Statue of tragic British singer Amy Winehouse in Camden, London. I
took this picture in 2018. Amy was only 27 when she died.
Back to statues. Of course you get statues of known people but you also get more general representative statues. Known people might include Winston Churchill or Queen Victoria while representative statues might depict coal miners or suffragettes.
A fairly recent study of American statues of known people revealed that only 7% were of women while over here in Great Britain it was not much better - with only 13% being of women. Children could easily get the wrong impression for the statue arithmetic suggests that men are inherently more important and have achieved more noteworthy things.
To accompany this blogpost I have picked six photographs of women's statues. It was pleasing to discover that there are several statues of Rosa Parks but in my opinion, the best one is in Essex County, New Jersey outside the courthouse. Rosa is clearly sitting on the bus during her famous attempted ride home on December 1st 1955. On the empty seat next to her, some of her words are inscribed: "You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right". She was very brave.
The most famous published sisters were born here in Yorkshire - Anne, Emily and Charlotte Bronte. Their statue stands in the garden of the old parsonage at Haworth which was their family home. To tell you the truth, I am not impressed by this statue. It seems a little amateurish to me. I think these remarkable sisters deserved something finer placed in a more prominent public location:-
I rather like the exuberant statue pictured below. It celebrates the life of the Liverpool singer Cilla Black who was a contemporary of The Beatles. Later she was to become a much loved TV host on British television:- Near to the Anne Frank Huis in Amsterdam there is a statue of Anne Frank herself. It is rather unprepossessing in my opinion. Anne was only fifteen years old when she died in the dubious care of The Nazis at the Bergen-Belsen death camp. It is wonderful that her salutary story continues to be heard:- Finally, here's another American statue depicting a key figure in the suffragette movement. She was Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) and the statue is located in her childhood home town - Adams, Massachusetts. Though she petitioned for equality throughout her adult life, she never really witnessed her dreams come true. White women were finally enfranchised in The United States in August 1920 but remarkably it wasn't until 1965 that all black women were finally granted the vote:-
I remember the ann frank statue and thought it didn’t capture the soul or the energy of the girl
ReplyDeleteA real artist should have been employed.
DeleteRosa Parks has long been on my short list of heroes.
ReplyDeleteI wonder who else is on that list.
DeleteHarvey Milk is there, too.
DeleteThe Bronte sisters were from Yorkshire? I always assumed they were Welsh. Love the Cilla Black statue and Rosa Parks, what a wonderful role model she was.
ReplyDeleteYes, 99% Yorkshire. Their father - the Reverend Patrick Bronte had Irish connections.
DeleteHe changed his surname from Brunty.
DeleteI do love the Cilla statue. Amy Winehouse, maybe. But Rosa Parkes looking so dignified on the bus seat takes the prize.
ReplyDeleteI hope that nobody ever vandalises the Rosa Parks statue. Racists may deem it to be offensive.
DeleteHard to pick up on the subject with only a few words in my comment, and therefore I limit myself to the statues as such: Love the Cilla Black one and agree about the Bronte sisters‘ one; I don‘t much like the style in which their group statue was done. It looks like something typical of the 1960s or so.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to read your thoughts on the subject in general.
DeleteAn old blogging friend of mine spebt years fundraising for a statue of Virginia Woolf.
ReplyDeleteIt's in Richmond upon Thames here she had Hogarth Press.
I'm proud of him for doing that
And so you should be. It is a very good statue - by Laury Dizengremel.
DeleteI wish i could delete the typos!
DeleteAs it is Easter, I forgive you.
DeleteWhere is Branwell Bronte's statue ? I am sure he had met Heathcliffe characters in the Black Bull and at the translation where he worked.
ReplyDeleteIt must be hard working at a translation! Is that what you meant Dave?
DeleteEven train station. Silly autocorrect. 🐴 If he worked for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway I am sure property and translation got lost. Do you not think Branwell wrote or invented some of his sisters male characters, I do?
ReplyDeleteBranwell was often so pissed or high on opium that it was a miracle he could make his way back home let alone suggest characters for his sisters' books.
DeleteI am afraid women have taken a backseat (in fact no seat) over the centuries and not been recognised for anything they have done good up until the last 100 years and even then it has been hard-going. I see there is one for Florence Nightingale in London and Derby, so I guess by 1915 when it was sculpted, things were finally starting to change.
ReplyDeletePatrimony likes to hang on to what it has got. Only 29% of the members of The House of Lords are women and 35% of MP's. Full equality is still a long way off.
DeleteI like the Cilla Black statue the best. Lively and exuberant, as you said!
ReplyDeleteI realise now that many of Britain's 13% (female statues) will be of one woman - Queen Victoria. I hope that Queen Elizabeth II gets a fine statue in her memory.
DeleteI suppose living next to The Apothecary and a pub didn't help. Did they have Quiz Nights?
ReplyDeleteBranwell couldn't even say how many fingers he had he was so far gone.
DeleteRosa Parks was indeed a very brave woman. The African-American museum in Washington, DC is a great place to go to learn more about her.
ReplyDeleteThat museum would be top of my list if I ever got to visit Washington D.C.. By the way, how come D.C. comics got to own America's capital city?
DeleteThe President recently issued an executive order for more women to be represented in the National Park System in the USA. A step in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteI think maybe I just don't like statues of people. They are usually creepy in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to think how many statues of women are in my city. I will have to plan some walks to investigate that! I can think of 2 right now...
ReplyDeleteI do think Anne Frank as well as the Brontë sisters would have deserved statues that represented them better. (Like portrayed in the process of writing, or at least holding a book, to indicate what they're famous for!)
ReplyDeleteThe Rosa Parks statue is serene, and yet belies the turbulent times she lived in and her endurance to achieve equal rights.
ReplyDeleteThe Bronte statue is terrible, and I agree they deserve something better!