Womyn Say Male Statue In Skivvies "A Sexual Assault"

[skb12172]

These twits throw around "rape" and "sexual assault" until it is trivialized to the point of losing much of its meaning. May they never learn the true meaning of the words...

Generally speaking, artist Tony Matelli’s work is unsettling. From sculptures made of meat to monkey murder, there’s a deep unrest massaged into a majority of his art. But does that make it sexual assault? One group of Wellesley College students says so.

Wellesley is currently hosting an exhibit of Matelli’s work, which they’re promoting via a statue of his, The Sleepwalker, placed outside the museum. As you can see, it’s a hyper-realistic statue of a dazed man in his underwear, lumbering forward to parts unknown. It’s a hit on Instagram, but a Change.org petition to have the work removed thinks a little differently.

“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,” wrote Wellesley junior Zoe Magid in the petition.

The comments, however, took the criticism to a whole new level. From charges of sexism to gender baiting, detractors really let the detractions fly:



"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,"

"He 'appears' like a creepy pervert! There are so many talented artists who create BEAUTY! This is not art! It's a sexual assault!"

“What does this statue do if not remind us of the fact of male privilege every single time we pass it, every single time we think about it, every single time we are forced to acknowledge its presence. As if we need any more reminders.”


There are, however, supporters to counteract those claims. The best of which, of course, comes from museum director Lisa Fishman:

"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."

In that sense, it appears as if we’re searching for something to be offended at with this one. Sure, the “triggers,” as Magid says, may be there, but the likelihood that they’ll be tripped is another debate entirely. Removing the statue, however, does have a 100 percent likelihood of stifling freedom of expression—and that’s on top of ruining a pretty good time, too.

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[Rod]

To these creatures (I won't dignify them by calling them women), a man breathing is a potential rapist. Their lives are going to be very disappointing and they'll all end up with 20 cats each. What garbage.

[Precision]

To these creatures (I won't dignify them by calling them women), a man breathing is a potential rapist. Their lives are going to be very disappointing and they'll all end up with 20 cats each. What garbage.

20 you say.


Sir, I think you need to up that by a multiplier above 3 and less than 11.

[308Mike]

I don't even know where to start on this one. I can bet NONE of them have EVERY had a satisfactory PERSONAL LONG TERM sharing relationship (and does NOT mean they were in charge of EVERYTHING).

To ME, the RESPONSES ALL SOUND LIKE a bunch of HATE-MALE spewing. If I was TRULY cynical, I'd thing those making the comments would much rather they had penises than vaginas (even though they have NO IDEA of the true power of the vagina in today's WESTERN society - of course mooslims are exempt 'cause they don't count [biting the HELL outta my tongue, cheek, and even GUMS - imagine THAT!!])!!

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

[HTRN]

Wellesley students finding something sexist?

Color me shocked.

[Aesop]

Obviously, they've all been raped by statues.

And they're the same caterwauling herd of harpies who'll be handing out vagina-pops and penis-sickles to celebrate the campus bi-annual Porn Week, while decrying employment fairs which interview for applicants as Rape and Oppression Fests.

What they seriously need was aptly described by Cary Grant in To Catch A Thief over fifty years ago:

"Two weeks at Niagara Falls with a good man."

They are doomed to find out that no matter how shrilly they shriek, they'll still never grow a penis, even if they act like one.

[Weetabix]

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

What will real life be like for them, I wonder?

Why weren't the penis-sicles rape?

[Aglifter]

So, they're saying every time a good looking woman walks by, we should scream, "Help! Help! I'm being assaulted!..."

[Greg]

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

What will real life be like for them, I wonder?

Why weren't the penis-sicles rape?

Combination of frustration, poor impulse control and a big dose of projection.

To be a reasonably healthy and attractive young male on the Wellesley campus, is to risk the heterosexual members of the student community (have to say that, because there are so many who aren't) throwing you down on the ground and mounting you.

[Aesop]

The downside there being that they probably look like the dates Fawn scrounged up for Otter's companions on their road trip.
Being mounted by lantern-jawed lacrosse players with unshaven legs probably doesn't come up much on lists of top 100 fantasies of hetero males.

PCU remains more documentary than fiction, even two decades later.