"Last Supper" depiction at Olympics Opening Ceremony

If you can tell a man is gay just by looking at him, then it’s you is doing the stereotyping, nobody else.

That guy with the beard in the first photo though, I still say he’s the spit of Jesus:

EDIT: for clarity, just in case anyone misses the joke - that’s not Jesus either, it’s Sam Ryder.

This is worth reposting…

https://deadline.com/2024/07/olympics-opening-ceremony-artistic-director-intention-mock-or-shock-1236024601/

Thomas Jolly, the artistic director of the Paris Olympic opening ceremony, claimed that the controversial tableau at the ceremony depicted a pagan festival and not Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper.

Jolly told French outlet BFMTV said that the scene was inspired by Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, rather than Jesus.

"Dionysus is the first to arrive at the table. Why Dionysus? Because Dionysus is the god of celebrations and wine in Greek mythology and the father of Sequana, the goddess of the Seine River. Here, the idea is a grand pagan festival connected with the gods of Olympus," Jolly said.

Dionysus was the blue guy.

Sequana was the figure on the horse.

The artistic director has explained his inspiration for the segment, but it seems some would prefer to stay outraged rather than accept his explanation and that they interpreted it incorrectly.

Agree that not every gay man is sterotypical.

My best friend since my school days is a gay man, and you would have no indication he was gay, until he introduced you to his husband.

I'm not a man.

Could you explain why please?

It's a genuine question. I cannot see why, if white people dressing as black people using exaggerated physical characteristics like big lips etc, is deemed so obviously offensive that it can be career-ending, a woman who states that it equally offensive for men to dress as woman using exaggerated physical characteristics is positively ridiculed.

If you can explain to me why, as a woman, I am not even entitled to feel offended at the grossly stereotypical portrayal of women in drag acts, I'm all ears.

And TBC, I'm not saying all women need to think the same (Lenny Henry, as I said, had no objection to blackface back in the day). I'm asking why my opinion is deemed somehow just wrong.

When was the last time you actually saw anyone use black face? If someone gets too dark a spray tan these days, they're accused of cultural appropriation, let alone black face.

Raising black face in this thread is just total whataboutery. As is men portraying women back in Shakesperian times. We've moved far beyond the days of black face.

You're entitled to feel however you want (no one said any different) and if you're a woman who is offended by drag queens, I'm not going to go to any effort to make you change your mind. It is what it is.

Drag artists are meant to be exaggerated and over the top. They are entertainers. Most people get that without needing to have it explained to them.

And I think anyone (male or female) that is offended by them is being over-sensitive. And I'm equally entitled to feel that way.

You asserted as fact that drag was not a mockery of women because it was performance art. That is why a comparison with blackface is relevant. It's also performance art. So, it's not whataboutery - because there is a clear link between the two, and one you made yourself.

Drag artists are not mocking women, it is performance art!

The fact that blackface is NOW deemed inappropriate is really not the point here. A few decades back, anyone complaining about the Black and White Minstrel Show as being a mockery of black people would have been met with the same incomprehension. That doesn't make them right - it's just a question of awareness and social norms.

And yes you're entitled to feel that objecting to drag is being oversensitive - but if your best explanation is "because it's performance art" while not being able to explain why that doesn't also apply to blackface, then there's a glaring inconsistency there that, IMO, comes down to the fact that so many people - men and women - still believe that women's opinions are basically less important than men's.

what was at odds with christian values? dressing up in drag? i really doubt big JC would have a problem with any of that, he was a notoriously live and let live chill kind of bloke

Well, I guess you as a woman, can continue to be outraged, and I, as a woman, will continue to think there is nothing to be outraged about.

It is what it is.

I’m not even sure where to begin. It’s not at all the most iconic image of Christian art. European art perhaps, up there with many, many, maaaany examples of art from the Renaissance period. Numerous attempts throughout history have been made to restore the original, but little of it remains intact today.

People behaving at odds with Christian values? I’m not at all sure what you mean by that, because you’ve not established what you characterise as Christian values, let alone the behaviour you claim is at odds with them. You’ve not managed to achieve anything different from people who claim issuing death threats and rape threats are associated with Christian values, but that’s them making the association between the two, because they too are most assuredly not representative of Christian values. A community gathered round in celebration is certainly not peculiar to Christianity either, much as some Christians like to claim ownership of the concept.

I've got it. 💡

Dionysus and Sequana must have gate-crashed the Last Supper.

That explains everything.