The controversial Wall Street “Fearless Girl” statue — a corporate publicity stunt that turned into a feminist icon — will likely be moved next week from her home in New York City’s financial district, but if she goes, she’ll be taking the iconic Wall Street bull statue she co-opted with her.
The statue was supposed to be only a one-month wonder, but after she became a magnet for tourists, and for female legislators looking to prove they “persist” and “resist” with a photo opportunity, NYC’s mayor Bill de Blasio extended the statue’s lease through March 8, 2018. But now, it has come time to decommission the statue, and since she makes no sense displayed alone, NYC is talking about uprooting her famous foil and displaying the pair somewhere else.
According to Ad Week, “the parties have already decided to make the pair—now considered inseparable—a permanent fixture in the New York City landscape. The only issue yet to be determined is whether they will stay in their current location, which could be redesigned, or be moved to a new one.”
This is a problem, not just for the Charging Bull, but for the bull’s sculptor, Arturo Di Modica, who has complained about the “Fearless Girl” since the beginning. The “Charging Bull” is designed to represent a “bull market,” and it was installed in the 1980s, when Wall Street felt it was achieving world domination. In effect, the “Fearless Girl” so beloved by Elizabeth Warren, Hillary Clinton, and other skin-deep feminists, is standing in opposition to American economic success — not male oppression.
Di Modica spoke out forcefully against letting “Fearless Girl” remain in place because it co-opted his artistic work, and changed and devalued his message. For her to remain with the “Charging Bull” indefinitely not only means pseudo-feminism has won out over economic power, but it’s proof that a social justice theme is enough to overcome even an artist’s objections.
It also proves that “Fearless Girl” simply can’t stand alone.
But Di Modica was derided as sexist when he made the complaint and he’s unlikely to stop de Blasio’s plan now. Thankfully the American economy is still responding.