Did anyone see those tweets from government advisor Noah Halpin? A series of tweets demanding the health minister to focus more on trans issues as waiting times for trans people to be seen had increased and that covid was just an excuse to do nothing? Yeah good one Noah, the health service has been in a state for years but who cares about elderly people on trolleys when there's some kids that need to be transed!
Not surprisingly, Noah has since deleted those tweets
Noah was just on the radio saying how puberty blockers are safe as houses and kids know they're trans from "as young as 3". this from someone who apparently is constantly tweeting about visits to the hospital.
Maggi Hambling is a mischievous artist. She knew it would cause controversy. It is a hideous statue because it is not a representation of Mary woollenstonecraft. We expected a sculpture of a lifelike image of her. This is not a celebration of women. It is repulsive artistically as well. I feel enraged it went up. I believe it should be taken down. I love that they put the T shirt on it. Statues of Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole if they had been represented as a nude would have caused outrage amongst everyone. As MW is there foreign a major feminist most won't care.
The following was done by men of course but after Simone de Beauvoir's death, they published a nude photograph of her in the French papers. Nasty. She was an intellectual and an accomplished author, to whom Sartre credited many of the ideas associated with him, yet this is how they treated her. Wikipedia and other sites continue to treat her the same today, finding titillation in her lesbian relationship rather than her writing and her life. I only know Hambling from this instance, but I wonder how she was able to rationalize her treatment. It seems to me she could and should have come up with something very different. Even the ratio of the bottom to top is off. Weird. A nude statue of Wollstonecraft that has no physical resemblance to her but is a statue of a generic (indeed perfect) woman and an undersize one at that does not go over well as a depiction of a woman who stressed that women are judged on their bodies as opposed to their full humanity. A particular curmudgeon (male), who writes for www.nakedcapitalism.com, compared it to Micheangelo's David (I think he was poking fun at the feminists in doing so: it's one of his pastimes on line): "I looked at the Wollstonecraft statue; I put it in the same bucket as Michelangelo’s figleaf-free David. Neither are especially alluring to me, but both embody power." No. Certainly the David is an unrealistic idealization of the male body. And David was a character from a bible story, not a flesh and blood figure albeit an historical character, and definitely not an 18th century woman with a history of writing one of the first books on the rights of women and a woman with a political history. Who knows how the statue will be judged in future, if at all. Our reactions now are from the gut and I think must be listened to. I think the artist wasted a golden opportunity.
People campaigned for 10 years to get a piece commemorating Mary Wollstonecraft. They donated towards it. They didn't just want any old piece of art with an abstract notion of her. Or about an idea of "everywoman".
Compounding the inappropriateness of the sculpture itself, there is still no statue of Mary Wollstonecraft or piece commemorating her.
I couldn't agree more. It's Peak 2020 personified, to me - having the foremother of all feminism denuded and represented as both "everywoman" and somehow "empowering". To that I say bollocks.
I am extremely disappointed with the Wollstonecraft statue. Feminists are right to speak out against it. As art and as a concept it has failed. No man would be treated this way. It is a very sad thing that a female artist is responsible for it.
Did anyone see those tweets from government advisor Noah Halpin? A series of tweets demanding the health minister to focus more on trans issues as waiting times for trans people to be seen had increased and that covid was just an excuse to do nothing? Yeah good one Noah, the health service has been in a state for years but who cares about elderly people on trolleys when there's some kids that need to be transed!
Not surprisingly, Noah has since deleted those tweets
Noah was just on the radio saying how puberty blockers are safe as houses and kids know they're trans from "as young as 3". this from someone who apparently is constantly tweeting about visits to the hospital.
Maggi Hambling is a mischievous artist. She knew it would cause controversy. It is a hideous statue because it is not a representation of Mary woollenstonecraft. We expected a sculpture of a lifelike image of her. This is not a celebration of women. It is repulsive artistically as well. I feel enraged it went up. I believe it should be taken down. I love that they put the T shirt on it. Statues of Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole if they had been represented as a nude would have caused outrage amongst everyone. As MW is there foreign a major feminist most won't care.
The following was done by men of course but after Simone de Beauvoir's death, they published a nude photograph of her in the French papers. Nasty. She was an intellectual and an accomplished author, to whom Sartre credited many of the ideas associated with him, yet this is how they treated her. Wikipedia and other sites continue to treat her the same today, finding titillation in her lesbian relationship rather than her writing and her life. I only know Hambling from this instance, but I wonder how she was able to rationalize her treatment. It seems to me she could and should have come up with something very different. Even the ratio of the bottom to top is off. Weird. A nude statue of Wollstonecraft that has no physical resemblance to her but is a statue of a generic (indeed perfect) woman and an undersize one at that does not go over well as a depiction of a woman who stressed that women are judged on their bodies as opposed to their full humanity. A particular curmudgeon (male), who writes for www.nakedcapitalism.com, compared it to Micheangelo's David (I think he was poking fun at the feminists in doing so: it's one of his pastimes on line): "I looked at the Wollstonecraft statue; I put it in the same bucket as Michelangelo’s figleaf-free David. Neither are especially alluring to me, but both embody power." No. Certainly the David is an unrealistic idealization of the male body. And David was a character from a bible story, not a flesh and blood figure albeit an historical character, and definitely not an 18th century woman with a history of writing one of the first books on the rights of women and a woman with a political history. Who knows how the statue will be judged in future, if at all. Our reactions now are from the gut and I think must be listened to. I think the artist wasted a golden opportunity.
delete there foreign!
Nudity and artistic merit aside...
People campaigned for 10 years to get a piece commemorating Mary Wollstonecraft. They donated towards it. They didn't just want any old piece of art with an abstract notion of her. Or about an idea of "everywoman".
Compounding the inappropriateness of the sculpture itself, there is still no statue of Mary Wollstonecraft or piece commemorating her.
I couldn't agree more. It's Peak 2020 personified, to me - having the foremother of all feminism denuded and represented as both "everywoman" and somehow "empowering". To that I say bollocks.
I couldn't agree more, Scout. I want my £20 back. Art history has enough naked women.
Presented without comment: https://wingsoverscotland.com/brenda-isnt-a-sheep/
BTW, I may still miss Ben, but Helen is top notch and I love her sense of humor. She's wonderful.
I am extremely disappointed with the Wollstonecraft statue. Feminists are right to speak out against it. As art and as a concept it has failed. No man would be treated this way. It is a very sad thing that a female artist is responsible for it.