Paris Olympics - opening ceremony

[puffyisgood]

I hardly need to say which demographic was pushed to the forefront of this, right? I don't think I've ever seen the view that 'cross-dressing men are the very best of us [and most obviously of all better than the boring old type of woman]' being pushed quite so hard?

Really. This is an overview of media coverage. It's definitely 'mixed'

https://www.reuters.com/sports/olympics/how-worlds-press-rated-pariss-olympics-opening-ceremony-2024-07-27/

I turned it off. Just so sick of getting the trans agenda shoved in my face. If I wanted to watch misogyny in action I would seek it out for myself. Who decided this shit was mainstream ?

Not everyone is going to like everything and I thought there were some stunning bits.

It's social conditioning. I noticed hardly any if any trans men... A troupe of transvestites twerking, femenising males by putting make up & heels on them.. The innuendo surrounding the threesome in the library.
The mocking & two fingers to Christians.. Delighted it pissed down with rain on their parade, one does not mock our lord.

I'm not up for drag queen story time or any of that bollocks, but I'm not at all bothered by some very camp catwalk shenanigans. And there was a whole segment earlier in the ceremony dedicated to beautiful statues of carefully chosen women, which had a real gravitas to it that the dancing obviously didn't.

My kids were quite uncomfortable that there seemed to be one young girl dancing in amongst all the adults, though?

Yes why only one child?

Obviously weather related but they looked so miserable.

*I mean if you're going to include children then include a few.

I'm trying to remember was the child involved in the scene with this man's testicle hanging down from his sparkly knickers?

Was that the general opinion of the public around the world? The French public? I am just curious.

I am on the fence about the whole thing- some beautiful parts, really stunning and well done but the fashion segment went on way too long.

In the Irish media this morning (two radio stations and newspapers) the general consensus was it was very different to the London but as fantastic and well done if not a bit too long. The standouts seemed to be the dancers on the building near the start, Celine Dion, the masked torch bearer and the statues, as well as the final carrying on the torch. So overall seemed to be extremely positive

I think there's a general consensus that it's a hole in his tights.

I loved the bit at the end where Clare Balding asked Michael Johnson and Rebecca Adlington what they thought of it and they both had to resort to 'Well, it was ...... different.' and 'It probably looked better to the spectators than it did on the television screen.'

On a slightly different note I enjoyed the photo on the front page of my newspaper. It was of Tom Daley and Helen Glover holding the GB flag.
The flag was resting up against Tom and Helen stood behind with her arms wrapped around his waist steadying the flag.

Tom, as we know because he said so, thinks trans women should take part in women's diving because, according to him, they are women. But of course when he wanted a child with his male partner he didn't get a trans women to be a surrogate.... Strangely then he suddenly knew what a woman was.

I just had to laugh - seeing him being propped up by a real woman. Every day's a learning day Tom.

Said it elsewhere, but I thought the beheaded singing Marie Antoinettes were bloody awful. I am sure she wasn't perfect, but she was a woman married off at 14 to a stranger and hardly the only cause of the French Revolution. At the time of her death, the artist David did a sketch and she looks what she was, a broken widow separated from her young children, a woman who had prematurely aged decades in months, in shabby clothes. She was taken on a tumbril to her execution surrounded by a baying mob (unlike her husband, who got a carriage)

I found that section sick, to be honest. They could have had positive representations of Marianne, even Napoleon, rather than a cheap, inaccurate caricature of a woman who died a wretched death.

The whole catwalk bit went on for so long and was so badly executed (I'm sure the rain was partly responsible because who can walk in that let alone dance). I did read speculation that the whole ceremony had lots of subtext if you were French; without knowing what the context was I just thought it was boring. I can't see many people watching coming out with positive thoughts about the drag artists.

Papa Smurf was a horrible warning of the dangers of drinking absinthe.

...

I'm blue dabba dee daboo Dee daboo dah daboo Dee daboo dah

And there was Macron and the Missus in the pouring rain on his parade. I call it Marine le Pen's Revenge.

The whole thing while yes, a visual spectacle was too spread out and went on for far too long.

I also got the queer/trans/etc. vibe big time. But the organisers and designers were probably in the cohort.

Aren’t the general public going to get bored of men dressing up and prancing about and contributing absolutely zero of annything else?

I rolled my eyes at the catwalk bits, hard, but enjoyed the rest.

Especially the groups dancing on the quays, on the barges and elsewhere. I watched the whole boat parade, and had my smartphone at hand to look up some of the small island nations from the pacific and caribbean. The sportspeople were enjoying it, apparently, despite the pouring rain :-).

Winner of best olympic dress would be Mongolia! Also loved the masked torch carrier, and the metal horse, carrying the flag bearer.
Will have to watch the last hour today, had to go to bed after the flag rising. It WAS long.

I didn't manage to watch it until the end. Did the masked torch bearer turn out to be anyone interesting?

Nah!

Interesting tactic to have a bunch of sports people from other countries carrying the flame

I'm glad I didn't hang on for a big reveal then.

I’m sad that as a society we’re stealing our children’s innocence so very very early in their lives.

why include that threesome? It was all way too overly sexual and inappropriate

It would have been so much better if the masked torch man/woman had turned out to be someone famous and if they'd had the flame at the top of the Eifel Tower.

I would totally have put the flame at the top of the Eiffel Tower @KnickerlessParsons