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?

I don’t care if it’s FOR Mary or OF Mary - but bug ugly and looks like a smelting accident in the college workshop and someone has stuck a barbie Ken doll in the top for a laugh...

people can sit and read a book there

Although I don't love it as much as I might I think it's far superior as a public memorial to MW and the thing I think is most appealing is the opportunity to sit next to Mary with a good book.

I agree about the books and the quill in her hand set me thinking about how the life of women "holding the pen" has been in my family. My mother and her mother could not earn a living holding a pen because of their lack of education not that long ago. I have been able to. It was a sobering thought.

I don't care who makes the statue. The committee gave a woman a chance, indeed favoured a woman over a man, and the woman picked came up with this atrocity.

I'm not keen on all women short lists and women only prizes. I've donated £10. I've never read the Vindication etc, etc and I doubt I ever will. I was annoyed by the pusillanimous wittering from the committee trying to defend their choice and the patronising arrogance from Maggi Hambling.

@DidoLamenting

I don't care who makes the statue. The committee gave a woman a chance, indeed favoured a woman over a man, and the woman picked came up with this atrocity.

I'm not keen on all women short lists and women only prizes. I've donated £10. I've never read the Vindication etc, etc and I doubt I ever will. I was annoyed by the pusillanimous wittering from the committee trying to defend their choice and the patronising arrogance from Maggi Hambling.

I found her comments pretty sexist too (no we wouldn't all like to look like that tbh) which is baffling in terms of messaging when you're launching a memorial to a national female icon.

Feminist icon

Leaving aside the poor judgment of a tiny naked woman representing a feminist icon and writer of books.

I was also pretty taken aback to be told that most woman want to look like that.
I don't and it isn't how most woman look.

Fair enough for the artist to say that was her physical ideal of womanhood but a bit much to insist it is everyone else's.

Julia Long is just fabulous, she just nails it every time doesn't she?

So true about Karl Marx and his willy, and that Mary Woolstonecraft, a philosopher who paved the way for women's rights, has basically just been refused to an anonymous pair of tits and a big muff. It's really pathetic when you think about it isn't it?!

It was Julia Long who questioned Munroe Bergdorf about Desmond is Amazing, and who questioned Lisa Nandy about males in female prisons. She really gives no fucks and gets straight to the core of the matter instantly, I want to see her on mainstream telly more often!

Yes, we have Mary's muff to thank for Julia going on TV. Fantastic PR for women's rights.

(I'm swinging between enjoying the jokes about the thing and being appalled that it's happened)

@thanksgivingchi

Leaving aside the poor judgment of a tiny naked woman representing a feminist icon and writer of books.

I was also pretty taken aback to be told that most woman want to look like that.
I don't and it isn't how most woman look.

Fair enough for the artist to say that was her physical ideal of womanhood but a bit much to insist it is everyone else's.

The artist using this as justification is really pissing me off, I'd like to know if the committee agree with this. In a nutshell make no reference to Mary's words and deeds just reduce her to the artists ideal of a naked female body, that is so anti feminist and against everything Mary stood for. Furthermore, if an artist/sculptor has to explain and justify their work then the whole point of what the work is for is lost.

I presume that if the committee agree with the artist and their justification that Mary and her work is nothing more than an idealised vision of a naked female body then they will be campaigning long and loud for a buff, gym honed, naked version of Mandela, Ghandi, Shakespeare, I mean after all their words and deeds are meaningless when they can be portrayed as having the kind of body all men would like to have.

That’s a really weird statue. It should be called “Who stole my clothes while I was skinny dipping? I’ll kill the bastard.”

Julia Long is just fabulous, she just nails it every time doesn't she?

Thank you Julia 🙏🏼

Pam Ayers (yes I think the real one) on twitter:

Poor Mary Wollstonecraft,
Bare-bottomed, fore and aft,
Would she not prefer to be,
Left in her obscurity.

😂

Oh Bravo Pam

And yes. I'm sure poor Mary M would have preferred obscurity to having anything to do with that statue.

Here's my take on it...

I remember seeing that picture with the facemask cape before I saw any other image and thought it couldn't possibly be a facemask because that would mean the statue was really really tiny. Then I saw more pictures ...

A Poncho for Mary Wollstonecraft (yes it does look like a witches hat that was deliberate...) and all in suffragette colours. Looking for a tall feminist to attach to 'sculpture' - dm me if you can help