ken-doll-nude-with-original-box/

Let's start crowd funding now and we can vote on suitable candidates for such a great honour.

@IloveJKRowling

I'd buy that nudity was 'essential' or whatever if it had been a pregnant 38 year old (i.e. not the typical sexualised image) - perhaps bending over with the pain of the contractions and the childbirth that would kill her.

Most women don't look like that statue.

But obviously a naked female form actually representing women's biology and lives wouldn't appeal to men as much as the body of a perfect teenager, so.

When is actual real female biology going to be represented?

'Alison Lapper Pregnant' on the 4th plinth. As far removed from the tiny, 'ideal', but useless figurine as I can imagine.

If I'd donated to the fund, I'd be most unimpressed.
I did, and I am most unimpressed. Fucking fuming actually.

The comment about ‘that’s what we all want to look like’ is what is making me most mad, actually. The art world being so out of touch with how the public want to commemorate women who have contributed to our society is kinda understandable, although they need to work on that. But saying that everyone wants to look like that? Fuck off, no we bloody don’t!!!

Alison Lapper Pregnant is a million miles away from this, and was a brilliant statue, proper public art, challenging stereotypes, making us think, starting conversations that need to be had. Even more poignant now in retrospect, very sadly her son died. This......this is not starting conversations about what is should be. It’s starting conversations about how out of touch and up themselves the people who think this is ok are.

Great pictures littlebrowndog

Thanks for sharing.

I've been so focused on the nudity I think I'd failed to notice the choice of quote too, "I do not wish women to have power over men, but over themselves."
Of all the quotes they could have used (it's not like there's a whole book of them or anything) they picked one that feels more like a way of pacifying men's concerns?

Haven't read the whole thread but am I the only one to think that the statue's pubes look a little -- well, knobbish? Like a blob planted there?

I've never seen a naked women with such um bulky pubes. Especially so in this full frontal image. twitter.com/DanaSchwartzzz/status/1326318289488732160

Now going back to page 4 to catch up.

Oh, yes malahaha.

@TinselAngel

Why does her vulva look like a monkey's bum? (That's a sentence I've never typed before).

Yes, thank you. Or as if there is a balloon of froth coming out of it?

The tiny size of the statue makes me wonder whether this was some kind of Spinal Tap-style cockup, where she was given the measurements in inches rather than feet.

@Cwenthryth

If I'd donated to the fund, I'd be most unimpressed. I did, and I am most unimpressed. Fucking fuming actually.

have you contacted the organisers?

@FlaviaAlbiaWantsLangClegBack

That's such a disappointment.

I read a quote from the artist pouring scorn on the idea of Victorian statues of men on a plinth. Those statues are all about the men and not the artist though, this is more of a giant ego trip for the artist than anything relevant to Mary Wollstonecraft or her life.

So much of art these days is about the ego of the artist. I've noticed this for a long time. And imo it makes for inferior art. Many of the great masters of the past, whether complsers, visual artists, architects, created their work for the glory of God. Even if you don't believe in God, the idea behind it is of Art being a creative impulse bigger than your own tine ego -- something that will live on.