French Hospital Uses Mural Of Superhero Gangbang To Open A Dialogue About Healthcare… Or Something

Freedom of expression in France is at the forefront of everyone's minds lately, and it apparently seemed like a good time for someone to call attention to this mural that was created 14 years ago. The mural depicts Superman, The Flash, Batman, and even Supergirl having their way with Wonder Woman. I'm most intrigued by the fact that Superman and The Flash have nearly identical equipment.

According to Vice (link below), the speech bubbles seen on the picture above were added to the photo when it was published by a Facebook group calling themselves Les médecins ne sont pas des pigeons ("Doctors aren't dupes"), and were not in fact part of the original mural, which adorned a wall of a hospital in Clermont-Ferrand.

These speech bubbles... read, "Take it deep," "Take that health reform," and "You should inform yourself a bit better!" They're thought to be intended as an attack on the reforms proposed by the French Health Minister Marisol Touraine last November. Those reforms—which proposed to clamp down on doctors charging over the odds for consultations by outsourcing the payment to health insurance companies—were rejected by the French National Medical Council (CNOM) on the grounds that they "didn't answer the needs of doctors on the ground, and of the patients."

No matter the mural's original intent, which like all great art was never discussed by the artist(s), the speech bubbles added to it certainly gave it a connotation of gang rape rather than gang bang, which all fans of porn know is an important distinction. There is no indication, however, that this is a depiction of rape, and frankly, everyone seems to be enjoying themselves too much to call this anything but a gangbang. Of course, in this particular context with the added speech bubbles, it raised the ire of a particularly vocal group of French feminists. 

The French feminist association Osez le Féminisme ("Dare Feminism") was quick to react to the Facebook post, publishing an article on its website asking for the fresco to be erased and for measures to be taken against the authors. The post also called the mural "misogynistic" and said that it wrongly used "rape as a means of showing discontent towards a Minister and her law." It warned that such representations could "eroticize extreme violence" and contribute to building a "degrading image of women." 

Right, because taking down the mural now instantly erases all images of it from the internet forever. That's how things work. Have no fear, though, because the hospital is obviously going to stand their ground on this.

The post was painted over early on Monday and Clermont-Ferrand announced it had decided to "erase the wall painting" and take "disciplinary, or even judiciary action against the presumed authors for their unacceptable behavior." 

Fantastic. 

Via Vice