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Mary Wollstonecraft statue

(148 Posts)
FarNorth Tue 10-Nov-20 14:08:59

After 10 years of fund raising, a statue of Mary Wollstonecraft has been created.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-54886813

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FarNorth Tue 10-Nov-20 18:57:55

I really have no idea what it says, even about the sculptor.
'Unimaginative' comes to mind.

moggie57 Tue 10-Nov-20 19:03:13

that is obscene ....she needs a fig leaf. couldnt a better statue be made .i dont like it....and in a public place,,,

kircubbin2000 Tue 10-Nov-20 19:06:36

Blinko, how can you not get it?How many famous male statues are naked?

Blossoming Tue 10-Nov-20 19:16:31

I hate it.

Callistemon Tue 10-Nov-20 19:38:32

it might not be a statue of her as such, but rather a commemoration of her work.

I rarely disagree with your succinct and sensible posts, grumppa but I think a woman of the 1700s, however progressive, would not think that this was a fitting tribute to her work.

I think she could be feel shame that this naked statue is considered to epitomise equality today.

M0nica Tue 10-Nov-20 19:45:15

What makes me most uncomfortable is that the woman is...... I do not quite mean sexualised, but she looks like some of the naked girls in some of Sir Frederic Leighton, or Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema pseudo-historic (soft porn) works.

She is not sexualised, but invites the male gaze and is presented in a form that will attract male appreciation, in fact she is everything Mary Wollstencroft was not.

Whitewavemark2 Tue 10-Nov-20 19:53:08

I think is is disrespectful of Wollstonecraft.

Callistemon Tue 10-Nov-20 19:57:53

Who decided this was a good idea?

MawB2 Tue 10-Nov-20 19:59:27

Can this sculpture truly be said to represent all women when from its proportions it looks very very few women I know
Slim, toned, youthful, no evidence of childbearing, as M0nica says little more than a child itself (eurgh)Tacky.
No Maggie Hambling - you have missed the point.
PS I am looking forward to a naked David Gandy to “commemorate” Trump gringrin

Parsley3 Tue 10-Nov-20 20:16:29

It is a beautiful sculpture but totally unsuitable for the purpose. The nakedness takes precedence over the importance of the subject.

annsixty Tue 10-Nov-20 20:42:00

No, I don’t like it.

SueDonim Tue 10-Nov-20 20:54:31

Goodness, it’s awful. It was actually the lower part of it that caught my eye - it resembles nothing so much as the cascade of the contents of my cat’s stomach that I had to clear up yesterday. ?

M0nica Tue 10-Nov-20 20:59:54

SueDonim I thought it looked like a well-chewed bone grin

grannyrebel7 Tue 10-Nov-20 21:01:48

I don't like it at all. Why does she need to be naked? It seems that every statue of a woman has to show her without clothes. The statue of Verity at Ilfracombe shows her pregnant and naked. Although that is a very thought provoking statue.

Grannybags Tue 10-Nov-20 21:06:04

Oh no no no! It's awful

trisher Tue 10-Nov-20 21:40:06

Mary Wolstonecraft on women and beauty
It has also been asserted, by some naturalists, that men do not attain their full growth and strength till thirty; but that women arrive at maturity by twenty. I apprehend that they reason on false ground, led astray by the male prejudice, which deems beauty the perfection of woman—mere beauty of features and complexion, the vulgar acceptation of the world, whilst male beauty is allowed to have some connexion with the mind. Strength of body, and that character of countenance, which the French term a physionomie, women do not acquire before thirty, any more than men.
She would probably have hated it.

suziewoozie Tue 10-Nov-20 21:51:39

From a very funny twitter feed this evening

“It has been pointed out that it's FOR not OF Mary Wollstonecraft so this is an edit.

"I do not wish women to have power over men, but over themselves."
Mary Wollstonecraft
"Oh, and a statue FOR me, of a woman with her tits out, I'd love that"

farview Tue 10-Nov-20 22:00:27

Yes apparently it is For and not Of.......
but I still think its absolutely horrible ..and I agree that she would not have liked it...yes there are lots of statues of nudes both male and female...but this one...well its just sort of distasteful...

M0nica Tue 10-Nov-20 22:02:51

To my mind it is titillating - and that surely doesn't go with Mary Wollstonecraft.

It almost feels as if the sculptor is sniggering at us behind her hand.

suziewoozie Tue 10-Nov-20 22:03:44

There is no statue of or for a notable male person I can think of

suziewoozie Tue 10-Nov-20 22:04:00

That is naked

Lollin Tue 10-Nov-20 22:07:44

Just glad there's no chance of me having any artwork made of me!

JenniferEccles Tue 10-Nov-20 22:25:22

Hideous.

Callistemon Tue 10-Nov-20 22:31:52

It's an insult to her memory.

I am not against naked statues if appropriate but this is far from appropriate to commemorate the woman she was and her memory.

grumppa Tue 10-Nov-20 22:36:25

I don’t think we’re disagreeing, Callistemon. I was questioning whether some of those who contributed to it feel they were misled as they expected a statue of her.