Miller, the Jesus-Mocking Beer
Miller has chosen to associate itself with an event mocking the Last Supper of Jesus, one of the most precious religious occasions for Christians. The Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco touts itself as the “crowning finale” of the city’s Leather Pride Week festivities. It’s not something you’d bring the children to, although in San Francisco those standards don’t necessarily apply. Media accounts showed that in some cases whole families attended ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ with the toddlers dressed in dog collars. It is the kind of raunchy event that gives that city its reputation for decadence. But what really offended was the promotional poster for the fair. Seated at and standing behind a long table, Last Supper-style, are a set of men and women in various stages of leather dress/undress, including a man wearing a black dog mask. Sex toys, including a big red fist, are strewn across the table. As a spokesman for Concerned Women explained, “The bread and wine representing Christ’s broken body and life-giving blood are replaced with sadomasochistic sex toys in this twisted version of Da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper.’”…. Prominently on display in the left-hand corner of the ad ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ the Miller Lite sponsorship logo.
I suppose this is what you get when when someone takes themselves and their opinions just a wee bit too seriously. Or when someone thinks that because a particular group thinks, lives, and/or believes differently than the mainstream, they’ve ipso facto worthy of being diminished and marginalized. Ah, yes, the Conservative mantr: they’re different, ergo, they’re bad.
Normally, I might give Brent Bozell a (well-deserved) DUMB@$$ AWARD…but I just don’t feel up to celebrating his brand of reflexively hateful ignorance today. Perhaps some other time.
I don’t deny Bozell’s right to buy whatever beer he chooses for whatever reasons he might have, but to begrudge a brewer’s right to reach out to whatever market segment they choose seems the height of arrogance and intolerance. If you happen to disapprove of the lifestyle choices made by those who attended the Folsom Street Fair, that’s your right. No one’s going to hold a gun to your head and tell you to move to San Francisco and dress up like one of the Village People. Then again, that doesn’t give you the right to ridcule or marginalize those who do or those who try to market their products to them. “Gay” money is worth just as much as “straight” money, so why shouldn’t Miller Brewing Co. be free to chase their money? And why should the GLBT be denied the pleasures of consuming mass quantities of cheap, low-quality American beer?
Here’s another thing…what is it about the promotional poster that allows Bozell to think that the promotional poster is a riff on the Last Supper? And are Christians the only ones with the right to use that sort of imagery? Even if the post was a ripoff of the Last Supper, since when do Christians have a copyright on that? Parody has been around as long as human beings have found things to laugh at…and the Last Supper has been parodied more often than Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader’s © linguistic…uh, challenges.
What is it about Christian Conservatives in general, and Brett Bozell in particular, that render them such a joyless, mirthless lot? Did Jesus not have a sense of humor?
