Arturo Di Modica, the immigrant artist behind Wall Street’s treasured “Charging Bull” sculpture, explains on his website that the statue was initially conceived as a way to celebrate both America and New York, “where people from all other the world could come regardless of their origin or circumstances,” to defeat the odds and find success.
Now, a 4-foot girl stands defiantly in the bull’s path, dress and ponytail blowing in an imagined bronze breeze.
The “Fearless Girl” statue, installed last month on International Women’s Day, is supposed to serve as a symbol of “girl power,” according to its creator, whose message for Di Modica is simply: “the world changes.”
In fact, the statue serves more accurately as a symbol of the incoherence that’s come to characterize contemporary feminism than anything else.
What is the symbolic point of a young girl blocking the path of a bull meant to represent American “prosperity and strength”? There is none.
Actually, it is more likely the artist, and her feminist cheerleaders relied on a lazy misinterpretation of Di Modica’s work, all in an effort to score their sophomoric point about a cliche as reductive and unimaginative as “girl power.”
To be clear, as a woman, I welcome celebrations of female achievement. When they are legitimate, that is.
But it was easy to plant this girl in the bull’s path – and to celebrate her courage – relying on a lazy assumption without thinking more deeply about the larger message at play
Why, exactly, is it “fearless” for a girl to block the path of American prosperity?
For years, feminists have developed a suicidal habit of reflexively opposing anything with the faintest whiff of patriarchy. The so-called “wage gap,” for instance, looks bad on its surface, but upon closer inspection appears to be more a symptom of women’s choices than sex discrimination.
The bull, by virtue of being male and an American institution, simply found himself on the wrong end of this equation.
In her efforts to celebrate female achievement, Fearless Girl’s creator inadvertently installed a lasting monument to the incoherence of her own feminist worldview, a bronze reminder that today’s women’s movement is no longer rooted in philosophical coherence.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
