“Terre des Femmes”
Bronze statues as a symbol against sexual harassment
A telling detail of the bronze female statue “Enchanting Julia” in Munich. photo
© Peter Kneffel/dpa
Where passers-by frequently touch bronze statues can usually be easily identified by the color. A women’s rights organization used this for a campaign against sexual violence.
With shiny bronze statues of women and large posters, the women’s rights organization “Terre des Femmes” in Munich, Berlin and Bremen drew attention to sexual assaults.
The “Enchanting Julia”, the “Mrs. Rhine” at the Neptune Fountain and the “Youth” in the Hoetgerhof “visibly show the decades of attacks by passers-by,” the organization announced on Monday. The fact that the bronze statues are repeatedly touched on their bare breasts by passers-by leaves traces – “just as it does for those affected by sexual violence.”
“Sexual harassment is a problem that is far too often trivialized or ignored,” the organization’s head of departments, Sina Tonk, is quoted in the statement. “We must work together to ensure that those affected are heard and perpetrators are held accountable.”
The posters next to the statues were put up on Friday and should be removed again on Monday afternoon – “for approval reasons,” as a spokeswoman for “Terre des Femmes” said on Monday.