It’s All Bullshit

I have issues with the “Fearless Girl” statue. It was erected the day before the Women’s March, presumably as symbol of the defiance to the Pussy-Grabber-In-Chief that all us gals could rally ’round. So I was puzzled by the choice to use a child as totem, as everyone knows that men tend to be OK with “girl power” so long as it’s their daughter benefiting but seem increasingly less comfortable with it when women in general benefit. The little girl also reads as White to me. Is there any particular reason she had to be White? No, of course not. But women, big and little, Black and White, Latina and Asian were just supposed to say blithely “She is I.” Well…bleh.

Listen, it’s a gorgeous sculpture, evocative and finely-wrought. But…*sigh.” She coulda been something so much more than just a nettle in the charging bull’s ass.

And here’s the thing: the artist has a point. “Fearless Girl” completely re-contextualizes the charging bull. What he doesn’t understand, though, is that she makes his piece so much better, bigger, even, in a way. Separate, the two pieces are incredibly impressive works of art. Together, there’s an emotional resonance that simply wasn’t there before. I dig the two pieces in concert. But I’m disheartened by Mr. Di Modica’s objections and by some of the choices Ms. Visbal made.