The Macro
I will admit that the first time I saw the video of Festivity — a camped-up drag queen performance featured in the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics — I laughed out loud. And for good reason — it’s pretty hilarious.
When I subsequently read that Paris Olympics organizers had removed the video from the official recording of the spectacular opening ceremonies, and apologized for any offence it had triggered, I was disappointed. And then dejected. And then, finally, sadly resigned to the fact that, when I thought about it harder, I realized it was inevitable.
The drag performance had been quickly, but wrongly, identified as a recreation of Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic Last Supper painting. Christians howled. The Roman Catholic church in France denounced it as an abhorrent mockery of Christianity. American Christians and Republicans who pander to Christians howled the longest and the loudest, with one ultra-conservative Christian commentator calling it “demonic.”
Here’s the thing: it wasn’t the Last Supper.
Specifically, the performance was recreating a 17th-century Dutch painting called The Feast of the Gods. It was a fact that some picked up on right way, including one French Catholic bishop who correctly stated the creators of the image were “not thinking of The Last Supper, but of a mythological scene, of Dionysus. It was a pagan festival, the festival of wine, of Olympus, the gods.”
Le Festin des Dieux (“The Feast of the Gods”) is a painting by the Dutch painter Jan van Bijlert, created around 1635–1640.
This was the exact same point made by Thomas Jolly, the opening ceremonies director, who pointed out that for the informed, the scene portrayed was of “Dionysus … the god of feasting, of wine, and the father of Sequana, the goddess of the River Seine.” You know, the same River Seine that was centrally featured in the opening ceremonies?
It was, Jolly told reporters, “a big pagan party linked to the gods of Olympus.”
Perhaps the differences between a 15th-century Italian painting and a 17th-century Dutch painting are too nuanced for rage farmers. But facts are facts and the shrill defenders of Christianity got it wrong, even though few would admit it.
An article in the U.K.-based Catholic Herald argued news organizations that pointed out that the performance was of a Greek pagan festival were still “undervaluing Christian concerns.”
In freestyle rationalization of egregious factual errors, the Catholic Herald is awarded the gold medal.
Shouldn’t the critics of Festivity be doing some apologizing now? Unfortunately, these trolls have nothing to apologize for because even if it wasn’t the Last Supper, it was a humorous and graphic performance by LGBTTQ+ artists. And in today’s toxic global political culture, that’s enough.
As the LGBTTQ+ community struggles against hate and violence all over the world, civilized countries and their institutions are supposed to lead the way in encouraging tolerance and acceptance. Carving out a place for drag queens in the Olympic opening ceremonies is perhaps one of the smartest and most progressive ways of doing that.
Unless, of course, you believe the LGBTTQ+ community is abhorrent and unworthy of any attention at all. It’s important to note that some of the performers in Festivity have been subjected to intensive online abuse and threats, with one central performer being “threatened with death, torture and rape.”
Very, very Christian.
One final note that I hope emphasizes the underlying importance of what the organizers were trying to do by including Festivity in the opening ceremonies. On the same day a story about the threats against performers appeared in news outlets all over the world, there was another story that revealed the way this kind of hatred manifests outside of the glare of the Olympics.
The Guardian newspaper published a long-form feature about the campaign of terror and violence being conducted by Colombian paramilitary groups against transgender women.
Last year, 41 trans women were killed by the Colombian paramilitaries, often in spectacularly gruesome fashion. Some trans women described being kidnapped by mercenaries and forced to endure months of sexual assaults. Global estimates of this kind of violence are hard to come by because not every country is willing to track murders and sex assaults against transgender people. Groups that track this kind of violence believe at least 350 trans people are murdered every year, with thousands more subjected to sexual violence.
Christians — please connect the dots. Start practicing what Jesus preached. And leave the Greek god drag queens alone.
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