Zaha Hadid Insists–Really Insists–Al Wakrah World Cup Stadium ‘Doesn’t Resemble’ a Giant Vagina. And She’s Very Annoyed, Too.

Zaha Hadid, the world’s best-known female architect, is none too pleased with critics like Jon Stewart, who have mocked her Al Wakrah Stadium—designed with AECOM for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar—and likened her to the “Georgia O’Keeffe of things you can walk inside.”

“It’s really embarrassing that they come up with nonsense like this,” Hadid tells TIME exclusively. “What are they saying? Everything with a hole in it is a vagina? That’s ridiculous.”

Really, Hadid, this is news to you? You’re shocked, shocked? Good response. How’s that working for you?  Keep doing that, see how it goes.

The curved, open roof is meant to evoke the the sail of the dhow, a traditional fishing boat common in Qatar. “Honestly, if a guy had done this project,” she adds, critics would not be making such lewd comparisons.

Honestly, Hadid, such lewd comparisons are made all the time–architecture that features blatantly phallic imagery is abundant, and it’s called out constantly. Often by female critics, as well as male, taking sarcastic glee in mocking the obvious symbolism. Regardless of the gender of the architect or designer. Buildings that resemble genitalia get attention and stir controversy. Always. So quit complaining. Your gigantic vagina stadium is getting exactly the kind of attention you designed it to get, and for the reason you designed it this way, to spark the controversy. We’re not blind. Nice work. The global attention to your design must be so inconvenient! 

For more on Hadid, a member of our 2010 TIME 100 list of the world’s most influential people, click here.

TIME.com

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