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“Fearless Girl” Statue Being Moved to NYSE, Officials Site Safety Reasons

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The popular Fearless Girl statue that stands strong in front of the iconic charging bull sculpture in Manhattan’s Financial District is moving to a new destination, Fortune reported.

On Thursday, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and financial firm State Street Global Advisors—which commissioned Fearless Girl—announced the figure is relocating outside of the New York Stock Exchange, facing the building.

The statue was placed in front of the iconic Wall Street bull without permission from the city on March 7, 2017 by State Street Global Advisors, in a campaign developed by advertising agency McCann New York, to was celebrate the first anniversary of its “Gender Diversity Index” fund that “invests in U.S. large-capitalization companies that rank among the highest in their sector in achieving gender diversity across senior leadership”

State Street Global is a $2.5 trillion asset manager and they placed the statue strategically in front of the bull to send a message about gender diversity in the workplace.

The iconic bull has always been a popular tourist destination, the “Fearless Girl” has only made the area even more popular. City officials came to the conclusion that the number of pedestrians spilling into the streets created a safety hazard, according to The Straits Times.

After the deadly terrorist attack with a truck last year in Lower Manhattan, officials said they worried that crowds around the two statues could present a tempting target for a terrorist behind the wheel.

City officials said the new location by the stock exchange is an area that is already heavily restricted to traffic, where huge numbers of pedestrians but few cars pass through. Officials are also considering moving the iconic bull to a different location as well.

Since its installation in March 2017, Fearless Girl has been embraced by New Yorkers and tourists alike as a symbol of defiant feminism. It was initially supposed to remain installed for just a few days, but public affection prompted the city to extend the permit for a year, Fortune reported.

Not all feminists embraced the “Fearless Girl” however. Some feminists described the statue as “corporate feminism”, such as New York Times columnist Gina Bellafante who referred to the statue as an “an exercise in corporate imaging”.

State Street Global had entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the United States Department of Justice, agreeing to pay more than $64 million to resolve fraud charges for secretly billing clients for unwarranted commissions. This settlement was reached after 7 years of investigations in January of 2017, shortly before the “Fearless Girl” was installed. Some suggest the statue was placed to divert publicity away from the fraud settlement.

I am thrilled ‘Fearless Girl’ will remain in New York,” Ms Kristen Visbal, the sculptor behind the roughly 127cm-tall, 113kg bronze statute, said in a statement released by City Hall, The Straits Times reported.

By Artie Weinberger

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