Italian Statue of Scantily Clad Worker Draws Controversy: An 'Offense to Women'

[janterry]

The latest public monument to draw a bitter outcry is a sexually suggestive statue of a female field worker in Italy, which was accused of promoting sexism by politicians this week.

The bronze statue, which depicts a young woman wearing a transparent, body-hugging dress, was presented on Saturday in a ceremony attended by a mostly male audience, including former prime minister Giuseppe Conte, in the city of Sapri, in Italy’s southern Campania region. Created by sculptor Emanuele Stifano, it is a tribute to the 19th-century poem “La Spigolatrice di Sapri” (The Gleaner of Sapri) by Luigi Mercantini, which tells the story of Carlo Pisacane, an early socialist thinker who led a failed attempt to liberate the Bourbon Kingdom of Naples.

picture at link
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/sapri-italy-monument-sexism-allegations-1234605053/

[hlthe2b]

1. Artistically, I find that pretty amazing to have portrayed in bronze and very lifelike.

That said, the sexualizing and objectifying in the depiction of a female field worker disturbs me as well. I'd say it is pretty clear what they were going for.

sigh...

[jimfields33]

3. It's weird. There's no way to know she works in the field.

I highly doubt she would wear that working out in the fields. I’m all for art, but this makes no sense.

[Budi]

2. Ugh. That's the message the artist thought embodied the worker?

Why that?
WHY!

Maybe someone will honor her dignity & finish dressing her.

JFC

[Irish_Dem]

4. Yes, someone needs to get some clothes on that woman.

Most women go to work fully dressed.

[janterry]

5. he says if it were his choice, she would have been naked

[ret5hd]

6. I think Ashcroft has a line on where to buy curtains...

for just such a use.

[msongs]

7. if it was roman/greek from antiiquity ppl would be celebrating it nt

[janterry]

8. ironic that so many hundreds of years later,

we're still objectified - just like those roman/greek women --who had no real rights in their society.

I suppose if this were pure art - well. That's okay. But, this statue was supposed to honor woman working in the field.

[hlthe2b]

9. If that were the focus of the rendering, yes, I would. It was not, but rather to show a farm laborer

Do you really think this woman was portrayed as she appeared (or, rather how the men commissioning the art WANTED her to appear)? Big difference. I have no problem with nudity in art (and I already commented on the positive artistic aspects of this piece). I do have a problem with exploitation.