One of the major things I’ve learned after transplanting my family from the US to Europe is that Americans are really, really, really squeamish and prudish on sexual subjects in comparison, to an unhealthy degree.
Walking down the street in Berlin, my kids giggled at a wall of posters for a male strip revue, where the image was a naked guy from behind, shoulders to mid thigh, putting his muscular bare ass dead center, and his legs just slightly spread to allow a glimpse of ballsack. I was very surprised, but realized immediately that no harm at all would be done, and relaxed.
I cannot imagine there was any intent on the part of the French to offend or to attack anyone’s morals. They probably thought nothing of it. This is part of life — a really fun part, in fact — and it’s presented in a happy, celebratory way.
To the extent that anyone has a problem with it, the problem is entirely their own.
I think that’s pretty much form for the Olympic opening ceremonies (independently of whether it’s a norm for France). Thinking back to the 2012 Olympics here, the opening ceremony was quite aggressively British. Brunel, James Bond, the Queen; I don’t remember all of the details but probably also cups of tea and Paddington Bear and beans on toast and strawberry jam and fish and chips. I remember enjoying it at the time, but I imagine some parts of it were incomprehensible to other nations.
I guess what I’m saying is that the opening ceremony is perhaps the place where you have the greatest licence to confound the rest of the world with whatever you want to do.
That’s my feeling too. No offense was intended; it was a celebration of French culture. If some people didn’t get it, well, that’s fine; but some did. And I’m pretty sure that most people around the world looked at it, and may have been left scratching their heads, but didn’t take any offense. Because to most people in the world, there was nothing offensive. Weird maybe, but not offensive.
@Mangetout describes it well: “… I imagine some parts of it were incomprehensible to other nations.”
If a subset of Americans found it incomprehensible and somehow offensive, based on a misunderstanding of what was presented, well, tough noogies. The world does not revolve around that subset of Americans, and their sensibilities.
Agree. This particular subset of Americans has made a career out of finding ways to take offense at things they don’t understand. It’s long past time the rest of us stopped pretending to take their concerns seriously.
Which is more likely, though? That drag performers would use underage people in sexual situations and play into pedophilic stereotypes that are used to harass them? And no one in the Olympics would have noticed?
Or that she’s of age and just looks young to you? You’re a tall lady, so your kids and grand kids are probably above average in height. And height is a very lousy indicator of age, anyways.
And so are looks in general, especially when you’re wearing makeup and special costumes. Plus the signifiers of age vary a lot based on culture and the average physiology of a region.
The whole issue with the outrage in the OP. is that people jumped to conclusions. They got an initial impression and ran with it. They didn’t even attempt to presume good faith.
Of course, their reason was worse: they assume that LGBT people and the world in general is out to get Christians. But, still, we also should question our initial assumptions.
Yeah, and honestly in this age of online information, there really is no excuse for being angry about something you don’t understand.
I feel a bit sorry for what is probably the majority of sane and sensible Americans - external impressions of your country are significantly jaundiced by the export of ignorant outrage by what I imagine has to be a smallish, but strident minority of people who make a thing out of failing to understand that the rest of the world exists.
Side note: whilst I think it is shameful that the organisers even felt the need to apologise to offended idiots over this whole thing, it did tickle me a bit that their apology took the form of a conference where they all sat in a row behind a long table.
I saw that part on TV. The part that seemed outrageous to me was that they had all those pre-filmed segments. The carrying of the torch is usually live, you know? But also, i read it as a man, a woman, and a non-binary person. And i thought, “i guess this is in France, and they want us to know they are French.”
Eta: and they looked very much like consenting adults to me. Adults who were flirting, and then decided all three of them to run off and find some privacy. I was surprised by that vignette, but thought the French were leaning into Paris being the city of love.
Looking at it again, I think you’re right, and my knee-jerk assumption was unwarranted. It’s a man, a woman, and a person of alternative identity. Très français, indeed.
ETA: And like I said above, I interpreted the pre-filmed segments as a technique for dealing with the logistics of getting those boats organized upstream. There had to have been a massive effort in putting the national teams on all the vessels of various sizes, then lining them up and sending them downriver. Having stuff ready to roll on tape to cover the inevitable gaps is a smart solution.
That makes sense. Mostly it bothered me because I’d been really impressed with the torch-carrier running over the roofs of Paris, and then i saw all this pre-recorded stuff, some with obvious CGI (the torch carrier in the Louvre, with the eyes of the paintings following him, for instance) and wondered if they faked the rooftop scenes, too.
I didn’t see that part, i just read comments about it. But if it’s actually an image of the bacchanalia, where’s the sacrilege? I mean, that was a quasi-religious thing, like a Christmas party is, but there aren’t many followers of Bacchus to be offended, if, indeed, they would have found it offensive.
Some of the rooftop stunts were filmed in advance, yes. And on the day, they clearly had several different stunt people staged in the various locations, so they wouldn’t have to rush one performer from place to place. As far as I could tell, the actual parkour being performed was legit, though. (France is very proud of their role in popularizing this gymnastic art form; see the movie Banlieue 13 for a showcase. They wouldn’t have overtly faked that.)
Oh, and for the record, this character was a video game reference.
