As a part of our "Essays" section,
the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.
Photo Courtesy of Florida State University
As a third-year student at Florida State University (FSU), there is a characteristic of our campus that has never sat quite right with me.
On my way to classes, I pass by the statue of President T.K. Wetherall by Westcott Fountain. When I go to Strozier Library, I always notice the statue of Dr. Robert Manning Strozier sitting stoically at the entrance.
On game days, it is easy to recognize the Sportsmanship statue by the stadium, which displays integrity through the image of an FSU football player helping up a player from an opposing team.
FSU is filled with well-articulated and meaningful sculptures designed to recognize historical figures and stories at our school.
However, as a woman on campus, I have noticed a lack of bronze-sculpted women.
Most of the statues on campus are men. At first, I thought that perhaps I was exaggerating this difference, but some research on our campus’s memorials and monuments quickly proved my observation.
For those wondering, here is a list of the male statues on FSU’s campus:
George Matthews Edgar.
T.K. Wetherall.
Bobby Bowden.
John Thrasher.
Sportsmanship Statue, two unnamed football players.
Unconquered Statue, an unnamed Seminole man.
Integration Statue, Fred Flowers and Maxwell Courtney.
Francis W. Eppes.
Robert Manning Strozier.
Paul A. M. Dirac.
Eric Barron.
Legacy Fountain, an unnamed child.
Seminole Family Sculpture, an unnamed Seminole man and child.
Stanley Marshall.
Bernard F. Sliger and Doak S. Campbell.
Dale W. Lick.
Albert A. Murphree.
Claude Pepper.
And now, here is a list of the female statues on campus:
Doby Flowers.
Three Sisters, three unnamed Chi Omega women.
Legacy Fountain, five unnamed children.
Margaret Rector Sandels, which shows only her portrait.
Seminole Family Sculpture, unnamed Seminole women.
This information was not only shocking but very discouraging. There are twice as many male statues on our campus, which is almost comical considering FSU was a women’s college for its first 42 years as a university.
Moreover, only 2 of the 11 women figures are recognized by name, while the rest serve as unnamed female representatives. For example, the Three Sisters statue in Greek Park was donated by FSU alumni from the Chi Omega sorority.
As an active woman on campus, I find it unsettling walking around countless bronze male figures, without any female sculptures to acknowledge.
While FSU has never had a woman as president, there have been countless influential women leaders on campus who have improved the status of FSU and more women who have helped fund projects and buildings. However, they clearly go unseen through this form of art.
As upsetting as this already is, in reality, women are heavily underrepresented in sculptures across the country. In the US, there are about 300 statues that recognize real women in history. Meanwhile, 5,000 statues recognize real men.
Additionally, statues of women are often mistreated or sexualized, which heavily compares to the respect given to statues of men.
More specifically, there is a global trend of groping the breasts of female statues for good luck, like Molly Malone in Dublin, Ireland, and the Juliet statue in Verona, Italy. This sort of action promotes the objectification and sexualization of women.
While this might not seem like a large problem, the reality is that sculptures and monuments are designed to tell history. Therefore, it is disheartening for a campus with so much history of empowering female leaders to recognize so little of them through the art of sculpting.
FSU should have more female sculptures, not only to recognize the women of the past but also to inspire current students who are women.
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