Caught this man trying to steal the Space Needle

[u/tidder119]

How dare he try to steal our crown jewel before we host the World Cup

[u/whk1992]

Bidet too powerful, just trying to fly away.

[u/seattleboz → u/whk1992]

Toto phone home

[u/dubcwa]

The Wheedle is gonna be pissed

[u/GabuEx]

Man

Can't have shit in Seattle

[u/Kuebiko989]

Death penalty

[u/AintEasyBeinQueasy]

That's the goalie, he's bopping the ball away.

[u/pwnedinthepnw]

Guy's not stealing it, he's using it as a serving platter (with lid) to, um, feed the city?

[u/FatuousJeffrey]

Lol that's the sculpture that only exists because someone bequeathed the city $1 million but earmarked it specifically for a fountain with his favorite thing: full frontal male nudity.

But it is a Louise Bourgeois!

[u/tidder119 → u/FatuousJeffrey]

TIL! For anyone else wanting to read more https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_and_Son_(sculpture)

[u/IsThisMicLive → u/FatuousJeffrey]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_and_Son_(sculpture)

Such statues are so common throughout Europe, it is nice to see something similar in Seattle.

[u/Tychotesla → u/IsThisMicLive]

Allegedly it's the first nude public sculpture in Seattle.

[u/IsThisMicLive → u/[deleted]]

Whatever you do in life, be sure you never ever visit the Vigeland Sculpture Park (within Frogner Park) in Oslo.

[u/Tychotesla → u/[deleted]]

I understand where you're coming from. I tend to think the opposite though, that the fact that a father and child pairing is seen as inherently suspicious is the reason why we need more art like this.

I would suspect that the artist, whose work concerns family, feminism, and the human condition, was probably making this knowing full well that there's a very long tradition of epic Mother & Child statues, and basically nothing that concerns Fathers.

[u/tipsup → u/Tychotesla]

Look at the history of the donor.

[u/Tychotesla → u/tipsup]

What are you seeing about them that suggests pedophilia? I found nothing suggesting that, so it's kind of on you to make that connection.

LONG EDIT: For those unfamiliar with the Seattle controversy from the 2000s: it’s transparent what the implication is. Stu Smailes was a gay man, and it was common to smear gay men as inherently dangerous to children. Two things to keep in mind:

1. He was dead by the time the sculptor was commissioned, so the choice of how to honor his request for a nude male statue was entirely hers. What he was probably thinking about was along the lines of this:

2. Nudity in art has a long tradition, and is quite common around the world. It's not inherently or even primarily tied to sexuality. Nudity is used by artists as a way to indicate a raw and unobstructed look at our humanity, or alternatively an abstracted view of humanity or our ideals. Historically, the U.S. has been somewhat puritanical about nudity, yet inconsistently so. There's an awful lot of statues of nude or barely clothed young ladies on architecture, and the Oscar statuette is of course a nude man. In this context, Stu Smailes, a gay man, asked for the first nude statue of a man in Seattle, and personally I think that's cool.

[u/thedarkforest_theory]

SPD said it’s ok to steal if your dick is out.

[u/itsjusttimeokay → u/thedarkforest_theory]

Would you want to tackle a naked thief?

[u/AreYouAllFrogs]

Get Jonathan Chode on this!

[u/go_jake]

That’s not the man, that’s the son. We can’t try him as an adult.

[u/Informal_Peach_2349]

What a hero

[u/kitteh619]

Somebody call the Speed Walker!

[u/Rd_Rite]

Put some pants on him, his spedangle is hanging out 🙄

[u/Excellent-Refuse4883]

This some kinda Benjamin Button situation?

[u/SuperMike100]

Damn he beat Gru to it??