A bronze statue, simply titled "New Friends" and meant to symbolize camaraderie and friendship, adorns the campus of the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. Upon first glance, the statue seems harmless enough. A young woman is seated on a bench with an open book in her lap. Her attention is drawn to a young man who is engaging her in conversation. He stands with one leg propped on the bench.
It's art for art's sake and has meaning only in the eye of the beholder. So, what may seem to be an innocent and healthy depiction of student campus life can turn rather hostile in the eyes of a third-wave feminist. The art can quickly take on a new meaning: mansplaining, which is seen as the act of an obnoxious, know-it-all, man explaining something to a woman in a patronizing way.
Statue Found Guilty of #Mansplaining. pic.twitter.com/i5fthFSEKe
— Thoughtoffense (@Thoughtoffense) May 29, 2015
Over the Memorial Day weekend, the notion of mansplaining reared its ugly head and the photo of this bronze art went viral giving feminists one more thing to bitch about. According to the sculptor, this is far from the meaning he intended in the creation process."It was two students visiting, talking … implying nothing beyond that," the sculptor, Paul Tadlock, told WITW. In fact, that's Tadlock's daughter in the sculpture. And the reason the male student has his foot up on the bench? It's not because he's talking down to the woman. It's because Tadlock wanted "to add a little more character to the scene."
At this point, it's all become rather comical. This is what decades of Women's Studies has produced.
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