About the “fearless girl”

About the “fearless girl” March 28, 2017

From wikipedia; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fearless_Girl
From wikipedia; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fearless_Girl

She’s standing up to something.

What?

She’s standing firm against a bull, about to charge her.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charging_Bull
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charging_Bull

But the bull represents, in Stock Market symbolism, a roaring stock market, and prosperity.

According to its sculptor, who placed it there after the 1987 crash, his bull represents “strength and power of the American people” (per Wikipedia).

So why is this girl opposing it?

Does the Fearless Girl sculptor consider Wall Street to be misogynistic?  Does the sculptor consider capitalism and the stock market something to be fought against, something which should inspire fear, and takes bravery to oppose?

Apparently not:

The statue was installed on March 7 2017 by State Street Global Advisors (in a campaign developed by McCann New York) on the eve of International Women’s Day (March 8), to celebrate the first anniversary of its “Gender Diversity Index” fund that “invests in U.S. large-capitalization companies that rank among the highest in their sector in achieving gender diversity across senior leadership”.

according to Wikipedia.

So apparently we need to view Fearless Girl with blinders on, discarding the meaning of the bull on Wall Street, and viewing it as “just a bull” without the “meaning” imbued in its placement here on Wall Street.

But beyond that, it is something of a visual equivalent of a mixed metaphor.  The bull is a symbol.  The girl?  She’s a girl, facing down a symbol.

And it’s jarring, and just doesn’t work for me.

What about you?


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