(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) A bronze sculpture unveiled in Boston last week to honor civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, was ambiguous enough for many people to see sexual acts.
When Boston officials were first presenting the monument at Boston Common, they didn’t realized that they would be trolled by the public, according to the New York Post.
“The Embrace,” a 40-foot-wide and 20-foot-high sculpture by conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas, was supposed to be a monument that would move Boston forward, TMZ reported.
The pair of disembodied arms was modeled on an iconic photograph of the Kings’ embrace when they found out MLK had won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize.
“To have a monument that represents embracing, embracing culture, people, embracing accents, ways of lives that are robust, embracing our full selves and embracing each other—that’s what Boston can be post-pandemic,” said Imari Paris Jeffries of the King Boston group, which raised $20 million of the funding to commission the monument.
“We want Boston to be known as a city of inclusion, the city of embrace, the city of love,” Jeffries continued. “We want to be the most welcoming, belonging city in the country. When you’re inside it, you’re going to look up and see the sky and hopefully, you’re going to feel their light shining down on you,” he added.
Even though the statue received some praise from people following its crowded unveiling ceremony on Friday, many others—especially people on Twitter—started to criticize the statue for being a poorly designed eyesore.
“I screamed. It does not get better,” one of the Twitter users responded to another tweet featuring images of the statue under specific angles that seem to do the opposite of honoring the legacy of MLK.
I screamed. It does not get better🤣🤣🤣
— Toronto Dominatrix; Mistress Mystique 🤍 (@iWantMystique) January 14, 2023
“I have some questions about the MLK sculpture in Boston,” another user wrote.
I have some questions about the MLK sculpture in Boston pic.twitter.com/KVSKmdSw5S
— Marie Sheehan RMA (@irshhnr4) January 14, 2023
Others said that if the creators intended to make a statue that had multiple meanings, then they succeeded.
“Look at it from one direction and it looks like a hand holding a giant dong, look at it from the other and it looks like oral sex. If that was the intent they nailed it,” one of the users wrote.
Look at it from one direction and it looks like a hand holding a giant dong, look at it from the other and it looks like oral sex. If that was the intent they nailed it
— Dooner 🏴☠️🅱️ (@TimothyDooner) January 14, 2023
Some people suggested that was a joke.
“Naaahhhh they gotta be a trolling.”
Naaahhhh they gotta be a trolling 😭😭😭😭😭
— Balanced Breakfast 🍳🥓 (@KirvinMoesquit) January 14, 2023
