Medusa with the head of Perseus

Medusa with the Head of Perseus, erected outside the court where Harvey Weinstein was convicted, is intended to invert the narrative myth of Medusa, portraying her after an act of self-defence. Critics say that it offers a “revenge fantasy” that wrongly casts victims of sexual violence as aggressors. ALAMY.

A statue of Medusa holding the severed head of Perseus has been erected outside the New York court where Harvey Weinstein was convicted of rape, in a monument hailed by its fans as a new “icon of justice” for the modern age. But days after it was placed in the park across the street from the Manhattan criminal court, Medusa with the Head of Perseus has come under fire from rape survivors, who say that it offers a “revenge fantasy” that wrongly casts victims of sexual violence as aggressors. There were also those who felt that the artist, a man, had made Medusa look like a swimsuit model. Source: The Times