# Is this statue too provocative? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 29, 2023, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-statue-too-provocative/983337 "2023-04-29T03:12:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2023, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-statue-too-provocative/983337/41 "2023-04-29T18:30:26Z")
An excellent thread depicts a lot of AI created imagery, much of which is bizarre. I hesitate to call it “art”, but if it is, why hold people to a higher standard? Breasts are needed to provide nutrients to baby mermaids. If they are spawned from fish eggs, evolutionary embryology suggests a high initial rate of growth. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2023, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-statue-too-provocative/983337/42 "2023-04-29T18:47:41Z")
If mermaids are mammals, and they live birth in water, they’d have to deliver feet first, so the babies don’t drown. And mermaids should really have blowholes, or at least dorsal oriented nostrils. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2023, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-statue-too-provocative/983337/43 "2023-04-29T18:56:07Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > If they are spawned from fish eggs, evolutionary embryology suggests a high initial rate of growth. Some sharks give live birth. As well as male seahorses. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2023, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-statue-too-provocative/983337/44 "2023-04-29T19:22:34Z")
It is well known how some sharks and seahorses birth. Our knowledge of mermaids remains woefully inadequate. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2023, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-statue-too-provocative/983337/45 "2023-04-29T19:29:39Z")
Somewhat randomly, this article in public art appeared today. You think an airport might not be the best place for scary works… > **[A Towering, Terrifying Demon Horse Isn’t Even the Weirdest Part](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/business/media/denver-airport.html)** > > The Denver airport is a magnet for conspiracy theories — and a case study in the line between mass delusion and fun. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2023, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-statue-too-provocative/983337/46 "2023-04-29T19:33:02Z")
I remember that horse! The sculptor (Luis Jimenez) died in an accident while creating it. His daughter was a contestant on _Project Runway_ – that’s where I first heard of him and this statue. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2023, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-statue-too-provocative/983337/47 "2023-04-29T20:39:46Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Ever see one with wings? Or even extra workable legs? No, but I have seen reptiles with wings. In addition to four legs. [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/95/Draco_volans_01.JPG/1024px-Draco_volans_01.JPG) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/95/Draco_volans_01.JPG/1024px-Draco_volans_01.JPG) And it’s not too hard to see how to modify the basic vertebrate body plan for more legs, either. As it is, both of the places where vertebrate legs attach, the spine continues both before and behind that point. OK, so put in a pair of shoulder blades, then more spine, and then another pair of shoulder blades. To put the butt behind the tail, though, you’d need (at least) a digestive tract that twists around the spine. > [@eschereal](#): > > Humans in general kind of run afoul of the rules. What other mammal has prominent breasts when not nursing or pregnant? > [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Breasts are needed to provide nutrients to baby mermaids. If they are spawned from fish eggs, evolutionary embryology suggests a high initial rate of growth. I don’t think mermaids are mammalian. I think that the “breasts” are purely a mimickry feature, to make it easier for them to attract their prey. > [@Jophiel](#): > > Interestingly, a LOT of mermaid art has them with hips and knees. Or very definite places where their tails bend sharply while they sit on seaside rocks and spend the hours. That, I think, is just an artifact of the artists working from human models. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2023, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-statue-too-provocative/983337/48 "2023-04-29T21:08:13Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I don’t think mermaids are mammalian. I think that the “breasts” are purely a mimickry feature, to make it easier for them to attract their prey. _Our swift approach the Siren choir decries Celestial music warbles from their tongue And thus the sweet deluders tune the song: “O stay! O pride of Greece! Ulysses! Stay! O cease thy course and listen to our lay!”_ ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2023, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-statue-too-provocative/983337/49 "2023-04-29T21:47:02Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That, I think, is just an artifact of the artists working from human models. I doubt many mermaid artists are half as worried about “real vertebrae biology” in their pretend fish-girls as some art viewers. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2023, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-statue-too-provocative/983337/50 "2023-04-30T05:01:06Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > I’ve never understood the attraction of mermaids. The lower half of a mermaid being a fish is inconvenient in many ways. But even worse are the mermaids where the upper half is a fish. Woody Allen (a long time ago) mentioned a story where the mermaid was half and half, split down the middle. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2023, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-statue-too-provocative/983337/51 "2023-04-30T07:40:38Z")
I’m a leg guy, so I’d happily marry an inverted mermaid, provided she has shapely human legs. I’d like her fish half to be a [mudskipper](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAQuoH_fOWM) with modified pectoral fins allowing her to crawl out of the mud at night so we could cuddle. That sounds romantic. 💕🐟 Who knows, maybe my li’l cutie and I would spawn a big family of little fry…or if things don’t work out, I’d have a big fish fry. That sounds tasty. 🍴🐟 ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2023, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-statue-too-provocative/983337/52 "2023-04-30T08:07:24Z")
Are you the keeper of the Eddystone light? ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2023, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-statue-too-provocative/983337/53 "2023-04-30T14:46:20Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > I’ve never understood the attraction of mermaids. The lower half of a mermaid being a fish is inconvenient in many ways. But even worse are the mermaids where the upper half is a fish. “Why can’t she be the other kind of mermaid, with a fish for a head and the lady parts on the bottom?” /Fry ETA: I think the statue is fine. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-statue-too-provocative/983337.md?page=2)