The History Behind The Statue Of Fearless Girl
I personally had never seen the statue of fearless girl before it was introduced to us in lecture. My instant thought was that the statue does not accurately represent twenty-first century feminism. The statue shows a girl facing an angry looking bull, which symbolizes a girl standing up to society, but it misses a lot of the key points of feminism. I’d like to go deeper into my initial thoughts upon seeing the statue, before I relate back to any of our readings. When I saw the statue of the young girl facing the bull, I thought that it was representing how one person can make a change in the world, not necessarily just a female, but anyone. I believed that the artist of the statue chose to use a young girl, to show not only that girls can also make a difference, but that young people are going to be the change that we need in the world. The bull represented the vicious environment that this world can have, and the young child was standing up to all the injustices in the world, to make a real difference. I chose to do some investigation into the history behind fearless girl, because when I presented this essay question to my mother, she seemed to know a lot about the statue. She mentioned something about the fact that the bull was in place before “fearless girl” was mounted, and I wanted to research more about why the new statue was added to an old one.
The first statue of the “charging bull” was created in 1989, and fearless girl was not added until 2017. I found it interesting that fearless girl was added so much later, and I came to find out that it was installed to send out a message about workplace diversity. I also found that the statue was created, based off of two children, so that the young girl could be relatable to more than just girls. The longer I looked at the statue, the more I thought about the bull being representative of men, rather than society. I think that this is what many individuals may see when looking at the statue, and that is one of the reasons that I don’t particularly agree with the statue. Bulls are often associated with anger and power, which would be a good representation of men in some people’s eyes. When you look at the statue as the bull symbolizing a man, it looks as though the little girl is standing up to the powerful man. This isn’t an accurate representation of twenty-first century feminism, it is rather a stereotype of feminists.
Within the first week of our lectures, we were assigned a reading by Bell Hooks, which outlined some of the stereotypes of feminists. Hooks (2000) suggested that all she hears about feminists is how they are evil, and specifically that they “hate men”. This stereotype is only furthered by the popular statue, and doesn’t take into account the feelings of males everywhere. “Most men are disturbed by hatred and fear of women, by male violence against women, even the men who perpetuate this violence. But they fear letting go of the benefits. ” This quote from Hooks really stood out to me in our readings, because it shows the realistic view of why men act the way that they do. Men have countless benefits from the concept of the patriarchy between men and women, and that is part of the reason that they are scared for change. Although some men may be scared by the change, I believe it will take the participation of men in feminism, to truly make the difference that all feminists wish for. In Chapter 5 of our readings, Shira Tarrant emphasized how important men’s role in feminism is. Most people think, “how can males be a part of feminism, they don’t understand our struggle”, which is why the education of feminism to males is so important. Being a feminist isn’t just about being a female, it’s about individuals coming together to accomplish the same end goal.
Tarrant (2008) suggested that feminism “benefits from men’s participation” because when men come into the picture “it maximizes the potential for deep, sustained social change”. I strongly believe that this couldn’t be more true. Feminism needs the support of everyone they can get in order to make the change it needs. If feminism is kept strictly inclusive to females only, there is no way that they can expect the rest of the world to understand what they are fighting for. The stereotype that feminists are against males, is only one of the stereotypes that the statue reinforces. If the statue is to be an appropriate representation for feminism, should it include typical female stereotypes on the young girl? The young girl is wearing a dress with her hair in a ponytail, a typical stereotype of what a female looks like. Dresses can often be seen as not appropriate for a feminist to wear, but in reality girls don’t wear dresses to impress boys, they wear them because they like them.
Roxane Gay (2014) brought to light the “bad feminist manifesto” suggesting how females feel like they are “failing as a feminist” because they want things that a feminist shouldn’t want. “I love dresses. For years I pretended I hated them, but I don’t. ” In the quote above, she reveals that she loves dresses, like most females do, and wearing them makes her feel like she is failing at being a feminist. The ideas that Gay brings forward would suggest that the statue is an accurate representation of feminism, because it doesn’t matter how a feminist is dressed. However, many feminists may see this as furthering stereotypes of the typical female. The statue also reinforces the idea that “if one group gains power, another loses it”. Tarrant proposes that “power is often seen as a limited resource”. This concept is shown true through the statue. The young girl is standing up to the angry bull, giving her all the power, and the bull less power than it previously has. This shouldn’t be how power is being visualized, especially within feminism. Feminists don’t want males or anyone else to “lose” their power, they simply want the power to be equal. Equality is a key idea in feminism, and it gets harder and harder for equality to prevail, when power is seen with a “lose some, win some” attitude.
In my opinion, the idea that power is a limited resource is just absolutely ridiculous. When I think of power I think about the fact that so many things run on power every day, at the same time, all having the exact same amount of power. If everyday things can all run off power at the same time, why is it any different with humans? The simple answer is that it’s not, power can be shared between anything, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that one will have less. The last thing I’d like to address, is the fact that fearless girl doesn’t really represent all the types of feminists that are out there. When I look at the statue, I see a young white girl. I’m not exactly sure why I see the young girl as white when she is actually just the same colour as any other statue, making her not truly have a skin colour. I think that looking at this statue is the same for many other people, they see a young white girl standing up against feminist views.
Chimamanda Ngazi Adichie (2009) wrote about the “dangers of a single story”, and I think fearless girl could be seen as a single story as well. Adichie (2009, pg. 60) talked about how when she travelled to the United States to go to university, her American roommate knew nothing true about her culture. She asked stereotypical things to her because she was from Nigeria, things like “how did you learn to speak English”, “can I hear some of your tribal music”, etc. This proves the dangers of a single story. When a group of people or even just an individual isn’t given the opportunity to tell their story themselves, rather than it be exposed to the world through the views of an outsider, the stories are never true to the core. People assume things of certain cultures, just like they assume things about feminists because they haven’t heard the real stories. The statue of fearless girl shows the stereotypical story of a young white girl, but not the stories of the many different faces of feminism. Indigenous women play an important part in feminism, as do many other individuals, and they are often left out of the view of feminists.
Relating back to the idea that the statue only represents the story of a young white girl, it fails to represent Indigenous communities into the picture of feminism. I discovered through our reading by Wanda Nanibush (2017), that Indigenous females do not necessarily like to label themselves as a feminist, but they are still a part of the movement. Nanibush (2017) stated that she “doesn’t call herself a feminist because Indigenous people have spent generations being named by others and she wants to have control over her own naming”. This is entirely relatable to me, because although I don’t call myself a feminist, there is many aspects of feminism that I strongly believe in and support. It’s not about what you call yourself, it’s about what you believe in. Nanibush (2000) added the abbreviation “kwe” to her name, which means woman in her language. I believe that by adding this to her name it gave her a feeling of power, with accepting not only who she is but what she believes in. Nanibush’s’ story is unheard by many individuals and the statue brings us further from hearing it than we were before.
I have a few thoughts about other statues that could be made in the face of feminism, without bringing forward any stereotypes, leaving out individual’s stories, and to help encourage others to bring forward their stories revolving around feminism. I think that fearless girl shouldn’t have been added to the statue of the “charging bull”, but rather have a whole new statue itself. I would love to see more tributes to feminism put around the world, but in a different way than a statue of a female. I propose that they should have plaques placed in many different parts of the world, in famous places that many people go, such as New York Times Square. The plaques should hold quotes from different feminists all over the world, taking into account how many different stories there are to be heard, and how versatile feminism really is. One quote that I would specifically love to see on a plaque is “Being a feminist doesn’t require certain plumbing. It requires a certain consciousness. This quote was in one of our first readings in this class, and it has stuck with me since that first week. I honestly am not completely sure why this quote has impacted me so much, but I believe it is because of how true I think it is. I love that this quote comes from Matthew Shepherd, a male feminist who published the book “Feminism, Men, and the Study of Masculinity”. I think knowing that there are male feminists, and that they believe feminism is not just for females, is important to know. I think that this quote placed on a plaque would really stick in many people’s minds, and suggest more than one story of feminism. There are so many other quotes from various individuals that would really make a difference if they were seen by all the public’s eyes.
Overall, I think that the artist of Fearless Girl, had the right idea when it came to installing the statue, I just think that it could have been designed in a different way. I strongly believe that there does need to be more education on feminism, and putting something out in the public, and forcing people to see it every day, is a good way to make people think about feminism and what it really is.
