Fearless girl facing Charging Bull simply restates outdated gender stereotypes. Public art and gender politics clash in corporate America

Kristen Visbal’s 250lb “fearless girl” sculpture recently won three Grand Prix and 18 Lions in all, making her the biggest winner in the history of the Cannes Lion International Festival of Creativity. The awards and accolades have credited her with challenging gender equality on Wall Street – despite her own use of gender stereotypes and the fact that the statue was commissioned by the very financial institutions the piece purports to challenge.

The statue, which was placed in front of Arturo Di Modica’s iconic “charging bull” – a minimalist three-and-a-half ton bronze sculpted bull that marks New York’s financial district – on International Women’s Day, has been at the centre of debates ever since. Their juxtaposition has spurred discussion about workplace gender equality as well as art that mostly ignore the political economy of the surrounding financial institutions that directly and indirectly brought them together.