The unkindest cut - youtube

The mayor of Zielona Gora, western Poland, has ordered the ‘castration’ of a statue featuring a naked man, erected in front of the entrance to an aqua park.

Until recently the sculpture, by Agnieszka Wolska, depicted two naked gymnasts – a woman and a man. However, after the mayor’s complaint about the depiction of the male organ, the artist had to file away the offending member with a grinding machine until the figure resembled a woman.

“It was painful for me to damage my own work but I had no choice,” the artist told the TVN 24 news station.

Mayor Janusz Kubicki is unrepentant however and explained that he ordered the removal of the statue’s genitals, not because he thinks it is inappropriate to expose them in public, but because the design of the sculpture submitted by the artist did not include them in the first place.

“I’m not offended by nudity, but by dishonesty,” says Kubicki. “Although I represent a left-wing party (SLD) I have conservative views. I also have the right to protest, just like I have the right to oppose adoption by same sex couples,” he said.

Law and Justice (PiS) politicians on the local council have already coined a name for the aqua park - “Pool by the eunuch" - and joke that insubordinate opposition councilors could meet the same fate as the hapless statue, now so cruelly deprived of its manhood. (mg/pg)