Fearless Girl. Shinya Suzuki/Flickr. Some Rights ReservedIn the last few months, there has been a spate of controversies in the media about everyday sexism in the design of traffic lights, the distribution of public statues and the inclusiveness of the imagery on toilet doors. At the heart of these controversies lies the idea that the physical environment in which we live encodes cultural values in ways which reveal deeply embedded prejudices in society, including sexist biases.
Such biases are becoming the subject matter of public art interventions that seek to challenge the stereotypes embedded in society – many of which are embedded in very literal, physical ways. At the beginning of April, an initiative aimed at highlighting sexual harassment on the public transport system appeared on Mexico City’s metro. This comprised a seat in one of the train carriages which included an extruding penis moulded into the plastic. A label next to it addressed to men only, explained that while it would be uncomfortable to sit here, this is nothing compared to the sexual violence that women often suffer on their daily commute. This conceptually-arresting piece of art suggested in a pointed way that men and women often experience civic space really differently.
In addition to such interventions, statues and monuments as an overt form of political statement, also become the focus for political struggle against the reproduction of sexism. In many locations around the world, there’s a huge gender imbalance in terms of the people who get memorialised. The campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez has estimated, for example, that only 2.7 percent of the statues in Britain are of historical, non-royal women.In other words, unless you’re a man, a monarch or a muse there’s little chance of getting yourself placed on a podium.
