Sculpture has been an art form dating back to thousands of years, the earliest known sculpture formed around 32,000 B.C. It has gone through thousands of changes, discoveries, materials and new styles. Art is never stagnant, and neither are people. But how has people’s treatment of sculpture changed through time? Our ignorant treatment of art gives way to valid criticism of how close we hold the meaning behind sculptures to us.
Why Does this Matter?
You may think to yourself; this is sculpture- not a living being. So what’s the problem with touching it on the breast? Or anywhere else for that matter? To that I say, sculptures that have a history of being touched inappropriately are usually the last remaining legacy of people. Here’s some examples: Victor Noir, Lady Tushan, Molly Malone, and Juliet Capulet are all sculptures all around the world mainly known for being touched on their privates, and that’s only the most famous ones.
The way people treat the statues reflect on their character as people. It’s truly odd behavior, because no sane person would do that to another being, so why should anyone do it to an object representative of someone? Perhaps its because of what people think touching the statues will bring.
The Reason For It
There is no justifiable reason to think that touching the breast of a woman will bring good luck and fortune, but some people believe so. Many believe that Juliet Capulet and Molly Malones sculptures bring good wishes in a love life, and good luck respectively.
On the other hand, touching the statue of Victor Noir apparently also has a reason behind it. many people follow a sequence of actions when they visit his statue- which also serves as a gravesite. They kiss the statue laying above his dead body, touch him between the legs and then drop a flower into his hat. Why they do this? mainly for enhanced fertility and luck to find a husband.
Just Don’t Do It
Whether its a man or woman, many statues made in the honor of people are scandalized in ways nobody should be. In more photos taken with these statues than not the peoples faces are frozen in amusement with their hands rubbing onto the statues bronze bodies. Every photographed image I see of people interacting with the gravesite of Victor Noir, or Juliet Capulet which is still a minor in the play, they don’t seem to be there for the supposed “luck” that comes with touching the statue.
At a point any “reason” people had to basically grope the statues has dissipated when at a single glance its easy to tell exactly where the statue has been in contact the most. Though this behavior is more commonly seen through men, it is also women as well who do so. The sculptures shining bright gold at the most touched areas, and dark bronze or green depending on the decades the statue has stood.
As more hands lay upon the breast of a innocent woman as well as the groin over the resting spot of a man, sculpture begins to lose its meaning. The gold areas is what people are immediately drawn to- not the name of the person, the legacy they left behind, nor the impact they made on the world. They are simply a shiny pair of breasts to ogle at, to point and laugh. Nudity is not sexual, especially within art. But when people begin to treat representations of the body as a piece of meat we are deprived of these incredible people underneath the greedy palms grasping at them.
The Golden Thread 
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