On International Women’s Day, a bronze statue of a girl facing off against the Charging Bull was put in Manhattan’s financial district. The Denver Post reports that the statute was installed by State Street Global Advisors, and asset management firm, and McCann New York, an advertising agency. The statue is part of a campaign to encourage more Russell 3000 companies to appoint women to their executive boards.

CNN Money reports that the artist, Kristen Visbal, has been overwhelmed by the attention her work has received. Visbal has received many calls and emails about the statue from its fans. The statue became an overnight tourist sensation and images of the girl soon flooded Facebook and Twitter. One particularly striking image from CNN Money shows the a girl in a superhero cape standing opposite the statue. This image captures the statues potential to inspire determined young women perfectly. The girl in the photo is even wearing red, the color of international women’s day.

Days after this photo was posted, however, another equally striking image reminds Americans why the message behind the art was needed in the first place. The Huffington Postreports that, only four days after the statues public appearance, a man in a suit decided to hump the statue while his friends “cheered him on.”

Alexis Kaloyanides captured the image of the man and posted it to social media. In an interview with Inside Edition, Kaloyanides said, “It just ruined the mood of the scene… there were people there talking about empowering children and women and for then to have this 20-something showing his entitlement, defiling the statue.”

This second image serves as a reminder as to why the image of a little girl facing off against a bull seems like an appropriate metaphor for the struggles American feminists have faced. Even though the odds a great, we have to somehow believe the girl will beat the bull. Just when it starts to materialize, however, a man in power swoops in to remind us that we still have a long way to go.