Just before International Women’s Day, State Street Partners installed a temporary statue of a girl defiantly staring down the “Charging Bull” sculpture in Manhattan’s Bowling Green Park–near the heart of the Financial District. It was meant to send a message about the need for greater diversity in the corporate world–particularly on Wall Street. Well, later in the week, we got a lovely example of why this statue needs to be permanent. A guy who apparently drew inspiration from Donald Trump got the bright idea to grind against the statue in front of dozens of people.
The statue, appropriately titled “Fearless Girl,” was unveiled on Tuesday, in time for International Women’s Day the next day. State Street’s deputy chief investment officer, Lori Heinel, talked about why her company made this move. Watch here.
Heinel said that “Fearless Girl” represents State Street’s desire to encourage diversity; she says that more diverse boards result in companies making better decisions. She remarked that one out of four companies on the Russell 3000 Index have no women on their boards, and 60 percent of them are only 15 percent female.
The statue was originally slated to be on display for a week, but has since been extended to 30 days. There is currently a drive to make the statue permanent; a Change.org petition to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has garnered over 13,100 signatures.
Well, Thursday night saw a very big reason why that statue belongs there for good. Architectural designer Alexis Kaloyanides was hanging out with some coworkers in Manhattan when they decided to check out the statue. She told “Inside Edition” that just minutes after a little girl posed for a picture with the statue, a young “man” ran up and started grinding against the statue. I use “man” in quotes because Kaloyanides was being extremely kind in describing his behavior as “lewd and totally inappropriate.”
Several bystanders yelled at this pervert, and he ran off–but not before Kaloyanides snapped a picture of him and posted it to Instagram.
She also posted it to Facebook; as of Saturday night, it’s been shared 19,000 times.
Kaloyanides was amazed at how the mood changed in 20 seconds. Before the “man” showed up, people were talking about “empowering women and children”–only to have to see this guy “showing his entitlement” in front of everyone. She has no qualms about posting that picture, saying that it’s long past time to combat the “boys will be boys” mentality. Lest you think that this is just “nasty women” raising a stink, Kaloyanides added that “decent men are outraged.”
Count me as one of those decent men. If I’d been out there, I would have grabbed this punk by the tie and yelled, “What the hell kind of man are you?” I’d also ask him if he’d be okay with this being done to his sister, his cousin, or his niece.
There’s another reason Kaloyanides was completely justified in sharing this picture. It’s hard to believe that any Wall Street firm would condone this behavior. This guy needs to be tracked down, and he needs to be fired.
Hopefully, some good will come from this sordid and debauched moment. It should remove any doubt that “Fearless Girl” should stay–for good. Sign here and tell de Blasio that this inspirational statue belongs here permanently.
