A perfect symbol for today's political environment

fearless-girl.jpg

Just two weeks ago, this was the headline:

‘Fearless Girl’ Dominates the Clios, Winning the Grand Clio in 5 Categories
McCann New York is named Agency of the Year

Feminists embraced this bronze symbol.

Every liberal around immediately fell in love with the statue.

Here is the narrative being spun about “Fearless Girl”: An advertising firm and a financial services firm got together to drop a “remarkable,” “guerrilla” sculpture of a young girl in front of Wall Street’s famous “Charging Bull” in the middle of the night. The girl is part of a campaign to encourage companies to increase the number of women on their boards. The girl “is a remarkable evolution for Wall Street.” The girl might even represent “the turning point of gender equality in corporate America.” The girl “celebrates all the people who resisted by staying in place.” If installed permanently, the girl would be “a constant source of strength” for women who work in the vicinity.

There was just one eensy little problem - it was all bullshit.

As it turns out, the bronze statue was a symbol ― not of girl power, but of the empty corporate feminism that Wall Street has managed to turn into an art form and that first daughter Ivanka Trump has ridden all the way to the White House.
On Thursday, State Street, the $2.6 trillion dollar investment firm that funded Fearless Girl and unveiled her to great fanfare on International Women’s Day in March, agreed to shell out $5 million to settle claims that it pays its female and black executives less than white men at the firm.

The real give-away of the phoniness in this gesture was never hidden. All you had to do was look at the Wikipedia page.

The plaque below the statue states, “Know the power of women in leadership. SHE makes a difference,” with “SHE” being both a descriptive pronoun and the fund’s NASDAQ ticker symbol.

It gets funnier. Check out this article.

At least two locally based companies earned votes against their board members from State Street Corp. this year because they did not have any women on their board of directors, according to an analysis of new securities filings.

As if State Street was in any position to judge anyone else.

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Bollox Ref's picture

I read the stories referred to above a couple of days ago, and had a chuckle. When this thing first turned up, something felt very 'iffy'.

Doubtless, a bronze of a female OWS protester would not be so popular/welcomed.

(Edited... spelling cock-up)

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

@Bollox Ref
My 'Identity Politics' Are Here To Stay. Deal With It. Or I Won't Deal With You.

Onlookers gasp as a 'Wall Street Bro' humps the acclaimed 'Defiant Girl' statue on Wall Street

Dry Humping Fearless Girl statue

and then my favorite...
NYC artist added a statue of a dog urinating on 'Fearless Girl' on Wall Street as 'retaliation'

The “Fearless Girl” statue on Wall Street in New York City has so enraged a sculptor that he felt the need to add a shitty sculpture of a dog urinating on the famous statue of a young girl facing down the Wall Street bull:

“This is corporate nonsense,” Gardega told The Post of “Fearless Girl,” saying it was put opposite artist Arturo Di Modica’s famed bull as a publicity stunt by a Boston-based financial firm.The Upper West Side artist sniffed that he even made his dog particularly poorly just to stick it to “Fearless Girl” even more.

“It has nothing to do with feminism, and it is disrespect to the artist that made the bull,” he said. “That bull had integrity.”

Congrats on drawing even more attention to the “corporate nonsense!” You can see his piss-poor statue below. Tourists and onlookers are not impressed:

But many female passers-by Monday said “Fearless Girl” has come to represent women taking on Wall Street — and just about anybody else standing up to financial firms — and that Gardega’s peeing dog is misogynistic.

“That’s an a–hole move. You call this art?” said one woman, who kicked the dog statue as she walked by.

Bravo, lady. Good luck working out your issues with women, Alex Gardega. Enjoy your 15 seconds of fame today.

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Deja's picture

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Amanda Matthews's picture

@Deja
and will never find out the truth.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

k9disc's picture

I actually saw something on the corporate marketing nature of the piece several months ago, not sure if it was the whole story or not, but it was enough to let me know she was a bullshit corporate ploy.

@Amanda Matthews

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

SnappleBC's picture

@k9disc

From my standpoint, a FREAKIN BRONZE STATUE depicting a challenge to Wall Street appears there and it isn't removed instantly?

That right there told me everything I needed to know.

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A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

k9disc's picture

not be protest...
@SnappleBC

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

bondibox's picture

@Amanda Matthews I've noticed this with other stories, the media is still singing the same old song while the more informed half of the public sees through it. I suppose for a while MSM was kidding themselves about the relevance of blognews but now I think they're well aware that half of us are laughing at them, they have to maintain their grip on the issuance of fantasy news because to cede even an iota of admission is to bring their entire credibility crashing down. I predict that is how they will go down, kicking and screaming, trying to preserve their alternate truth-cum-reality to the very end.

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F the F'n D's

Amanda Matthews's picture

"Typical", and went on my merry old way.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Somebody could make a bronze street sweeper guy and put him behind the bull, sweeping up the bull's shit. It would make a nice bronze triptych.

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"Bi-polar? I'm Bi-winning!!!" -- Charlie Sheen

k9disc's picture

I got the metalsmith connections...

That'd be the shit... Wink
@Dumbo

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

Amanda Matthews's picture

@Dumbo

Street sweepers get a bad rap. Where would we be without 'em?

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

The Aspie Corner's picture

And I'm with Bollox Ref on this one:

Doubtless, a bronze of a female OWS protestor would not be so popular/welcomed.

I would also include working class female in that statement.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

Bollox Ref's picture

@The Aspie Corner

self-congratulatory, meritocratic bullshit. Kinda like the Clinton campaign..... or DKos.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

@Bollox Ref Yep, from the campaign to the governing.

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The Aspie Corner's picture

@Bollox Ref Hell, even The Simpsons had a better idea for a monument.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szYdTxmER5o]

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

As it turns out, the bronze statue was a symbol ― not of girl power, but of the empty corporate feminism that Wall Street has managed to turn into an art form and that Hillary Clinton first daughter Ivanka Trump has ridden almost all the way to the White House.

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a symbolic quintupling in my income that I promise to one day spend on free beer for everyone. Damn, I feel so much better.

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Orwell: Where's the omelette?

It looks like Fearless Girl went down to Wall Street and told them to "cut it out."

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Bollox Ref's picture

@LoneStarMike

Are just as enthused by a money-making, bullish market, as their male counterparts.

What does the statue even mean?

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

GreatLakeSailor's picture

@Bollox Ref

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Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.

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detroitmechworks's picture

Cookie cutter, meaningless, and yet bought by the ignorant because it makes them feel good.

I'm amazed how much stuff is put out by the corporate slime with zero interest in doing anything other than patting themselves on the back.

Honestly, the assholes might as well just invest in a giant hand flipping you off, because that's their most honest opinion.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Arrow's picture

Some 'crafty' leftist should craft that girl a sleaveless tee (velcro for quick attachment?) that says 'Occupy Wall Street'. So there.

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I want a Pony!

@Arrow

And cement it on, so they can't remove it in horror. Or 'tattoo' it on her chest and back.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

about the statue itself. Only its context and placement make it political. If it was in a park in Queens somewhere, no one would be paying much attention to it. Not that it's all that great of an artwork anyway, but I don't think the poor Fearless Girl deserves nearly as much calumny as she's been getting.

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native

the boldness of the gesture. The juxtaposition of the girl and the bull speaks a purely visual language that, divorced from contemporary political concerns, is actually quite eloquent.

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native

@native

Except that, looking at it, you know darned well the Wall St. bull's going to stomp her. Just as with Occupy, the rest of America and the world. She needs a spear-gun.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

@Ellen North
The Girl's vulnerability is precisely her strength...the two are inseparable in that context. I don't know what the motivations of the sculpture's sponsors were, but really they are irrelevant to the final effect that was created. If you subtract all the words said about any given artwork from the substantial reality of the work itself, you are left with something inexplicable and controversial and thought-provoking-- which is exactly what good art is supposed to be.

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native