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Trafalgar Square’s trans artwork obscures violence against women

Teresa Margolles's artwork has been unveiled in Trafalgar Square. Credit: Getty

September 19, 2024 - 10:55am

A new work of art has been unveiled to great fanfare in London. Hundreds of masks of human faces are suspended on a metal frame on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, where they will remain for the next 18 months. The installation, by Mexican artist Teresa Margolles, has echoes of a macabre Aztec artefact, a 15th-century tower of skulls discovered in Mexico City. But that isn’t the most striking thing about it.

According to the Guardian’s review yesterday, Mil Veces in Instante (a thousand times in an instant) is “a memorial to all transgender victims of violence”. There are countries where high numbers of transgender people are killed, and Mexico is one of them. The UK most definitely is not, with some research suggesting that trans individuals are less likely to be murdered than the rest of the population. That’s not the impression created by the 726 faces posed eerily above the fourth plinth, all of them belonging to “trans and non-binary communities in Britain and Mexico”.

It’s pure propaganda, bolstering the zombie claim — it’s been debunked many times — that transgender people are disproportionately at risk of murder in this country. It’s a foundational tenet of gender ideology, which holds an international transgender day of remembrance each November, making emotional claims about the number of people murdered as a result of “transphobia”. Politicians accept such claims uncritically, especially in the US where the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, marked last year’s day of remembrance with a statement about people who have been “targeted and killed for living authentically and courageously”.

In an atmosphere where people live in perpetual fear of causing offence, the notion that transgender individuals are braver and more vulnerable than the rest of us is rarely questioned. It ignores the fact that in countries where high numbers of trans people are murdered, the victims are often involved in the incredibly dangerous commercial sex trade. A report in 2019 suggested that 90% of trans-identified males in Brazil depend on prostitution to survive, exposing them to the jaw-dropping levels of violence associated with selling sex.

In Mexico, 52 trans people were murdered in 2022-23, the most recent year for which figures are available. But 11 women are killed every day in a country where the failure to protect women is a national scandal. In May alone, 335 women and girls were murdered, suggesting that this year’s total could reach 4,000. Thousands of Mexican women and girls are missing, their fate unknown.

The UK has its own problem with violence against women, with police chiefs finally recognising it as a “national emergency” a couple of months ago. Two or three women are killed by a current or former partner each week. One in 12 women will experience male violence every year, according to the National Police Chiefs’ Council.

There’s no mention of that in Trafalgar Square. Women never asked to be put into a demeaning competition with transgender people, and every victim of violence should be able to obtain support and justice. But the hyperbolic claims of trans activists have created a situation where the latter feel more at risk in the UK than they really are. In a triumph of rhetoric over reality, we now have a prominent memorial in the heart of London to hundreds of people who haven’t been murdered in this country.


Joan Smith is a novelist and columnist. She was previously Chair of the Mayor of London’s Violence Against Women and Girls Board. Her book Unfortunately, She Was A Nymphomaniac: A New History of Rome’s Imperial Women will be published in November 2024.

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Peter B
Peter B
25 days ago

It all starts so well … but then this “The UK has its own problem with violence against women, with police chiefs finally recognising it as a “national emergency” a couple of months ago.”
Come off it, Joan.
And just how many of these “national emergencies” can we afford ? And before the term is devalued to mean nothing.
She’s just got to turn this it into a competition between women and trans people and their relative status in the victim hierarchy. Impossible for her to treat this statue/whatever it is on its own merits. Her objection isn’t really that this thing is “pure propaganda” (her words). It’s that it’s not propaganda for her own pet cause.

Adrian Smith
Adrian Smith
25 days ago
Reply to  Peter B

I think that is a little harsh on Joan. When exposing how flawed, biased or unjust something is, it is perfectly reasonable to compare it to something else.

Martin Goodfellow
Martin Goodfellow
25 days ago
Reply to  Adrian Smith

I agree the criticism is ‘a little harsh’, but Peter B is right to point out that the comparison is inappropriate. There was no competition for the fourth plinth to exhibit an anti-violence display of any kind. The subject is purely the choice of the artist.

ERIC PERBET
ERIC PERBET
25 days ago

Not sure about the “purely the choice of the artist” bit: this artwork is most likely the result of a commission, be it by the Mayor of London, Arts Council UK or/and various sponsors…

Martin Goodfellow
Martin Goodfellow
25 days ago
Reply to  ERIC PERBET

The criterea were to show London as, ‘inclusive, safe and accessible.’ How this was to be done wasn’t specified.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
25 days ago

Exactly how does this plinth exhibition show that London is “inclusive, safe and accessible”? It merely shows London to be virtue signalling. It should not say “Britain and Mexico”. It would be more to the point to have this exhibition in the country where apparently trans-gender people do get murdered. And what’s the situation for trans-gender people in Islamic countries?

David Morley
David Morley
25 days ago
Reply to  Peter B

It does get a bit tedious. This authors articles always follow an identical pattern.

N Forster
N Forster
25 days ago

How many people have trans people murdered? How many trans people have been murdered by trans people?
That might help us know whom is the greater danger to whom?

Patricia Hardman
Patricia Hardman
25 days ago
Reply to  N Forster

Trans Crime UK collates media reports of crimes committed by transgender individuals in the UK. We emphasize ‘individuals’ here, because we don’t think all males who identify as transgender are criminals in the same way as we don’t consider all men are criminals, despite the disparity in criminal convictions between men and women. For example, 98% of offenders convicted of rape in the UK are male….
https://transcrimeuk.com/

Peter B
Peter B
25 days ago

“We don’t think …”
Sorry. The crime is the crime regardless of the supposed gender of whoever committed it.
I do hope you aren’t campaigning for a subjective justice system with two (or quite possibly more) tiers …

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
25 days ago
Reply to  N Forster

In the United States, trans rights activists memorialize trans people who have been murdered due to hate crimes that year. The number of victims over the years are between 35-45. Most of them were killed due to domestic violence. Some I can think of were killed because they were prostitutes, one was hit by a drunk driver, some during drug deals, one was killed in the Dayton mass shooting, one died heroically trying to stop a mass shooting, etc. The bar shooting in Colorado was a hate crime, but usually only two or three murders are investigated as potential hate crimes. The day of remembrance is dishonest.

Talia Perkins
Talia Perkins
25 days ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

“The number of victims over the years are between 35-45”

That they know of.

“The day of remembrance is dishonest.”

No, it is not — but then, you hate honesty. You are here to lie.

N Forster
N Forster
25 days ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

The questions were how many people have Trans people killed? And how many trans people were killed by trans people? Do you have those stats?

N Forster
N Forster
25 days ago
Reply to  N Forster

Transgender individuals who were victims of homicide in the UK in the past decade (2008 – 2017)Total = 7 (all biological males) 
Homicides committed by transgender individuals in the UK in the past decade (2008 – 2017)Total = 12 (all biological males)
https://transcrimeuk.com/2017/11/16/trans-homicides-in-the-uk-a-closer-look-at-the-numbers/
Statistically it looks like in the UK, trans people are a greater threat to the wider public than the wider public are to trans people.

Alphonse Pfarti
Alphonse Pfarti
25 days ago

More woke, hectoring alienating nonsense foisted on us as ‘public art’. What relevance does this have to the population of the UK?

Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
25 days ago

More ideological capture driven by the tyranny of the less than 1%, who so desperately want to be noticed and affirmed that they cannot grasp how their actions have the opposite effect.

Paul Thompson
Paul Thompson
24 days ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

When you can, laugh at a trannie.

Talia Perkins
Talia Perkins
25 days ago

No, Joan Smith, it only says many true things which you don’t like, because you are a bigot.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
25 days ago
Reply to  Talia Perkins

Smith has produced statistics to support her argument. Perhaps, before you travel down your usual route of throwing out insults, you provide statistics which say otherwise.

Talia Perkins
Talia Perkins
25 days ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

“Smith has produced statistics to support her argument.”

No, liar, she has not.

It could not be admitted Brianna Ghey was killed because she was transgender, so statistics produced by such falsehood mean nothing.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
25 days ago
Reply to  Talia Perkins

I have asked you for statistics to support your argument and, as expected, you haven’t. There’s just an insult. In 2023, 100 trans people were murdered in Brazil which accounts for 31% of the global total. As mentioned above, there were 52 reported murders in Mexico, 22% of the global total. As Smith mentions above, these people earn a living as prostitutes in two violent places which places them in great danger. Last year 3754 women were murdered in Mexico and 1463 in Brazil.
As regards the awful case of Brianna Ghey, the teenage murderers had a ‘kill list’ of several people. Any of them could have been victims and none of them were trans. Indeed, the killers may well have gone on to kill others if they hadn’t been caught. The killers selected Brianna simply because it was easy to entice Brianna from home not because of any trans identity. It may have escaped your notice but there’s a terrible record of teenagers killing other teenagers in the UK. Brianna’s murder is part of this horror.

Talia Perkins
Talia Perkins
25 days ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

You asserted Smith’s statistics have actual validity. I proved by example how they do not.

Brianna was on that list because she was transgender.

If you were honest, you would concede that. Instead you are only as bigoted as is Smith.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
25 days ago
Reply to  Talia Perkins

Talia is the only bigot in this conversation.

Talia Perkins
Talia Perkins
25 days ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

Prove it. Use facts.

Not your conspiracy theories.

I note you have yet to walk back from your assertion 99 transgender person are not even worth as much as even 1 cisgender person — you are the same sort of bigot Smith is.

William Cameron
William Cameron
25 days ago
Reply to  Talia Perkins

Calling someone you disagree with a bigot makes you look very silly. It destroys the force of your opinions. Why do it ?

Talia Perkins
Talia Perkins
25 days ago

Presuming mere disagreement is what shows Smith to be a bigot is stupid of you.

But then, you do take after her.

Andrew D
Andrew D
25 days ago
Reply to  Talia Perkins

Is Talia Perkins the new incarnation of Titania McGrath?

Martin Bollis
Martin Bollis
25 days ago
Reply to  Andrew D

I think it’s how champagne socialist identifies on Thursdays.

El Uro
El Uro
25 days ago
Reply to  Andrew D

No. Even Titania is much smarter.

Talia Perkins
Talia Perkins
25 days ago
Reply to  El Uro

Then prove it by citing fats which prove I am wrong.

I’ve been waiting.

Studio Largo
Studio Largo
23 days ago
Reply to  Talia Perkins

Ha ha charade you are.

William Cameron
William Cameron
25 days ago

How many trans murders took place in the UK in the last 5 years ? And of them how many were in the sex trade ?
How many murders of non trans sex workers took place in the same 5 years ? And how many sex workers are there ?

Paul Thompson
Paul Thompson
24 days ago

Who cares how many murders of tranniepervs have occurred? I’m sure ALL were sex workers like Talia.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
25 days ago

There is nothing authentic or courageous about a man pretending to be a woman. There is nothing authentic or courageous about propaganda dressing up as art.

Talia Perkins
Talia Perkins
25 days ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

“There is nothing … up as art.”

That has nothing to do with being transgender. It is only what you wish was true.

Tell us again how you are really an American doctor, one of those who like the ACPeds hate group with ~200 “doctor” members who are dedicated to abusing in law and policy, everyone who is LGBTQ — and tolerates such physicians who try to raise the dead through prayer?

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
25 days ago
Reply to  Talia Perkins

Talia is a charter member of the
Keepers Of Odd Knowedge Society.

Talia Perkins
Talia Perkins
25 days ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

You are dedicated to hurting myself and all like me. Why is it odd that I bother to learn of my enemies?

Studio Largo
Studio Largo
25 days ago
Reply to  Talia Perkins

Because you need to play the martyr.

Talia Perkins
Talia Perkins
25 days ago
Reply to  Studio Largo

No idiot. Since it literally is my health care and even right to legally exist which is at issue — it’s no matter of playing.

B Emery
B Emery
25 days ago
Reply to  Talia Perkins

Your right to legally exist in the UK is not under threat.
As far as I know, Britain is actually a very safe and tolerant place for the lgbtq community, do you feel otherwise?

Talia Perkins
Talia Perkins
25 days ago
Reply to  B Emery

“Your right to legally exist in the UK is not under threat.”

Of course it is, that is what claiming gender affirming care is “gender ideology” and then enacting laws and policies to that effect is.

“As far as I know, Britain is actually a very safe and tolerant place for the lgbtq community, do you feel otherwise?”

I know other wise, you have recently tolerated your government to condemn transgender children to have their sex inflicted on them. You endorse grotesque child abuse by policy.

B Emery
B Emery
25 days ago
Reply to  Talia Perkins

Nobody is removing your rights though are they.
You are asking for the introduction of MORE LAWS. You are saying that you are a persecuted minority. Are you aware that the MORE POWER YOU GIVE THE STATE BY INTRODUCTION OF MORE LAWS, YOU ARE GIVING IT MORE POWER TO PERSECUTE YOU?

EVERY ADDITIONAL LAW IS MORE STATE POWER.

‘Of course it is, that is what claiming gender affirming care is “gender ideology” and then enacting laws and policies to that effect is’

Again how is this infringing your right to live as an lgbtq adult in the UK? Children are a different matter, I’m sure you will agree that when changing the law regarding children much consideration should be given before doing so? And that perhaps it should be a democratic decision?

Accusing others of supporting child abuse is rather rude.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
25 days ago
Reply to  Talia Perkins

Even in the wilds of the American deep south your tight to exist is not at stake. Now try going to Gaza, or Tehran, or Riyadh……
BTW, until just now, your posts are so obtuse and unclear, I had no idea of your personal reality. It is,still not completely clear, and frankly it does not actually matter. We are discussing the ideas of an issue. Words are not violence.

Dumetrius
Dumetrius
25 days ago
Reply to  Talia Perkins

Your enemies only wish you silence, dear lady.

But then you’d have to confront the absolute nothingness of your cause.

Talia Perkins
Talia Perkins
25 days ago
Reply to  Dumetrius

“Your enemies only wish you silence”

No liar, they seek to make my legal existence impossible — and have done so in many jurisdiction, and, to make the healthcare I need illegal — and have done so in many jurisdictions.

You are a lying child abuser, and no better or other. Inflicting that abuse is your cause.

B Emery
B Emery
25 days ago
Reply to  Talia Perkins

Are you British or American?

Talia Perkins
Talia Perkins
25 days ago
Reply to  B Emery

The biology involved is the same, common to all humanity.

The laws and policies the likes of which transphobes approve of are not relevantly different either.

B Emery
B Emery
25 days ago
Reply to  Talia Perkins

Britain is not America though is it. Our laws are different and so is our culture.

‘The biology involved is the same, common to all humanity’
Do you support the obliteration of all gender, identity, culture and race then?

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
25 days ago
Reply to  Talia Perkins

Talia,
With all due respect, please get help. Real help, not enablement. I for-swear hassling you further as it may contribute to some tragic outcome.
Respectfully,
M. U. Reader

B Emery
B Emery
25 days ago
Reply to  Talia Perkins

Who are your ‘enemies’ exactly?
You do realise that the foundations of British democracy rely on the Christian principle of seeing all other people as equal to yourself and not as an ‘enemy’?
You do also realise that these principles have contributed to the promotion of lgbtq rights in this country, and it is because of these principles that Britain is famously tolerant of other races, religions and ways of life?
You do realise that Glastonbury was invented here?
You do realise that the majority of British citizens would not describe you as an ‘enemy’ I don’t think. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
25 days ago
Reply to  Talia Perkins

Talia,
Please recall what happens when you assume so much.

Talia Perkins
Talia Perkins
25 days ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

That’s my line. I know what is real, and you do not care.

Judy Johnson
Judy Johnson
24 days ago
Reply to  Talia Perkins

You write as if you think you are never wrong!

Steven Carr
Steven Carr
25 days ago
Reply to  Talia Perkins

But you now have a piece of artwork in Trafalgar Square!
So violence against transgender people has now stopped.
It’s not like the artwork is pointless virtue-signalling….

Talia Perkins
Talia Perkins
25 days ago
Reply to  Steven Carr

It is signaling actual virtue, and so has a point.

Dumetrius
Dumetrius
24 days ago
Reply to  Talia Perkins

Virtue in relation to a non-existent crime, trans people being safer in the UK than other persons, in fact.

Paul Thompson
Paul Thompson
24 days ago
Reply to  Talia Perkins

More and more people are signing to my campaign to “Laugh at trannies”. Trannies are so pathetic, but also very very funny. We need to laugh at them, but most importantly, we need to NOT take them seriously. Psychotic morons like you, Talia, are just funny-looking perverts.

Studio Largo
Studio Largo
24 days ago
Reply to  Paul Thompson

Absolutely. The trans lobby along with the rest of the radical left, need to be mocked mercilessly. “Wewease Woger!”

Darlene Craig
Darlene Craig
25 days ago

Well at least it will disintegrate!

John Tyler
John Tyler
25 days ago

Artwork? Artwork fartwork!

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
25 days ago

Yes! Thank you!

Colorado UnHerd
Colorado UnHerd
25 days ago

An appropriately pointed and powerful article.
“In Mexico, 52 trans people were murdered in 2022-23, the most recent year for which figures are available. But 11 women are killed every day in a country where the failure to protect women is a national scandal.”
This statement could be made, to one degree or another, in every country, and it has been the truth forever. Yet now, for a handful of male victims — as Smith notes, mostly trans-identified men doing sex work, an inherently dangerous occupation — we get days of remembrance and memorials. I guess because these few males performing “female” are authentic and courageous, whereas the infinitely more girls and women routinely killed in simply living their actual female lives are not, and thus still not worthy of the attention they should have received decades ago.

Jane Stables
Jane Stables
17 days ago

Excellent comment

Dr. G Marzanna
Dr. G Marzanna
25 days ago

And not a single 4th plinth to women victims of male violence.
Not that I agree with the plinth being used for that but now they’ve laid down their gauntlet.

David Morley
David Morley
25 days ago

Not very original – link should work:

comment image

A J
A J
24 days ago

I read elsewhere that this piece was made by the artist taking death masks of the victims. She says this is why some of them still have the make-up the deceased was wearing. She had a studio attached to a morgue in order to do this.
How, then, can this piece represent British trans people? They’re can’t be any death masks of them. It’s empty rhetoric to justify placing the piece in the UK.

Paul Thompson
Paul Thompson
24 days ago

Of course trannies are likely to be murder victims. A lot are sex workers, and they pretend to be hot babes. When the clothes come off, there are 2 dicks in the room, and John d**k gets angry and beats the shit out of Lady d**k. Trannies cannot work normal jobs. I have exactly 0 sympathy for them.