The Big Mermaid statue, Den Store Havfrue, in Denmark’s Copenhagen is set to be removed from public view due to criticism that it’s “ugly and pornographic” and “a man’s hot dream of what a woman should look like”.
The Big Mermaid statue – not to be confused with the city’s famous The Little Mermaid statue – is to be removed by Denmark’s Agency for Culture and Palaces due to it not aligning with the cultural heritage of Dragør Fort, the statue’s location.
The statue has been labelled as “ugly and pornographic” by Mathias Kryger, art critic at Politiken. Additionally, Sorine Gotfredsen, a Danish journalist, stated that, “Erecting a statue of a man’s hot dream of what a woman should look like is unlikely to promote many women’s acceptance of their own bodies.”
“It’s truly uplifting that many find the statue vulgar, unpoetic, and undesirable, because we’re suffocating in overbearing bodies in public space,” added Gotfredsen.
Peter Bech, the artist behind the statue, stated that he does not understand the criticism.