Fearless Girl and Pissing Pug - Is it Really as it Seems?

I want to have a serious talk about the Fearless Girl Statue, and the (although very temporary) addition, Pissing Pug. 

To provide some context for those of you who are completely unfamiliar, Fearless Girl was installed in New York across the street from the famous Wall Street Charging Bull earlier this year, it quickly became a beloved symbol of female empowerment and the obstacles women face.

But that isn't the entire story. In short, Fearless Girl perverts the

meaning of the Charging Bull statue, which was created by immigrant Arturo Di Modica to symbolize "the strength and power of the American people", it cost him about $350 000 of his own money and has been on loan to the city of New York for nearly 30 years. She derives a lot of her power from her placement - just ask

yourself, would she be such a powerful statue if not placed in opposition to the Bull? - and her placement there turns the Bull into a symbol of aggressive masculinity (This is a very short summary of the good points made by Greg Fallis here, PLEASE give the entire thing a read).

And before you dismiss this like I have seen many people do, yes this is a problem. You would never condone somebody without authorization of the creator hanging paintings on the Denkmal Memorial in Berlin for the Jewish people killed in WWII, (and thereby modifying its meaning); you would never condone someone drawing over the Mona Lisa so it looks like there's an animal gnawing on her head, modifying the painting from "a mysterious woman" to an amusing image, 

So we really shouldn't be calling Alex Gardega, who created "The Pissing Pug" and placed it at Fearless Girl's feet "so sensitive". Gardega made Pissing Pug and placed it so it appeared it was urinating at Fearless Girls's feet to protest how Fearless Girl was a "downgrade" of Charging Bull, by using the same technique to "downgrade" Fearless Girl. 

Even though she has become a symbol of female power and the challenges women face, that doesn't make it okay to disrespect a

person's time, care, and work. Feminism inherently about equal respect and equal value - so why do you think it's okay to choose respect for the girl (who is actually an advertisement; more on this later) over a person? Why do you value the meaning of the girl over the bull? A symbol for "the strength and power of the American people" certainly includes women, too, if anything it represents women and other marginalized identities more. because these are the identities with many more hurdles to face, these are the identities that often cause and/or force people to have strength.

There's also a lot of outcry of "Misogyny!", "Anti-Women!" But, no, it's not misogynistic, because Fearless Girl was never a perfect symbol of female empowerment, she is in many ways a part of the systems used to oppress people, a symbol of False Feminism - a master's tool to dismantle the master's house if you will. She is an ad, for State Street Global Advisers, hoping to improve it's image. People critique Dove for co-opting self esteem and empowerment for profit in their advertising, Fearless Girl is just another iteration. It also doesn't get better when you look into what State Street does. Like other investment companies, they fund problematic industries - fossil fuels, weapons of war, none of which are good for women, and people in general. 

State Street wants more women in their ranks because according to

Maquiladora workers - mostly women

their marketing materials, more gender diversity = stronger financial performance and less corruption. It can be interpreted that Fearless Girl was commissioned to get more women to come aboard and advance capitalism - a problematic system in itself  in the way it uses women, from objectification in the advertising industry, to destroying the environment and hastening Climate Change to the disproportionate expense of women's health, particularly in the Global South (See the maquiladoras (factories) of Mexico and How Climate Change is Sexist; How Climate Change is a Feminist Issue). 

(Sidenote: This is not to devalue what Fearless Girl means to individuals, as a work of art, she is inherently subject to wide varieties of interpretation, but just as I acknowledge her value to individuals here, individuals need to acknowledge the problematic reasons she was commissioned, instead of just assuming she is valuable because she is valuable to them. )

Left-leaning media are being very dismissive of Gardega's protest, and this is very problematic. This kind of dismissive, contemptuous attitude, with responses full of jargon that you know non-left leaners, or the less educated might very well not understand, is what is creating the current rift between ideologies in the USA (and to some extent in Canada). In all honesty, I feel the right has become very quick to dismiss concerns as "too sensitive" without actually giving the issue fair consideration, but perhaps the left is retaliating by dismissing things too quickly as sexist, racist, ableist, classist, or some other -ist word that describes discriminatory action. The problem is, how are you EVER going to get people to listen, and even potentially persuade them to agree with you if all you do is accuse instead of explaining, talk at instead of talk with?

Look. I'm guilty of it too, I like to poke fun at masculinity and I'll use it to explain certain behaviours (though often it's in jest) but it is unfair to simply say xx action was because z person is misogynistic without critical analysis. Was misogyny a factor in Gardega's decision? Perhaps. But you can't automatically dismiss that as the only reason, without really looking at his side. 

Image of the Stonewall Protests

Sure his actions weren't nice, but people weren't listening. The Stonewall protests weren't necessarily nice but they are praised for making people listen and understand that the treatment of the LGBTQ+ community needed to change. When voices aren't being heard, people protest, and it's kind of hypocritical to condemn this protest, which did have good intentions (it would be a different story if it didn't) while praising others.  

I've never seen the bull, I don't know how clear it is to passerby's that it's a symbol of the power of the US people (Is there a plaque or something that explains this?) but what I do know is that I oppose attempts at advancement or empowerment if it's at the expense of someone else or another social cause. 

This argument did, and I'm sure it will appear again, in that it can be said that there is misogyny behind not wanting Fearless Girl (and thus women) to take up space, but at the end of the day this isn't an either-or issue.There are other ways to create symbols of empowerment, in fact, a simple change in the placement of the statues could maintain Fearless Girl's power without bastardizing the meaning of the bull.What if we moved Fearless Girl and put her beside Charging Bull? Standing next to a charging bull is still courageous, and it also sends a message of solidarity between women and immigrants (not that these are mutually exclusive), it would represent women, girls, and the American people bravely facing the world, the ups, the downs, whatever ugliness is thrown at them, together, which is a wonderful message, indeed.