Denmark to tear down Copenhagen’s ‘pornographic’ mermaid statue

A statue of a mermaid with big breasts will be removed from its location in Copenhagen after complaints that it is “pornographic” and vulgar.

The four-metre-tall Big Mermaid has been described as “a man’s hot dream of what a woman should look like”, and its breasts have been the subject of controversy for years.

It was unveiled in 2006 a few hundred metres from the famous statue of The Little Mermaid, on Langelinie Pier.

After complaints that the bigger mermaid was too sexualised, it was transferred to Dragor Fort, part of Copenhagen’s former sea fortifications, several kilometres south of the city, in 2018.

Now the Danish agency for palaces and culture is reportedly preparing to remove it altogether, saying it does not fit with the cultural heritage of the fort, which dates to 1910.

Criticism ‘pure nonsense’

Peter Bech, a Danish restaurateur who designed and commissioned Big Mermaid, said he could not understand what the fuss was about.

“The mermaid has completely normal proportions in relation to her size. Of course the breasts are big on a big woman,” Bech told Danish broadcaster TV 2 Kosmopol.

He argued that the statue attracts tourists and called criticism of it “pure nonsense”, adding that he hoped a compromise could be reached so it could stay.

Mathias Kryger, art critic for the Politiken newspaper, described Big Mermaid as “pornographic”.

Sorine Gotfredsen, another journalist, wrote in the newspaper Berlingske: “Erecting a statue of a man’s hot dream of what a woman should look like is unlikely to promote many women’s acceptance of their own bodies.”

Other critics said the proportions of the mermaid amount to body-shaming for the majority of ordinary women.

World-famous symbol of Denmark

The statue of The Little Mermaid was created in 1913 and is based on a story by Hans Christian Andersen. A world-famous symbol of Denmark, it is one of Copenhagen’s most popular tourist attractions.

A similar row erupted in Italy two years ago, when a statue of a mermaid with large breasts and a generous bottom was unveiled in the resort town of Monopoli in Puglia.

Critics said its large buttocks and soccer ball-shaped breasts were vulgar and overly sexual.

The statue had “two silicone boobs that would make a plastic surgeon blush”, Tiziana Schiavarelli, a local, wrote on Facebook. “It has a huge arse that you’d never see on a mermaid – at least not one that I have ever seen.”

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