A photo of a man pretending to hump the new “Fearless Girl” statue on Wall Street is going viral because he"s just that big of a douche.
Architectural designer Alexis Kaloyanides snapped the pic on March 9, the day after International Women’s Day, and posted it to Facebook.
“Almost as if out of central casting," she described it.
"Some Wall Street finance broseph appeared and started humping the statue while his gross date rape-y friends laughed and cheered him on."
"He pretended to have sex with the image of a little girl."
"Douchebags like this are why we need feminism.”
Two days earlier, the bronze statue of a young girl meant to signify the power of women in leadership roles was installed in Manhattan.
Right in front of the famous Wall Street bull, she became an instant inspiration … that this loser rubbed up against in a sexual manner.
Kaloyanides, 34, was out with co-workers when they decided to stop by the statue Thursday night to see the feminist effigy in person.
"It was a beautiful night… there were about 15 or 20 people there," Kaloyanides said, describing the scene that would soon turn sour.
"We started talking about the statue, a little girl about 5 or 6 years old proudly posed with the statue for a picture, it was just a nice moment."
"These three young men came along."
"At first they were hanging off the bull… and then one guy rushed up and started grinding against the statue of the girl, being lewd and totally inappropriate."
The stunt understandably shocked the crowd, which immediately started yelling at the unidentified man, who laughed as he left with friends.
“He was gone within 20 seconds, but it just ruined the mood of the scene,” Kaloyanides went on, calling the display "utterly revolting."
“[People were] talking about empowering children and women and then to have this 20-something showing his entitlement, defiling the statute…"
Kaloyanides got a photo, though, and posted it to social media, a decision she defends because some believe this is a laughing matter.
By spreading the photo, she ensures it won"t be.
"This is just further perpetuating a mentality of ‘boys will be boys,’ and that ‘it’s okay, it’s a joke, just brush it off,’” she said of her decision.
“This young man likely has a mother, a sister perhaps, a girlfriend, a wife, who knows? I’m getting tired of making excuses and laughing it off."
"I for one am not gonna laugh it off anymore."
“This man did something in public."
"He wanted to get a reaction, and he’s getting it now, good or bad,” she said. “And it’s not like it’s just a bunch of angry women."
"Decent men are outraged.”
The statue was installed Tuesday by State Street Global Advisers in an effort to push companies to add more women to their boards.
The financial manager, the world"s third largest, said it would vote against boards of companies that failed to take these very steps.
On the day the statue was erected, State Street planned to send letters asking 3,500 companies to act, which Kaloyanides respects:
"Companies with gender mixed leadership do financially better. It’s not just for appearances. This sculpture is a symbol of females in business."
“When girls are young and coming up, hopefully, as it was in my case, parents tell them ‘you can be anything you want,” she continued.
Later in life, she laments, reality hits and you"re "handed an entirely different set of experiences and suddenly we discount ourselves."
"Women in positions of power, they don’t want to be seen as being a b–tches. There’s a contradiction, boys are leaders and girls are bossy."
"This symbolizes a young girl untainted by the realities of the world. It’s still possible," she adds, bringing it back to her infamous photo:
"I have to believe that this [the photo and subsequent reaction] is just sort of a catalyst to get people to continue to say it’s not okay to act this way."
