{"id":46968,"date":"2025-08-05T12:07:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T12:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/46968\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T12:07:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T12:07:09","slug":"denmark-to-remove-pornographic-mermaid-statue-reports-say-denmark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/46968\/","title":{"rendered":"Denmark to remove \u2018pornographic\u2019 mermaid statue, reports say | Denmark"},"content":{"rendered":"

A debate has erupted in Denmark<\/a> over the fate of a mermaid statue that is to be removed from public view after being decried as \u201cugly and pornographic\u201d and \u201ca man\u2019s hot dream of what a woman should look like\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Danish agency for palaces and culture is reportedly removing the 4×6 metre Den Store Havfrue (the Big Mermaid) from Drag\u00f8r Fort, part of Copenhagen\u2019s former sea fortifications, because it does not align with the cultural heritage of the 1910 landmark.<\/p>\n

Politiken\u2019s art critic, Mathias Kryger, has branded the statue \u201cugly and pornographic\u201d. Sorine Gotfredsen, a priest and journalist, wrote in the newspaper Berlingske: \u201cErecting a statue of a man\u2019s hot dream of what a woman should look like is unlikely to promote many women\u2019s acceptance of their own bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cIt\u2019s truly uplifting that many find the statue vulgar, unpoetic, and undesirable, because we\u2019re suffocating in overbearing bodies in public space.\u201d<\/p>\n

The man behind the 14-tonne sculpture, Peter Bech, has said he does not understand the criticism, saying that the stone figure\u2019s breasts are simply \u201cof a proportional size\u201d to its scale.<\/p>\n

Others have said the criticism reflects society\u2019s attitudes to women\u2019s bodies more generally \u2013 and not in a good way. For Aminata Corr Thrane, Berlingske\u2019s debate editor, the scrutiny of the mermaid\u2019s breasts was tantamount to body shaming.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo naked female breasts have to have a specific academic shape and size to be allowed to appear in public?\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

Noting that the Big Mermaid was \u201carguably a bit less naked\u201d than her famed petite contemporary in bronze and granite, the Little Mermaid, Corr Thrane added: \u201cOn the other hand, she has bigger breasts, and that\u2019s probably where the problem lies.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cPerhaps the two statues \u2013 the Big and the Little Mermaid \u2013 represent two sides of woman, and the eternal tug of war about what a real woman is. And perhaps even what a wrong woman is.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2006 the Big Mermaid was erected at Langelinie Pier in Copenhagen, near the Little Mermaid. But it was removed in 2018 after locals denounced it as \u201cthe fake and vulgar mermaid\u201d.<\/p>\n

It was subsequently moved to Drag\u00f8r Fort, until the Danish agency for palaces and culture intervened in March, requesting its removal. Drag\u00f8r municipality has since reportedly declined Bech\u2019s offer of donating it as a gift.<\/p>\n

Helle Barth, chair of Drag\u00f8r muncipality\u2019s climate, urban and business committee, told Berlingske that although it was a nice offer, \u201cit\u2019s just hard to fit in. It takes up a lot of space.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bech, who has said he made the statue in response to tourists\u2019 comments that the Little Mermaid \u2013 inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale \u2013 was too small, has said he is often told by people in Drag\u00f8r that they love his sculpture. He is hoping to find a way to keep it in the town.<\/p>\n

The Danish agency for palaces and culture declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A debate has erupted in Denmark over the fate of a mermaid statue that is to be removed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":["post-46968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}