I used to be actually trying ahead to the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Video games in Paris. I like an enormous spectacle – I nonetheless keep in mind the 2008 opening ceremony in Beijing, which has been deemed “the best ever” by many owing to its grand extravagances. And naturally the one in London, in July 2012, which included every part, from politics to humour and nice music, and efficiently introduced the very essence of Britain to hundreds of thousands of viewers the world over.
I beloved all of it, and that is why, final Friday, I may hardly include my pleasure as I sat in entrance of my TV to see what Paris needed to provide this 12 months.
The ceremony, for lack of a greater phrase, was a crashing disappointment. It wasn’t simply the rain that dampened proceedings, however the perplexing inventive decisions made by the organisers, and the lacklustre performances of so most of the folks concerned. The French media mentioned it value round $130m, some 4 occasions the price of London’s critically acclaimed 2012 providing. The place was the cash spent?
The performances passed off on a bridge over the River Seine, round a desk that doubled as a catwalk. Parisian fashions, dancers, fashionistas and drag queens adorned the desk. On the centre of all of it was Barbara Butch, a plus-size lesbian DJ, clad in a sequinned blue gown and a golden, halo-style crown.
At first sight, what was earlier than us seemed to be a recreation of the biblical scene of Christ and his 12 apostles sharing a final meal earlier than his crucifixion by a bunch of drag queens. There was a transgender mannequin, a near-naked Greek god of wine, and music by DJ Butch: a girl who, by advantage of being proudly Jewish, fats and a lesbian, ticked lots of packing containers within the A-Z of “inclusivity”, which seemed to be the first theme of this 12 months’s ceremony.
Butch, whose type was extra drag queen than feminist, was in my view nonetheless the perfect factor on that stage, as she was at the very least an precise girl reasonably than some bloke portraying – or parodying – one. Butch has since revealed some behind-the-scenes particulars in regards to the opening ceremony, together with that the thought behind the tableau was to “rejoice love, inclusivity, range via music and dance to unite all of us”.
This tableau supposedly aimed toward “uniting” folks additionally included a blue Dionysus – Greek god of wine, festivity and fertility – portrayed by French singer Philippe Katerine, who laid bare on a platter among the many drag queens. Based on the Worldwide Olympic Committee, this efficiency by what was primarily a person dressed as a Smurf was aimed toward making us realise “the absurdity of violence between human beings”.
The ceremony, watched by over 28 million folks, definitely managed to unite hundreds of thousands of individuals, simply not in love and celebration, however disappointment and anger.
The French Catholic Church went berserk about what they noticed as a parody of the Final Supper, and someway by extension, their total faith. Christian conservatives in Europe and America, and even their Muslim counterparts the world over, adopted swimsuit expressing their outrage. The present was branded “blasphemous” and “an abomination”. There have been requires boycotts from Latin America to the Center East. To so many, it appeared, the costly, poorly carried out extravaganza on the Seine was an insult to every part they take into account sacred.
As somebody who believes all non secular doctrine may be ridiculed and that it’s truly wholesome to criticise and make enjoyable of this stuff, I’m not a lot desirous about any such outrage. The truth is, I not too long ago requested a creative good friend to offer the Final Supper therapy to {a photograph} taken of a dinner I attended together with different feminists, together with the Harry Potter writer JK Rowling and tennis icon Martina Navratilova. Such appropriation of spiritual imagery, simply recognisable to anybody, is simply innocent enjoyable. In fact, admittedly, our “Final Supper” didn’t embody any man parodying girls, or a Smurf-man in a platter.
Additional, some advised the tableau in Paris was not even a parody of Leonardo da Vinci’s well-known “Final Supper” portray, however was meant to be a recreation of “The Feast of the Gods” by Jan van Bijlert.
That mentioned, even when we settle for, because the Olympic Committee advised within the apology it supplied to outraged Catholics, that the present had no intention of “displaying disrespect” or parodying “any non secular group”, there’s nonetheless purpose for disappointment and anger, as a result of there isn’t a query in my thoughts that the present was parodying girls.
Certainly, I’m sick and bored with drag and the media and the leisure world’s seemingly endless obsession with it. I’ve had sufficient of males parading round as caricatures of girls, and everybody “celebrating” their “artwork”, not realising how offensive this all is. It was enraging to see it take centre stage at an occasion that’s purported to deliver peoples of the world collectively, and in line with the organisers’ personal testimony, rejoice love and inclusion.
When folks take a look at minstrel reveals of the previous caricaturing enslaved Blacks, they instantly see there isn’t a artwork to them – they’re horrifically racist and insulting. However someway, nobody appears in a position to see how equally insulting drag is to girls.
Catholics accused the Olympic opening ceremony organisers and performers of disrespect in direction of the Church, however I truthfully assume that ladies have been those being mocked and ridiculed on the worldwide stage final Friday.
As a rustic, France is rightly pleased with its inventive freedom however, to me, this ceremony mirrored and perpetuated the misogyny inside French tradition. I don’t assume it set an excellent tone for a way the Olympics views girls. We’re just a few days in and already there was controversy over sure male followers complaining that feminine seashore volleyball gamers have been allowed to reject the bikini bottoms they have been beforehand required to put on – with the Worldwide Olympic Committee even mandating how skimpy they needed to be – in favour of leggings.
Through the years, there have been quite a few controversies surrounding the Olympic Video games, from allegations of sexism and cultural relativism to simply plain mismanagement. However so far as I’m involved, the opening ceremony in Paris this 12 months was conspicuous for its mediocracy. It clearly tried very exhausting to symbolize an inclusive tradition, nevertheless it ended up trying like a drunken struggle in a fairground.
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.