@cosmiccitizen I wonder whether I'm deluded or if politics did have more content back then
("class warfare succumbed to brainrot")
@niplav FWIW I think I prefer this form of political action -- shifting the rhetorical framing of an issue by introducing new aesthetic elements to the public square -- more than 99% of alternatives. Yet I think what carries the day is the critique that this was obviously commissioned by State Street to advertise a boutique index fund.
@niplav Like isn't it telling that "fearless girl" has no greater identity? She's not drawn from myth or history. She is no one in particular because that would distract from the framing of this issue in strictly demographic terms.
There are lots of examples of amazing women and girls who could have been memorialized. But if that were the goal, then this project would vitally shift toward establishing recognition for the immortal words and deeds of public heroes. Zoon politikon.
@niplav On that last point, there's a very Arendtian view of what's happening: the marketplace (in the form of index funds) has now conditioned the constructive activities of humans (or "homo faber") to work on a very bleak, monotonous "societal" commodity form. We don't get individuality under these conditions, only demographic classifications. Thus it's important that "fearless girl" advertises a demographic-based version of the same old commodity slop as everything else.