Statues for exchange: touch, value and cultural commodities

Molly Malone ‘the tart with the cart’: dehumanised figures and art as transactional

260428 Beeld door Hannah Vonk

Every day on Dublin’s Suffolk Street, tourists queue up to take a photo with the famous Molly Malone. But instead of simply posing beside her, they photograph themselves handling her breasts. This reflects a story not of cultural heritage but of cultural commodification, where such acts have become part of a fabricated belief that touching Molly Malone’s breast will bring “good luck”.

The statue of Molly Malone is found in Dublin City centre and represents a heroine from a famous Irish folk song called ‘Cockles and Mussels’. With time, her figure has become a symbol for working class Dubliners and an emblem of national pride. However, given the narrative of her sexualisation, her figure is unfortunately followed by nicknames such as ‘the tart with the cart’, ‘the trollop with the scallop’ or ‘the flirt with the skirt’. Coupled with constant gropings by tourists, many concerned Dubliners have called for a stronger protection of her statue and greater respect for her legacy.

Molly Malone has become the focus of cultural and feminist scholarly research within the Irish context, proving an invaluable case study for the feminisation of Ireland and the commercialisation of cultural heritage for Irish tourism. However, Molly Malone is not the only statue facing this “fetishisation”, as statues such as Verona’s Juliet Capulet or Victor Noir in France are facing similar issues. Given the fact that Molly Malone is not an isolated case, the statue reflects the expansion of mass tourism, which may explain why growing numbers of people have been drawn to groping statues.

What’s more concerning is that these interactions are not random - they are transactional - given that these “touchings” become a form of exchange. For one, the statue dedicated to Juliet Capulet in Verona suffers from similar gropings to her chest as tourists believe that this will bring them love. Intriguingly, another statue dedicated to Juliet in Munich also suffers from these gropings for the same reason, as this trope does not escape her character. Separately, we also have the case of Victor Noir, found in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. This statue is depicted lying down and constructed with an apparently ‘large bulge’. Over time, the popularity of this feature led women to visit him, giving rise to the legend that touching his crotch could help them get pregnant. Taken together, these examples suggest that both male and female statues are subjected to such forms of exchange. However, it is important to point out that female statues are systematically sexualised and romanticised. When such acts are framed as exchanges for rewards such as love, luck or fertility, they reflect a wider commodified logic in our society.

In considering how our treatment of such statues shapes contemporary culture, I draw connections between these dynamics and broader capitalist forces. More specifically, I questioned whether this “transactional” experience with statues is unique to our contemporary treatment of art and culture, or whether it instead reflects a broader neoliberal mindset. A mindset which is increasingly dictating and stifling how we understand and perceive art and culture.

Capitalism and its neoliberal structures have shaped our world systems, with their influence becoming increasingly visible in everyday life - an influence that can be seen in how these statues are being treated. This, in turn, has direct consequences for how we experience culture as something that produces and sustains shared meaning. Moreover, the ways in which people engage and participate in art and its materialisations in culture is central to understanding public engagement. In fact, public art is often conceptualised through sociopolitical engagement and through its capacity to create “a feeling of connectedness and belonging, to organise skills of civic involvement, and also to invigorate groups to explore and express individual and shared identities” (Bolonaki, 2023, p. 40). Therefore, when confronted with the commercialisation of statues such as Molly Malone, Juliet Capulet, or Victor Noir, which are marketed into becoming tourist traps, we can come to understand their treatment by the public. They are transformed into commodified, objectified figures, stripped of meaning and meant for your personal gain.

Notably, many statues subjected to these gropings have become the focus of activist campaigns that seek to reclaim them through artistic interventions. In this context, art activism is focusing efforts to reclaim these statues, transforming them from sites of contention into sites of resistance. For example, a female busker initiated a #LeaveMollymAlone campaign, performing beside the statue to raise awareness of such inappropriate attitudes and to help protect the statue (Donohoe, 2025). Moreover, other campaigns have involved writing warnings on her breasts, such as “7 years bad luck” seeking to subvert the belief that the statue brings good luck (Donohoe, 2025). With the previous understanding of public art, we can see how such instances of art activism can inspire audiences to take action. What’s more, these participatory art practices play an important role in fostering a sense of collective identity by developing connections across different subjectivities, ultimately sharing an anti-capitalist ethos (Bolonaki, 2023, p. 48). Such initiatives are therefore meant to re-establish more affective connections to art, allowing people to experience art collectively rather than capitalise and exploit it.

In short, a dehumanisation of our figures in artform speaks to a degradation of culture. This, in turn, reinforces a fragmented society that tolerates and normalises the mistreatment these statues endure. As art and culture are stripped of their meaning, we are left with a world without affective connection. Therefore, we must make active attempts to deter the continued devaluation of said statues. These acts of art activism serve to underscore the urgent need for a collective to join against the commodifying tendencies that shape our world, in an effort to preserve culture and our sense of meaning.

Bibliography
Bolonaki, S. (2023). Public Art: a Review. Social and Political Practices. European Journal of Creative Practices in Cities and Landscapes, 6(2), 39–54. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2612-0496/17051
Donohoe, A. (2025). Molly Malone statue may be elevated to keep her out of reach of repeated groping. [online] Irish Independent. Available at: https://www.independent.ie/life/travel/travel-news/molly-malone-statue-may-be-elevated-to-keep-her-out-of-reach-of-repeated-groping/a1028720024.html

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