Wednesday, October 11, 2017

[every 10th jesus...]

"Every 10th Jesus is a Queer" poster by Eric Handel, based on Sainte Famille (The Holy Family) William-Adolphe Bouguereau, showing Mother Mary with Jesus and John the Baptist as children. From politicalgraphics.org

This poster is from the collection of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics

The title alludes to Alfred Kinsey's work in the 1940s which found that 10% of men in the United States are homosexual. Despite there being significant methodological reasons that this number should not be applied to the general population, the number "10%" has stuck.

From the details page:
By incorporating this statistic into Bouguereau’s traditional religious portrait, Handel challenges the understanding of Christian views on homosexuality. Bouguereau’s idyllic depiction of the affectionate infants Jesus and John the Baptist in the loving embrace of the Virgin Mary evoke Christ's and Mary's love and compassion for all humanity, including the ten percent who may be gay or lesbian. The peacefulness of the scene emphasizes the stark contrast between the great benevolence and love expressed by Christ in the Bible and the hatred and violence directed towards the LGBT community that some attempt to justify with Christian ideology.

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