Iconic Mermaid Statue To Be Taken Down After Critics Say It’s Inappropriate

A 13–foot mermaid statue with pronounced breasts in Denmark is slated to be removed after it was deemed to be a misrepresentation of the female form and obscenely adult in nature.

The towering effigy was first erected in 2006 in the country’s capital, Copenhagen, not far from the century-old Little Mermaid, which venerates the author of the titular tale, Hans Christian Anderson.

The creator of the recent addition, which has already been moved once because of earlier controversy, has since surfaced to slam his critics and claim that the figurine’s upper torso is proportionate to her size.

The local city council rejected the statue even after it was offered to them free of charge

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The Danish outlet Dragør Nytreported in July that the Danish Palaces and Cultural Heritage Agency requested Den Stor Havfrue (Danish for TheLarge Mermaid) be removed from Dragør near the country’s Oresund Strait where it now stands—“because it is considered not to be in harmony with the fort’s cultural heritage.”

The outlet claims that the decision has since prompted the statue’s designer, a restaurateur named Peter Bech, to give the piece of art to the city council free of charge.

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Local leadership, however, rejected the offer, asserting that “the mermaid sculpture is difficult to fit in, as it is not related to Dragør’s history and can thus be considered an element that does not contribute to the story of, for example, Dragør Old Town or the harbor.”

The effigy’s designer claims he had it crafted as a way of saying thank you

Dragør Nyt noted that Bech is having difficulty digesting the officials’ stance.

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He reportedly reasoned that Dragør was a port city, so it “would make perfect sense” that the statue was installed there. He then argued that “there are mermaid sculptures in lots of cities.”

Bech claimed that the statue was his way of giving back to the city.

“I have felt well treated and very welcome here since I moved to Dragør a few years ago. So I wanted to give something back and offered to let the municipality have the mermaid installed close to the water,” the outlet quoted him saying.

Critics say it is making people “dumber”

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The state organ was not the only entity calling for the mermaid’s removal. 

Speaking to local TV 2 Kosmopol, art critic Mathias Kryger said, “I simply think that this sculpture should never have been up in public space in the first place.”

He claimed the sculpture was “ugly” and part of an emerging trend threatening to make people “dumber.”

Image credits: Finn Årup Nielsen

“Sculptures must start reflections and be well thought out. I don’t think the Great Mermaid is characterized by that,” Kryger told the outlet.

A critic claimed the size of the statue’s breast will cause self-image issues among woman

Part of Kryger’s critique stems from the size of the mermaid’s bust, which led him to dub the figure “p**nographic.”

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Danish journalist Sorine Gotfredsen weighed in with dissent, too, describing the statue’s upper half as “a man’s hot dream of what a woman should look like” and suggesting it risked driving self-image issues among women.

Bech, who had the statue crafted in China and shipped to Denmark, called the argument “pure nonsense” and reasoned that its face and tail were large, and thus her upper torso was large too—but proportionate.

“Of course the breasts are big on a big woman,” he said.

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Bech found an ally in politician Paw Karslund, who said: 

“I simply think the argument that the statue should be ugly and p**nographic is too primitive. We shouldn’t be so afraid of a pair of breasts.”

The statue was first erected next to Hans Christian Anderson’s Little Mermaid

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The statue was first erected in Copenhagen in 2006, only yards from the bronze statue of the  Little Mermaid–which as a tribute to Christian Andersen’s tale–and was sculpted from bronze and perched on a rock alongside the city’s Langelinie promenade. 

Politics and dissent erupted around Den Stor Havfrue, which was relocated to Dragør Fort, outside Copenhagen, in 2018.

It has since been deemed a sore thumb there, too, with claims that it clashes with the locale’s 1910 heritage.

One netizen thinks a bikini top should fix the problem

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