This Guy Looks Like He's About To Fall Down The Stairs While Sleepwalking
He couldn't look less menacing.
I'm talking about the lifelike statue of a man at Wellesley that some wymym have their own tightiewhities in a bunch about.
At Slate, Amanda Marcotte posts:
It's funny and is, unsurprisingly, a big hit on Instagram. It's also creating controversy, as reported by the Boston Globe, as many students object to the statue on the grounds that it's scary. Zoe Magid, a junior at the university, started a Change.org petition demanding that the statue be moved inside the museum. "Within just a few hours of its outdoor installation, the highly lifelike sculpture by Tony Matelli, entitled 'Sleepwalker,' has become a source of apprehension, fear, and triggering thoughts regarding sexual assault for some members of our campus community," she writes, adding variations of the word trigger two more times.
It's becoming clear what "rape culture" means -- a culture created by women to get attention. If you can't get it for being powerful -- which is what I was raised to think of myself as and to be -- get it for being a victim, living in fear, waiting for the next opportunity to read victimization of you into even the most innocuous images or situations.
More from the piece:
The museum director Lisa Fischman responded to the petition in an email that highlights how much the statue does not resemble a rapist who is coming to get you: "Arms outstretched, eyes closed, he appears vulnerable and unaware against the snowy backdrop of the space around him. He is not naked. He is profoundly passive. He is inert, as sculpture."This email did not placate the critics of the statue, who left dozens of comments, mostly written in feminist jargon. "Your claim that Sleepwalker is passive is spoken in privilege and without regard to the many students on this campus who have faced and survived assault, racism, and many other forms of violent oppression," writes one commenter. Another likens the statue to real-life sexual assailants and harassers: "You claim that Sleepwalker is inert, passive - free of action or blame. Funny, so do his real-life counterparts." One woman gets a wee bit excited with, "He 'appears' like a creepy pervert! There are so many talented artists who create BEAUTY! This is not art! It's a sexual assault!" Notably, no self-identified rape survivors piped in to say that the statue reminded them of their own experiences, but that didn't hold back the tide of speculation that it might traumatize them.
The fact that something makes you uncomfortable is not reason to yank it off the planet. It is reason for you to look the other way -- or to use it as a jumping off point for animated conversation at cocktail parties. (P.S. Please leave me uninvited to those parties.)
I'd be totally creeped out if I walked by this at night and didn't know!!!
Whatever, if they don't like the art on campus they're free to say so. And it IS butt ugly.
NicoleK at February 6, 2014 11:11 PM
I think its quite good. You have a statute of a nearly naked man deposited in the snow if form and face depicting unconsciousness and the pain and privation of the onset of freezing. And feminists first response is to claim he looks menacing and demand he be carted away.
Kinda makes you wonder how these ladies would treat a living man found in such life threatening conditions
lujlp at February 6, 2014 11:36 PM
I get that the statue can be seen as creepy. Alternatively as sad. It all depends on your viewpoint.
It's also fine to say to like or dislike a piece of art. Heck, you may even really hate it. Gives you something to talk about over a beer.
But claiming feminist victimization, sexual assault triggers, etc. - that's just pathetic. Oh, right, I forgot: all our 18-20 year olds are children - they aren't even allowed to drink beer.
Maybe we should extend that: feminists aren't allowed to drink beer either, since they are in such desperate need of protection from reality.
a_random_guy at February 7, 2014 12:22 AM
Two words, "piss Christ". If you annoy the " right people" you get a total pass.
My rice at February 7, 2014 5:34 AM
As someone on Slate pointed out, when you have Amanda Marcotte calling you out for ridiculousness, you've really gone too far.
Astra at February 7, 2014 5:59 AM
Two words, "piss Christ". If you annoy the " right people" you get a total pass.
*ding*ding*ding* We have a winnah! Which is why you'll never see a piss M*h*mm*d.
I R A Darth Aggie at February 7, 2014 6:17 AM
He's a celebration of beta male-dom. It's the dudes who should be pissed.
StephUF at February 7, 2014 6:31 AM
"There are so many talented artists who create BEAUTY! This is not art! "
The left now wants standards of aesthetics for art? I thought that was the sort of thing they are opposed to.
Cousin Dave at February 7, 2014 6:42 AM
I've been to Wellesley twice over the last 2 years. We were visiting as a family to consider it as a college for our older daughter. First of all, it is not a friendly place. At other colleges, if you looked lost or otherwise out-of-place, students, faculty, or staff would stop, say "hello" and offer to help. (Even at other "elitist" Ivy League colleges.) Wellesley students walk around with scowls on their faces, actively looking away from us "aliens." Secondly, both times the place was plastered with homemade signs from all stripes of militancy: "We're here. We're queer. Deal with it." "We're not smart because we're Asian. We're smart *and* Asian." All over the place. Every feminist/gay/ultra-liberal cliche in the book. (So much for original thinking.)
It is clear to me that the main issue with the sculpture is that it portrays a male.
Ken at February 7, 2014 7:13 AM
So if the statue is so awful--I think it's kitsch--why not dress it up, or yarn-bomb it? Or topple it? Why are these women trying to get some Authority Figure to fix it for them? Personally, I think mocking it is the best plan. Stop asking for permission--go do something!
KateC at February 7, 2014 7:21 AM
"It is clear to me that the main issue with the sculpture is that it portrays a male."
Now there's a thought. Makes me wonder what the response would be if the sleepwalker was a woman. Or a child. (I'm told I was quite the sleepwalker when I was young.)
I can definitely see why it would be the subject of a lot of selfies. Unfortunately I can see the same result for a real sleepwalker. "Don't wake him/her up! Not til I get this!"
Not unlike the young woman who took a selfie with a cadaver recently.
Pricklypear at February 7, 2014 7:38 AM
Agreed, if you don't like the art then look the other way.
My only problem with the statue is that it looks very lifelike and might be too near a road. I could see some drivers might be freaked out as they drove by it at night thinking that it was a drunk college student about to run out in front of them.
But, perhaps, the road is only used by those dealing with the school AND there has been enough talk about it that most folks would know what it is at this point in time.
KateC, I like your idea - have some fun with it - dress it up! Heck, everyday someone could change its clothes and have it dress as a construction worker one day, a cop the next, then an Indian Chief, then a soldier, then a leather-wearing motorcycle rider, and finally a cowboy! Or any other theme you could think of.
Charles at February 7, 2014 7:53 AM
Oh it's a sleepwalker? When I first saw it, I thought college campus, must be someone falling down drunk. I figured it was some warning to not drink to excess and go outside naked and freeze to death.
How someone gets it to mean go rape and terrorize, I don't see.
Joe J at February 7, 2014 7:57 AM
My reaction: Oh, my god, that looks a real person in distress. He is mentally ill or delirious. I could see drivers pulling over in a panic, which could be a safety issue.
I do not get the rape angle.
Insufficient Poison at February 7, 2014 8:40 AM
I just went back to college. It's been interesting. Among other things, I realized just how very young 18 is. And how desperate this age group is to define themselves. They do it with great vehemence and enthusiasm and they swallow the whole hook. Sometimes they turn to fandoms and you get brownies and juggalos. Sometimes they turn to subcultures and become goths or hipsters. Or hobbies. But for for a few decades now, activism has been a place where identity could be drawn from. And increasingly, victimization is taking the place of activism.
So you have these very young people who are trying to find themselves by looking for something to fight. They define themselves not by looking in and seeing what they are (a goth, a juggalo, an otaku), but by looking out and opposing an "other." Sometimes it's something they can fight (but this is getting rare, how many noble battles for equality are really left now that gay marriage is getting more and more accepted?). So your left with fighting a nebulous "them" that is somehow trying to keep you down.
This is my theory:
90% of them haven't experienced real fear yet (thank Crom), or been a victim of oppression in any real way. So you have this statue that is creepy (hello uncanny valley), startling, and unnerving (it is a guy in his underpants in the snow). And these very young people (who are not stupid, just trying to make sense of a new world) feel that, and because they are self-identifying as victims of "them", that's how they define their experience with the sculpture. So it isn't enough that it's creepy, it has to "trigger fears of rape."
My three cents. Mostly I'm just thinking out loud. God, college students are so young.
Elle at February 7, 2014 10:16 AM
Yeah, I'd probably call police if I saw the statue from a distance---it looks like a drunk or crazy person who needs help, and it would be very unwise for most women to get closer and attempt to help on their own, with most drunk-or-crazy people being fairly unpredictable.
Jenny Had A Chance at February 7, 2014 10:16 AM
" Why are these women trying to get some Authority Figure to fix it for them?" KateC
Because this is what they do, this is what those young women went to that college specifically for.
You want othering in the modern era? There is no better place to other half the species, than to go to a woman's college.
What they will learn there is how specifically to exploit rules, laws, and authority, to get precisely what they want, even if it's a bad thing.
And prolly a few other things.
Getting someone else to do the dirty work of doing something about the statue, is all about not appearing to be the bad guy, and not needing to project your power directly.
Some people are calling it art, after all, it would be bad form to muzzle the artist by putting clothes on it. Instead, they wish to muzzle the thought behind it so that no-one else would have the temerity to do something similar again.
Beyond that re: the trigger warnings, revulsion, and such... this is a textbook case of women-being-annoyed-on-someone-else's-behalf™
It doesn't matter if they themselves feel that way, they can imagine that someone MIGHT feel that way, hence the objection.
SwissArmyD at February 7, 2014 10:36 AM
I saw the photos and, without reading about it, thought it was some guy playing zombie (some very cold guy).
Shannon M. Howell at February 7, 2014 11:20 AM
Elle, interesting theory... there are some parallels to what some scientists think is happening with our immune systems today. We live in a highly sanitized environment, and the immune system starts to get worried that it might be out of a job, so it goes off looking for something to do. The next thing you know, we have all kinds of autoimmune diseases and bizarre allergies to everyday things popping up.
If your theory is true, what's really missing from the picture is the adults. Someone needs to tell them, "Your thesis is not only wrong, it's stupid. Go back and try again." But we all know that isn't going to happen at too many American liberal-arts colleges today. If young people want to find injustices to fight, there are plenty to be found. But being opposed to racism is easy... being opposed to the dependency and depravity that welfare programs cause is a lot harder to make a plan of action for. It's a challenge that America's ivy-covered buildings today are not prepared for, so the students have no guidance. And you get stuff like this instead, because the mental immune system is looking for something to do.
(And to tie those two paragraphs together... the one person I have known with a severe peanut allergy wasn't born with it. She developed it while she was in college. Makes me wonder.)
Cousin Dave at February 7, 2014 11:44 AM
(And to tie those two paragraphs together... the one person I have known with a severe peanut allergy wasn't born with it. She developed it while she was in college. Makes me wonder.)
Posted by: Cousin Dave at February 7, 2014 11:44 AM
We are starting to learn many things about the effect of diet, excercise, fat,solulable vitamins, sunshine, germs, etc on the human immune system.
And 18 year olds have not been in the world long enough to understand how life operates outside of a committee written textbook.
College is an echo chamber for liberal causes and the grievence industry.
Most of these women will go to work for the government or some airy fairy non profit, and they will "never" outgrow this bullshit. Just like Obama never outgrew this crap.
Isab at February 7, 2014 12:15 PM
Imagine.
I bet someone claiming that the sculpture is "sexual assault" has no problem with being patted down at the airport.
Radwaste at February 7, 2014 12:36 PM
I don't know Cousin Dave, the presence of adults telling them "that's dumb and you should reevaluate" might hamper the whole becoming-who-you-are process. I think the big thing is that you need is to get out of the echo chamber and exposed to "the real world" which college is a big insulator against. College isn't even that bad because were all pretty dumb at that age and it's not horrible to have some of those safety bumpers while we figure out our place in the world.
The people who have never experienced real fear or real failure are the ones who tend to end up living their lives in an insulated echo chamber where things are fairly comfortable. And they think that's the proper state of the world. Photoshopped magazine covers, trigger warnings, patriarchy, and "rape culture" are big deals because it's The Worst Thing Ever, meaning it's the worst thing they've ever faced. Not so bad in someone under 25 - tragic in someone over 30. But because academics never leave the college environment they don't realize how sharp the corners of the real world are, so they keep putting up more insulation in the collegiate environment.
Still thinking out loud.
(Also, that should have been "bronies" not "brownies" in my first post. I doubt many people define themselves by desserts)
Elle at February 7, 2014 2:53 PM
"I bet someone claiming that the sculpture is "sexual assault" has no problem with being patted down at the airport." Raddy
Will also prolly have no problem walking into the Soylent Green Machine either.
SwissArmyD at February 7, 2014 2:55 PM
The statue is unnerving and creepy. Isn't that the whole point of it? Our reaction to it is part of the art. If no reaction is created, then it might as well not exist.
On the other hand, Zoe Magid looks like a dyke. Her twitter is down but I can't tell since when. Maybe she hates the statue because she just hates men. Specifically, white, beta-male, jockey-wearing, dad types. So, she hates her father?
Maybe she should protest a truly rape-y statue, like Giambologna's The Rape of the Sabine Women? Or Bernini's Apollo and Daphne or his Hades and Persephone?
Tyler at February 7, 2014 5:32 PM
"... -why not dress it up, or yarn-bomb it? ... Why are these women trying to get some Authority Figure to fix it for them? Stop asking for permission--go do something!"
Posted by: KateC at February 7, 2014 7:21 AM
Yes! This is so much more fun.
I met my sweetie at a Lesbian Avengers meeting. Their motto was "be the bomb you throw" (that meant something different in the US in the '90s). So many jaw droppingly audacious, smart, funny, bold, brazen women. And fire eating.
Michelle at February 7, 2014 5:51 PM
Will also prolly have no problem walking into the Soylent Green Machine either.
But there is such beautiful music and you get to watch TV
lujlp at February 7, 2014 6:14 PM
"the presence of adults telling them "that's dumb and you should reevaluate" might hamper the whole becoming-who-you-are process."
The 6 foot five Senior Chief Boatswain's mate with anchors tattooed on his earlobes that I met approximately 2 seconds after getting off the bus to boot camp tended to follow Cousin Dave's philosophy as he let me know in fairly graphic terms that I lacked in the sense God gave a goose. I gotta tell you having kept up with about 35 to 40 of my old shipmates over the last 25 years, it seemed to work just fine. We all "found ourselves" and "became" productive citizens with good jobs. Maybe a little heart to heart is really what these precious little victims need.
causticf at February 7, 2014 6:53 PM
The military is great for turning out folks like you and my dad, Causticf (and while I don't know you, I greatly admire my father). But the purpose of boot is not to help you find yourself, it's to form you into the kind of person the military thinks you should be; not that everyone is identical in an Orwelian fashion, but there is a similarity in values and behavior much as there is in say, juggalos. So while it's great at turning out a particular type (you, your shipmates, my dad) it would never produce someone like me, dyeing my hair purple not as some kind of rebellion, but as a professional decision too (while it does make it a little harder to be taken seriously by complete strangers - and suits help with that - it is unbeatable personal branding and helps sell the message that my solutions will be unique). This is not to say that my "type" is better, just that it would never have developed under a drill instructor.
And just to be clear, I'm comparing juggalos to juggalos. Not to military personnel.
Elle at February 8, 2014 10:07 AM
I met my sweetie at a Lesbian Avengers meeting. Their motto was "be the bomb you throw" (that meant something different in the US in the '90s). So many jaw droppingly audacious, smart, funny, bold, brazen women. And fire eating."
Umm. Never heard of them.
?
Radwaste at February 8, 2014 11:00 AM
This is not to say that my "type" is better, just that it would never have developed under a drill instructor.
And just to be clear, I'm comparing juggalos to juggalos. Not to military personnel.
Posted by: Elle at February 8, 2014 10:07 AM
Personalities are not "developed"under a drill instructor. They are "exposed". You would be surprised how many people who are rabid individualists manage to survive and thrive in the military, at least for a while.
The military does no better a job in turning people into mindless automatons, than the public schools do.
Isab at February 8, 2014 5:21 PM
Absolutely, Isab. I did the six years of my enlistment and could not get out the gate fast enough. I was not lifer material. What I learned to do in the military was to work with many people, all of whom were different and many I wouldn't spend one second with outside of a work environment. That is something much more important for these kids to learn than "who they are".
Elle, I know that the military is not for everyone but a little straight talk might show these kids how silly they sound and college is a place for them to hear a differing view. That is what helps them find themselves.
causticf at February 8, 2014 7:25 PM
Rad:
On June 28, 1992 six activist dykes threw down the gauntlet: "LESBIANS! DYKES! GAY WOMEN!... We're wasting our lives being careful. Imagine what your life could be. Aren't you ready to make it happen?"
http://www.lesbianavengers.com
"The Lesbian Avengers always demonstrated without police permits, refusing to ask for permission to express themselves."
http://www.lesbianavengers.com/about/actions.shtml
Michelle at February 8, 2014 11:29 PM
Amy, I thought I had successfully posted a comment with two links, in response to Rad's inquiry, but now I don't see it here. Help?
Michelle at February 8, 2014 11:47 PM
Never mind - it reappeared.
Michelle at February 8, 2014 11:50 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2014/02/07/this_guy_looks.html#comment-4246414">comment from MichelleYay!
Amy Alkon at February 9, 2014 1:38 AM
@causticf. Served seven years on active duty myself. About all I could stand. However, in the military I met some of the smartest, most adaptable, funniest people I have ever encountered.
One of the many things civilians don't understand, is how flexible, you have to be to deal with ever changing personnel, leaders, and situations that you do in the military.
It is the least rigid and dogmatic place I have ever worked.
Isab at February 9, 2014 7:42 PM
One of the many things civilians don't understand, is how flexible, you have to be to deal with ever changing personnel, leaders, and situations that you do in the military.
It is the least rigid and dogmatic place I have ever worked.
Posted by: Isab at February 9, 2014 7:42 PM
I hadn't thought about it that way before. Thank you.
Michelle at February 10, 2014 6:38 PM
When I read "Lesbian Avengers", I had a picture of The Scarlett Witch getting it on with She-Hulk.
Stan Lee at February 11, 2014 11:59 AM
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