Survey Finds 51% of Men Think Mona Lisa “Should Smile More"
A new visitor experience survey reveals a surprising amount of criticism lobbed at Lisa del Giocondo.
As the crisis-stricken Louvre Museum prepares for phase one of the Nouvelle Renaissance overhaul, a new visitor feedback survey points to an issue that nobody could have foreseen. The results found that 51% of male respondents think that the Mona Lisa “should smile more.”
Following the exit of former Louvre Director Laurence des Cars in February, the museum contracted an experiential research team at the Institute for Social and Spatial Relations to conduct the multiple-choice and written-response survey, which garnered around 4,500 responses from ticket holders in the last month.
Though visitors have been complaining about the room that houses the iconic painting for years, a press release detailing the respondents' insights indicated that over a third of the men who participated in the survey directly attributed their negative visitor experience to the fact that the Mona Lisa “looked sad, or tired.” (“Who among us has anything to smile about here?” countered a spokesperson for the museum in response to Hyperallergic's inquiry about the survey's findings.)
“Think of how it looks from a customer service standpoint,” began one respondent, a 63-year-old man visiting from the United States, who was quoted in the press release. “I spent all this money to be here and we're crammed in a room with a bunch of other people like a can of sardines to see this postage stamp of a painting, and the lady can't even crack a smile for us after all of that?”
“It's like she doesn't even want to be here,” he wrote.
“I don't see what's wrong with wanting women to be happy,” said another 31-year-old male respondent visiting from Denmark, as quoted in the release.
The researchers noted that dozens of men suggested that the Louvre switch out the Mona Lisa with a painting of “a woman who looks nicer” when asked how the museum could improve visitor experience.
