Every year millions of “well-meaning” tourists board flights to take part in a most bizarre and horrific ritual of public indecency. They call it tradition or faith; but it should be called a haptic violation of gendered art. From thirteen-year-old Julia in Verona to Dubliner Molly Malone, scandalously nicknamed “The Cake with the Cart,” the female body is treated in art as a public object where a touch is the price for testing “love’s happiness.”
We have normalized the literal erosion of a statue’s private parts in the name of tourism. It’s embarrassing to witness a world that still believes that the fictional fairy tale of rubbing a lamp to make a genie grant his wishes is true, only here the lamp has been replaced with the breasts and footsteps of Bronze statues. Even in the 21st century, we view images of humanity as vending machines for our superstitions and sexual desires.
When bronze bodies become wishing wells
The shocking irony of today’s society is that people travel across oceans and continents to violate a bronze body for “happiness”, yet fail to respect the physical boundaries of a living woman. Shakespeare never suggested in his accounts that attacking the statue of a thirteen-year-old Juliet, who herself met a tragic end before she could truly live, would somehow give a tourist his own “happily ever after.”
Juliet statue in Verona. Source: PBS
The origins of these rituals rarely lie in ancient folklore or historical facts. Instead, they are almost entirely “invented traditions.” These modern myths are created to boost tourism and satisfy the obscene and covetous desires under the guise of “happiness”.
These modern myths are created to boost tourism and satisfy the obscene and covetous desires under the guise of “happiness”.
For example, in the story of Verona there was never a myth that rubbing Juliet’s breast would bring someone luck in love. It emerged towards the end of the 20th century when tourists began posing with each other to imitate each other in pictures, from which the city later benefited.
To gain insight into the depth of this claim, we must examine how these actions extend beyond the female body. At the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, the “fertility-giving” crotch of the Victor Noir statue was rubbed so often that the bronze was polished to a high shine. By the same token, the story of the fertility rites at Victor Noir’s tomb in Paris was brought to life by 1970s guidebooks and urban legends, rather than by any 19th-century belief. These actions are no longer about honoring spirits, but rather a mental process in which people are now encouraged to cross every single limit. By disguising a buttons As “myth” we provide a socially acceptable cover for what is in reality the degradation of the human form to satisfy a selfish impulse.
When laws protect monuments but profit from their violation
Added to this is the deafening legal hypocrisy. Italy’s 2024 ecovandalism law imposes a maximum fine of 60,000 euros for defamation of cultural heritage. In France, the offense of indecent behavior in urban areas is technically protected by the phrase “Outrage aux bonnes moeurs” (Outrage aux bonnes moeurs).
Molly Malone’s statue. Source: Grafton Street
But when it comes to the statue of Juliet or the tomb of Victor Noir, these laws are virtually ignored in order to boost tourism. Verona recently even introduced an entrance fee of €12 just to enter the courtyard. By monetizing the erosion of these statues, the state becomes a pimp of its own monuments. Laws are thrown out to raise revenue, signaling that hurting a corporation is a small price to pay for stimulating the local economy.
The Kamakhya Paradox: When we worship and violate the same body
For an Indian audience, the irony is even more serious. We live in a world where the female form is literally worshiped in the Kamakhya Temple. The Sanctity of menstruationA woman’s body and biology as well as the power of the goddess are considered sacred and yet the same people participate in sexualized “traditions” that reduce women to objects of happiness as part of their dreamy European trip.
What will happen to the culture that pays respect to the Divine Feminine while at the same time deems it justified to rub a statue’s breasts until they are sore? This shows that even the respect we give to the female body is not absolute. We worship it when it is a naked goddess, while we commit violence against it when it is a statue or a woman in an urban, dense crowd.
What happens if we teach that consent doesn’t apply to bronze?
If the physical deterioration of a monument is casually trivialized, how can we ever have a culture that has a sense of respect for the living? By allowing such acts to happen without correction, we condition people to believe that the bodies in the spotlight are being put on the streets without their consent and permission.
Gravestone with statue of Victor Noir, killed in 1870, Père-Lachaise Cemetery, Paris. Source: Atlas Obscura
We deny the subject his humanity and turn a monument into a lucky charm that says that once a body is placed in the popular square, it is no longer its own and is part of the crowd. Whether it’s Victor Noir’s “fertility-giving” crotch or Julia’s breasts, we see the same rot. It’s time we realized we can’t speak out against it gender-based violence on the same streets we live it up to check off a task from our travel list.
It’s time we realized we can’t speak out against it gender-based violence on the same streets we live it up to check off a task from our travel list.
Respect is not a selective trait that can be turned off for a vacation photo. As long as we turn art into a fetishized object, the happiness we seek will be built on the foundation of violation. We should decide what we consider more valuable: a smoothly working piece of metal or the virtue of the human form. If we want a world where living bodies are safe, we must first examine why we believe that “happiness” is something that can be squeezed out of a dissenting breast. If we are to protect the living, we must begin by taking our uninvited hands from those of bronze.