# Gasp, Fearless Girl statue in NY latest social media outrage. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 12, 2017, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gasp-fearless-girl-statue-in-ny-latest-social-media-outrage/782006 "2017-03-12T18:10:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gasp-fearless-girl-statue-in-ny-latest-social-media-outrage/782006/21 "2017-03-13T00:08:12Z")
> [@Corry\_El](#): > > The other factor which didn’t used to enter is as much is that masses of people have now heard of this, which wouldn’t have been the case even relatively recently. > > Guy is obviously a complete ass, was very drunk or some combination. But on with life, for me. Why should it make so much more difference to me now than if it happened ten years ago, which it certainly could have, and I’d never heard of it? Note, I would not have the same attitude toward some hypothetical famine that killed millions but the media wasn’t interested in covering so I somehow never heard of it, or even rape of one real person. This is drunken shenanigans by a douche. > > And I go from indifference to opposition to the cyber mob when they start with stuff about ‘this is the problem with Wall Street’ or ‘men’, either or both of which may have systematic problems, but again this is one d’bag. > > Not talking about responses here particularly BTW, but ones I’ve seen on social media: the constant contest to see who can be most outraged and take out the most ridiculously over broad brush in reaction to everything. I agree. It’s the overblown social media response that I was reacting too. There’s no indication this was anything more than drunken and immature behavior. The image depicted wasn’t a factor. Imho A statue of Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck would have suffered similar mistreatments. Any small statue that can be climbed or mounted probably will be. Either by kids or immature adults. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gasp-fearless-girl-statue-in-ny-latest-social-media-outrage/782006/22 "2017-03-13T00:18:02Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I agree. It’s the overblown social media response that I was reacting too. > > There’s no indication this was anything more than drunken and immature behavior. The image depicted wasn’t a factor. Imho > > A statue of Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck would have suffered similar mistreatments. Any small statue that can be climbed or mounted probably will be. Either by kids or immature adults. But the publicized point of this statue was about feminism and bringing up the next generation of girls to stand up to male dominated society. Doing what he did to this particular statue at this moment in time, is what made this act noteworthy. Don’t you get it? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gasp-fearless-girl-statue-in-ny-latest-social-media-outrage/782006/23 "2017-03-13T00:23:40Z")
I didn’t see it as a planned thing. It’s more of a impulsive act. If it was meant as a political statement against the statue’s meaning than that is troubling. People are interacting with the art in positive ways. It is a nicely composed piece. [https://goo.gl/images/BevrKz](https://goo.gl/images/BevrKz) ---
**Author:** ![raventhief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raventhief/32/4_2.png) [@raventhief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raventhief)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gasp-fearless-girl-statue-in-ny-latest-social-media-outrage/782006/24 "2017-03-13T00:30:32Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I didn’t see it as a planned thing. It’s more of a impulsive act. > > If it was meant as a political statement against the statue’s meaning than that is troubling. > > People are interacting with the art in positive ways. It is a nicely composed piece. > [https://goo.gl/images/BevrKz](https://goo.gl/images/BevrKz) It didn’t need to be planned to be a statement. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gasp-fearless-girl-statue-in-ny-latest-social-media-outrage/782006/25 "2017-03-13T00:32:21Z")
This angle shows the girl facing down the bull. I like how the artist incorporated the Fearless girl into the existing artwork. [![](https://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://pmchollywoodlife.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/fearless-girl-statue-lead.jpg?w%3D600&imgrefurl=http://hollywoodlife.com/2017/03/08/wall-street-fearless-girl-statue-international-womens-day-strike-pics/&docid=0tZGEtCaaCAtfM&tbnid=UjlQObBhw2VwBM:&vet=1&w=600&h=900&source=sh/x/im) ](https://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://pmchollywoodlife.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/fearless-girl-statue-lead.jpg?w%3D600&imgrefurl=http://hollywoodlife.com/2017/03/08/wall-street-fearless-girl-statue-international-womens-day-strike-pics/&docid=0tZGEtCaaCAtfM&tbnid=UjlQObBhw2VwBM:&vet=1&w=600&h=900&source=sh/x/im) ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gasp-fearless-girl-statue-in-ny-latest-social-media-outrage/782006/26 "2017-03-13T00:46:47Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I didn’t see it as a planned thing. It’s more of a impulsive act. > > If it was meant as a political statement against the statue’s meaning than that is troubling. > > People are interacting with the art in positive ways. It is a nicely composed piece. > [https://goo.gl/images/BevrKz](https://goo.gl/images/BevrKz) I doubt it was a planned thing. But it HIGHLIGHTS the problems the statue was trying to speak to. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gasp-fearless-girl-statue-in-ny-latest-social-media-outrage/782006/27 "2017-03-13T01:00:02Z")
The problem is that impulses come from somewhere. Fucking something–penetrating it–has always been a symbolic way to show contempt. And contempt is satisfying: It’s like the military websites where naked pictures of female solders are shared so that thousands of people can imagine themselves penetrating them. It’s not like these guys have a shortage of naked lady pictures and they needed these–the sense of fucking something that needs to be put in it’s place adds a thrill. Fucking this statue of a little girl is the same thing. He could have humped the bull. But he humped the girl, instead. It was a literal “fuck you” to women who think they have a right to be in what has always been a male-dominated space. And that’s why women are upset to see it: not because everyone is looking for 15-seconds of recreational outrage, but because it’s a reminder that whenever we move in the world, there’s a significant number of men who hold us in contempt, and who glory in showing that contempt. We know that expressions of that contempt are not shared by all men, but that most will overlook it, dismissing it as boorish behavior, but not as the sort of thing they should stop, or disassociate themselves from. Before cellphone cameras and twitter and youtube comments, so much of that was hidden: women really didn’t know, I think. I didn’t. But now we do, and it’s appalling. So you dismissing it as the sort of thing that happens all the time doesn’t help. It needs to stop happening. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gasp-fearless-girl-statue-in-ny-latest-social-media-outrage/782006/28 "2017-03-13T01:23:32Z")
If they put a protective barrier of some kind around her to prevent people mocking the statue that will be a larger statement than anything the statues are conveying. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gasp-fearless-girl-statue-in-ny-latest-social-media-outrage/782006/29 "2017-03-13T01:25:04Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I agree. It’s the overblown social media response that I was reacting too. And that’s where you went wrong. You acknowledge that it was “inappropriate”. So why are you surprised that some people are offended? And why are you more upset by the offense than by the act which caused that offense? Nobody is suggesting the guy should be lynched. Nobody is suggested the guy should be arrested. Nobody is even suggesting we need a Constitutional Amendment to ban statue molesting. These responses would be overreacting. But the guy acted like an asshole and he deserves to be treating like he’s an asshole. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gasp-fearless-girl-statue-in-ny-latest-social-media-outrage/782006/30 "2017-03-13T01:45:39Z")
There is a weary sense of “what did you expect” around all this. There is the artistic decision to assemble a scenario where the poor bull who was previously just a symbol of a robust financial market is now loaded down with the cultural baggage of being challenged, opposed or defied by an avatar of the female spirit. So now poor financial Ferdinand is cast as the embodiment of big balled oppressive patriarchy. People have been disrespecting statutes forever and people have been clutching pearls about it forever. On and on. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gasp-fearless-girl-statue-in-ny-latest-social-media-outrage/782006/31 "2017-03-13T01:46:02Z")
If the guy doing the humping truly works on Wall Street, hang him from a lamppost as an object lesson. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gasp-fearless-girl-statue-in-ny-latest-social-media-outrage/782006/32 "2017-03-13T01:47:43Z")
Not to derail the thread, but it’s kind of odd for a feminist message to be a statue standing up to/against a bull that represents economic growth. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gasp-fearless-girl-statue-in-ny-latest-social-media-outrage/782006/33 "2017-03-13T01:50:00Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I agree. It’s the overblown social media response that I was reacting too. > > … By suggesting that the statue be protected by a display case. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gasp-fearless-girl-statue-in-ny-latest-social-media-outrage/782006/34 "2017-03-13T04:52:42Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Not to derail the thread, but it’s kind of odd for a feminist message to be a statue standing up to/against a bull that represents economic growth. Why? The people who put up the statue say that women are not treated equally in the financial industry. So the Financial District seems like an appropriate place to make a protest. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gasp-fearless-girl-statue-in-ny-latest-social-media-outrage/782006/35 "2017-03-13T05:02:10Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Statues get humped all the time. They do? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gasp-fearless-girl-statue-in-ny-latest-social-media-outrage/782006/36 "2017-03-13T05:10:20Z")
A few of these are pretty funny. [https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-motorola&biw=412&bih=322&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=TCnGWIycJ8HdmwGct7OwDA&q=humorous+statues&oq=humorous+statues&gs\_l=mobile-gws-img.3..35i39k1j0i13k1j0i13i30k1l2j0i8i13i30k1.10737.13110.0.16711.4.4.0.0.0.0.228.579.0j2j1.3.0....0...1c.1j4.64.mobile-gws-img..1.3.578...0j0i30k1j0i8i30k1j0i10i24k1.uhZhtWIOf2A#imgrc=\_](https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-motorola&biw=412&bih=322&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=TCnGWIycJ8HdmwGct7OwDA&q=humorous+statues&oq=humorous+statues&gs_l=mobile-gws-img.3..35i39k1j0i13k1j0i13i30k1l2j0i8i13i30k1.10737.13110.0.16711.4.4.0.0.0.0.228.579.0j2j1.3.0....0...1c.1j4.64.mobile-gws-img..1.3.578...0j0i30k1j0i8i30k1j0i10i24k1.uhZhtWIOf2A#imgrc=_) ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gasp-fearless-girl-statue-in-ny-latest-social-media-outrage/782006/37 "2017-03-13T05:26:44Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > I’m not worried about any sanctity of the statue, but I sure wouldn’t want to be friends with anyone who thought a “joke” was pretending to grind his dick on little girls. Let me guess–it was one of the Trump sons. (Not poor little Barron–one of the two douches.) ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gasp-fearless-girl-statue-in-ny-latest-social-media-outrage/782006/38 "2017-03-13T05:42:57Z")
There’s a reason statues used to be put up on pedestals. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gasp-fearless-girl-statue-in-ny-latest-social-media-outrage/782006/39 "2017-03-13T05:50:25Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > There’s a reason statues used to be put up on pedestals. Go home! This wins the thread! ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gasp-fearless-girl-statue-in-ny-latest-social-media-outrage/782006/40 "2017-03-13T06:17:20Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > There’s a reason statues used to be put up on pedestals. Some day her plinth will come. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gasp-fearless-girl-statue-in-ny-latest-social-media-outrage/782006.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gasp-fearless-girl-statue-in-ny-latest-social-media-outrage/782006.md?page=3)