By all appearances, an undeclared war against feminism has erupted in Mexico City, and leading the resistance to the women's movement is a woman.
Claudia Sheinbaum, who heads the government of Mexico City, has ordered the removal of a feminist monument – a statue of a little girl with a raised fist – installed last year to protest gender bias.
In its place, Sheinbaum wants to mount a statue honoring Indigenous women in Mexican history: a copy of a 15th-century statue unearthed by farmers in Veracruz last year titled "The Young Woman of Amajac."
At a press conference, Sheinbaum made her case for honoring indigenous women: "They are women who have historically fought for our country, and it is precisely the indigenous women who have had the least voice, who were the most discriminated against."
Gender bias
But wait.
Isn't that what the statue of a little girl is about: gender bias against those who have "the least voice" – in this case, little girls?
Mexico City feminists are outraged, calling the substitute monument a cop-out, a way to mitigate their complaint about present-day bias rather than those of the distant past.
In an interview with Courthouse News, the protesting feminists identified themselves only with their given names, presumably for fear of blowback in their workplaces.
Manuela said the idea of a monument to indigenous women is a political ploy that would take all meaning from the current feminist movement.
Fernanda spoke of the site's significance for the monument, calling it "a site of living memory that embraces all the struggles of women, not just one person or group."
Erika echoed the sentiment.
"It's not about putting up a monument to worship the past, but to recognize the present fight."
Statistics support their view about present-day bias against women. Last year, the "Global Gender Gap Report" from the World Economic Forum in Switzerland showed that a gap between men and women exists in health, education, and job opportunities.
Improvements in the stats are reportedly occurring, likely owing to the many feminist protests in recent years.
You may recall a column I wrote last year that talked about Mexico City's effort to replace a statue of Christopher Columbus with a monument to edify indigenous women.
The problem with that effort was that the city chose a male sculptor (Pedro Reyes) for the job, causing an outcry from feminists.
That outcry raised the question; do you have to be a woman to do women justice? As I noted, the answer is standing in a London Park – the statue honoring Mary Wollstonecraft – said to be the "mother of feminism" – without a stitch. The sculptor was female: Maggie Hambling.
Age of innocence
But here's the thing. The statue that Sheinbaum wants to get rid of isn't some raging activist that could upset the status quo or antagonize men fearing women battling the world for their fair share.
We're talking about a statue of a child, a little kid made even smaller by the outsized height of its pedestal – left over from the dethroned statue of Columbus. Hardly war mongering.
The figure of the girl comes across like the imp in the children's book series "Eloise," who lives on the "tippy-top floor" of New York's Plaza Hotel with her dog Weenie.
The statue also conjures up Fearless Girl, the bronze of a small girl in a defiant pose installed on Wall Street to protest gender bias in the boardroom.
Come on, Sheinbaum, if you want something neutral, it's already in place.
