In March 2017, a small statue of a brass girl with her hands planted on her hips, staring down the famous statue of a bull on Wall Street, was installed by an ad agency under the cover of night—a bold political statement in honor of the one day in March where everyone in the world loves women. Now, thanks to the Fearless Girl, New Yorkers will be allowed to nominate a New York woman of their choosing to be immortalized in brass.
The initiative is sponsored by women.nyc and is being billed as a public art campaign to correct the fact that, aside from the aforementioned fearless child and the Statute of Liberty, there are no other public works of art in New York that feature or celebrate women. Here is how they plan to rectify that —by letting the public vote on who or what deserves this honor.
Event, person, or group must have a *significant* connection to NYC
If an event, it must have happened at least 20 years ago; If a person of significance, that person must no longer be living and must be known for an event, movement, or action that took place at least 20 years ago
Groups or categories of women, not bound by time, will be taken into consideration (e.g., single mothers, immigrant women, domestic workers, etc.)
A single person can only nominate up to three things at a time, meaning that you cannot spam the website with your fervent request that they put a statue of Carrie Bradshaw on the steps of the New York Public Library. Parsing the significance of the honoree’s connection to New York seems like a difficult task, and while I respect the thought behind this initiative, I worry that this will go south very quickly.
The idea of a monument to say, single mothers in New York City is nice, but I fear the execution. Same goes for a tribute to domestic workers, immigrant women, or nail salon employees, or any of the other myriad women who work hard to make this city run. It’s a great idea in theory, but in the words of RuPaul, “Good luck, and don’t fuck it up.”