What a Drag

After watching the Olympics’ opening ceremonies and its cultural show that was literally all over the place: stairs, river floats, boats, bridges, high wires, high stages, and rooftops; I feel like I want to put my booties on and fly to France. The show exceeded a six-mile span of the Seine river and, like it or leave it, it offended 2.4 billion Christians worldwide. How in the world did France, a Catholic nation, do that?

By providing a show inclusive of ideals and thoughts of all of the the French people into a series of shows that were meant to be artistically surreal. All of the shows were entertaining, which is what the Olympics are all about. That’s what governments around the world give us, a festival for the masses, the Olympics.

Apparently, it was the Last Supper Parody portion of the show that set off many Christians, including Elon Musk. (And, all I have to say here is, who really thinks Elon Musk is a Christian?) The Parody showed drag queens and heavily fashioned French people wave-dancing back and forth in slow motion with a large female in the middle, who was managing some technical equipment while vaguely representing Jesus Christ. A multi-tasking feat!

The drag queens and other show-folks surrounded a catwalk and a fashion show erupted under large chandeliers. It was funny and it was fun, especially the wacky part featuring Dionysus as a man in blue and trimmed with flowers. (He wasn’t naked, as the big media would have you believe, but wore blue Speedos, so that he appeared so.) Dionysus was appropriate, no matter what Christians may think, as he represented entertainment. “Are you not entertained?” yelled the actor Russell Crowe to the masses in the stadium in the movie Gladiator.

Entertainment or not, there were complaints about the children involved in the show. Now, if I know nothing about the French, I do know this: They treat their children like adults, which I’m sure is very much appreciated by the kiddos. Here, in the USA, we treat our children like utterly dependent, baby goats, who must believe in all American myths lest they go to hell. By overburdening our children with holiday myths, buying them gifts ad nauseum, and everything else parents do “for” their kids, they grow up spoiled. Then we have the audacity to wonder what happened to them.

The long and the short of it is that I’m glad France included children in their show. It shows that French children are trained early in the arts and culture of their society.

It was a show for everybody, adults and children, not just Christians. Maybe it’s time for Christians, especially the churches that criticized the Olympics, to start thinking about inclusivity. I know Jesus would’ve.