WTF is the Australian Museum thinking by wrapping an inflatable shark in the pride flag?

Seems rather passive aggressive...

Doesn't look like an inflatable object.

No Place for Bigotry

The Pride flag mine as well be the new liberalism flag. It has nothing to do with being gay anymore, it’s an ego feeding symbol heteros use now to make statements of their liberalism.

It’s pretentious and I hate it.

It’s like BLM flags in all white (and staying white) communities to me.

Because it’s the gay Left Shark, duh.

The museum just turned off replies.

The response was overwhelmingly negative.

R5 That was a fun halftime show.

We'll have to do some halftime threads on Superbowl Sunday.

Did they just assume that shark's species?!?!?!!!!!!!!

Great White privilege.

At least they didn't have the shark to ice-skate around the lobby.

Is the shark gay or are they implying that gays are predators?

It took him nearly seven years to swim from NYC to NSW.

It looks like the location of the trans part of the flag was intentional.

[quote]side note: the "progress flag" will never be my pride flag. I prefer the classic, but that's another conversation.

Same here. I noticed that it's mostly corporate world now trying to shove this down our throats. Lots of gay bars and business have gone back to the original. You know, the one that represented all of us? The one that was donated to the public for free and not demanding a royalty like this current iteration.

Dunno what they were thinking, but I reckon thats hilarious

I think colorful seahorses would have been a lot more appropriate. Did you know Seahroses can change color to blend in to their surrounding much like a chameleon?

[quote]Is the shark gay

Yes. And his name is Bruce.

Why not a lobster instead?

They're turning the frogs gay too!

Why not a rock lobster?

[quote] Why not a rock lobster?

The Muslims already have that one.

Those wacky Aussies

Did anyone bother to check the date of the article?

^ it’s to be installed, right? So it’s in da FuTure

There is a certain type of overeducated yet intellectually lazy privileged white woman who float to the top of cultural institutions. This is what we end up with.

I’m not sure if it’s the influence of Lisa Frank from their childhoods, but the rainbow colors just seem to turn off any type of logic in women. They have no meaning other than pretty festive colors. Like, I’m absolutely certain if someone suggested wrapping the shark in the flag of Israel for Holocaust Remembrance Week, they would suddenly understand why it would make a negative association with people. But gays = OMG pretty colors 😍

You mean 5 February 2023, r23?

Is April Fool's on February 5th in Australia?

With the Trans part does the Shark identify as a tunafish?

It's weird that the same people on DL who post "the woke always get upset over stupid things!" frequently get upset over stupid things.

I like the shark. He's friendly and stylish.

It could be Sydney's subtle way of reminding international gays visiting for Pride that our sharks don't discriminate.

r30 Between the sharks, poisonous coral (reef stonefish), and box jellyfish why do you people even get in the water? Just seems foolish and suicidal.

Nothing sensible comes from Australian "culture."

Sharks are the only one of those things common to all Australian states, R31. The others are tropical.

And as I've said before, it's the rips in the water that kill all the tourists, not the wildlife. Being sucked out to sea by fast-moving water is the truly big thrill of Australian beaches. Not to mention the rare but equally exciting collapsing sand bars.

Australian surfers grow up in the water and are basically fish. Everyone else should stick to the seawater swimming pools or swim directly in front of the lifesavers.

Sydney will be transformed into a Rainbow City for Sydney WorldPride 2023, with organisations across Greater Sydney installing rainbow monuments to celebrate the festival.

In all, 45 free public artworks will be unveiled to mark 45 years of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

Sydney WorldPride Chief Executive, Kate Wickett, said: “It is so exciting to see organisations of all kinds across Sydney – from public institutions to businesses – embrace WorldPride in such a positive way.”

Celebrate Sydney WorldPride at the Australian Museum! As part of Rainbow City, the Museum will be transforming its iconic shark statue in support and recognition of the LGBTQIA+ community, with the help of Sydney artist George Buchanan. Located at the entry to the Museum on College Street and overlooking William Street, the Progress Shark pays tribute to the trailblazers of the first Mardi Gras Parade, then called “Day of International Gay Solidarity”, which took place in Sydney in 1978. Today the Australian Museum stands in solidarity with the LGBTQIA+ community and prides itself on being a place where everyone can explore the richness of life, the Earth and culture in Australia and the Pacific.

[quote]Australian surfers grow up in the water and are basically fish.

Which makes sense, since your bugs are people.

It's true, R34. I drove up Oxford Street tonight and there are Australia Post letterboxes with rainbow colours painted around the bases, clearly by Aust Post itself. Everyone's getting in on the act. Of course, most of Oxford Street is currently hoarding. I assume they're working away behind the hoardings trying to make it look lived-in, because the internet closed most of the clubs and pubs down even before the pandemic counterpunch.

Mindless stuff like this is a natural byproduct of the ubiquity and crass commoditization of the flag.

Surely that particular employee who said "Hey, I have a great idea for our next exhibition!" was trolling.

Perhaps when he realised nobody got the joke, he decided it was too late to point that out.

Should we take the high road and say that sharks are always moving forward? It's impossible for them to swim backwards. Seems like a good and progressive metaphor.🦈🌈

Why is our flag hijacked and then strewn everywhere?

This should be the Datalounge Mascot.

[quote] It's weird that the same people on DL who post "the woke always get upset over stupid things!" frequently get upset over stupid things. I like the shark. He's friendly and stylish.

I agree with you on all counts EXCEPT the friendly shark. He don’t look to friendly to me.

Ooooh, he scary!

*too friendly

R42, then it should be a whale.

[quote] And as I've said before, it's the rips in the water that kill all the tourists, not the wildlife

R33 You must have missed this week's killing.

She was a tourist? That wasn't on the news. Tourists have a statistically lower chance of shark attack than Australians who swim here all the time, and even their stats are very low indeed. They have a statistically much higher chance of rip drowning than Australians who swim here all the time, because the latter know how to check for rips.

This was a particularly unusual attack: it was in a river, and the one that flows right through the heart of Perth, at that.

r47 I'm sorry, but if you know you live in a country where the bulk of the wildlife is hostile to human existence, and much of that wildlife exists in the water, seems like it'd be common sense to keep your adventurous ass out of the water.

Also...

[quote]“The fact that sharks eat rays is quite commonplace,” Dr Leonardo Guida from the Australian Marine Conservation Society told Yahoo News Australia. [bold]“Bull sharks live in rivers[/bold] and rays do sometimes enter the lower reaches of a river where it comes to the shore, so sharks eating rays isn't unusual. It does happen.”

Bull sharks live in rivers. There it is right there.

[quote]In the wake of this “absolutely horrible” tragedy, Dr Guida says the Western Australian government must implement evidence-based solutions to [bold]reduce the risk of something like this tragic event happening again.[/bold]

I know a good risk-reduction strategy; keep your ass on land. It's very simple.

A tourist was killed by a shark in the middle of Perth? Good lord.

No one’s staying out of the water. A bit of risk is part of the experience.

R49 No, it was local schoolgirl.

r50 Stupidity is an experience. It's also a state of being.

"Look Tony, what are the odds of a prime minister (of Australia) being drowned or taken by a shark?

According to Florida Museum's annual tally there were only 57 unprovoked shark attacks in the WORLD last year, and only 5 deaths as a result. 9 of these attacks and 0 of the deaths occurred in Australia.

There are approximately 26 million people in Australia, more than 80% of whom live a short car trip to the coast. Swimming season often lasts from the end of October to the end of April. That's millions and millions of swimmer-days every year, and 9 people got attacked (and got away).

41 of the 57 attacks were in...yup, the USA.

r54 Getting in water anywhere there are known sharks and jellyfish is dumb.

What's wrong with this? Do people complain about 'predators' when a statue of a dog is wrapped in rainbows?

Seems like people will do anything to find something to whine about.

Looking at you OP.

May I introduce you to Blåhaj, the trans mascot ?

[quote]I know a good risk-reduction strategy; keep your ass on land. It's very simple.

No, no, that won’t work. I’ve seen Sharknado!

Faggot shark! Doot-doo dah doo-dah-do!

Faggot shark! Doot-doo dah doo-dah-do!

Faggot shark! Doot-doo dah doo-dah-do!

Faggot shark!

For the sharks. How many sweet kitties will they slaughter for Pride?

R54, the vast majority of the population does not live in deadly jellyfish and octopus country.

A shark really is not so bad; there are worse predators that have been wrapped in the Pride flag.

R61, I'm also R33 so we're agreed on that.

Gays in Australia have been associated with sharks since 1982.

Start @ 2:22