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No Thanks for the MammariesMardi Gras, defined down.

By Chris Suellentrop
Posted Monday, Feb. 26, 2001, at 11:30 PM ET
Mardi Gras

The melting pot periodically wreaks havoc on the national calendar. In recent years, Kwanzaa, Juneteenth, and Cinco de Mayo have all been added to the American holiday lexicon. But no celebration is spreading as far and as fast as Carnival, which in the United States is often simply dubbed Mardi Gras. Call it Mardi Gras creep.

The slow expansion of Mardi Gras from curious Southern ritual to national observance began when Europe's Catholic countries spread their pre-Lenten bacchanalia to the New World. The first American celebration of Carnival took place in the early 1700s in Mobile, Ala. The festivities there were later overtaken by the more raucous and bawdy ones in New Orleans, and from there the practice was exported to small Louisiana towns, to Gulf Coast cities such as Galveston, Texas, and Tampa, Fla., and up the Mississippi to St. Louis. Today's spread of Mardi Gras to cities like Austin and Seattle continues this process of nationalization.

But Mardi Gras creep is a two-part phenomenon: Carnival is expanding through time as well as space. The crassest but best-known New Orleans Mardi Gras ritual, the exchange of beads for a flash of areolas, can now be seen throughout the year in the Crescent City's French Quarter. Worse, the practice has spread across the country to any annual event attended by drunken mobs. The rowdy infield at the Kentucky Derby is filled with Mardi Gras beads and the accompanying tit-flashing. So are the yearly spring break celebrations in Florida and Texas. Women bare their breasts for Mardi Gras beads at lesser-known celebrations, too, such as Tampa's Gasparilla Pirate Fest and the opening of the Tiki Bar each spring on Solomons Island in southern Maryland.

Old-time New Orleanians complain about the secularization of Mardi Gras, the removal of the religious roots that underpin the season, which begins on the Epiphany (the last day of Christmas) and ends on Shrove Tuesday (the day before Lent). The complaint isn't that Mardi Gras has become dissolute—Mardi Gras is by definition dissolute—it's that the Carnival season is no longer placed in its religious context, and followed by Ash Wednesday services and Lenten penitence. Now breastification—the extension of a single ritual to define the whole Mardi Gras celebration—threatens to nullify the holiday's non-pornographic charms. The lifting of sexual taboos is a central element of Mardi Gras, but it isn't the exclusive element.

Neophytes think Mardi Gras is defined by the debauchery in the Quarter, but locals avoid the mass of flesh on Bourbon Street, at least until the college students who descend for the preceding weekend leave town. Uptown is a more sedate (if still besotted) affair. Children perch on stepladders to watch the parades put on by the "krewes," the societies who host the parades and balls that define the Carnival season. (Most revelers have never been to the most secretive, invite-only balls, but we dream, imagining they're like Eyes Wide Shut with former Rep. Bob Livingston in the Tom Cruise role.) If you want to go home with a haul of "throws"—the beads, cups, doubloons, and other trinkets tossed by the krewes—stay away from the toddlers. They'll be showered in throws, leaving you empty-handed. The favored phrase is "Throw me something, Mister," not "Show us your tits."

Mardi Gras creep's latest manifestation is not the exporting of Carnival from New Orleans to the rest of the country, which would be a welcome development. Rather, it's the misguided Mardi-Gras-ization of the national party culture. The students who come to town for a peep show aren't New Orleans exports. They're imports, acting out what they think Mardi Gras is all about, or what they've already experienced at the Derby or spring break. That's why so many locals go on vacation as the season reaches its pitch—the crowds and the filth and the urine just become too much. But if Mardi Gras creep continues, some day there will be nowhere to go to escape.

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Chris Suellentrop, a former Slate staffer, writes "The Opinionator" for the New York Times.
Photograph of Mardi Gras revelers by STR/Reuters.
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[Notes from the Fray Editor: That article, that title: of course we were going to get a thread listing different nicknames for breasts. On-topic certainly. Only look if you won't be offended. We liked this post title: "Important world problems vs. breast flashing"--BC helpfully listed some of the world problems.]





The following is from my honey, after her trip to Mardi Gras. As with a lot of things, her words should be final on the subject:

"sexual acts in public=mostly a good thing

sexual acts in public surrounded by a crowd of men w/ video cameras=not interesting to me anymore."

Isn't she dynamite, folks?



--Outlaw Texas Red



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I remember when--typical way to start, right?--Mardi Gras was a very festive, beautifully costumed and musical celebration of "having a grand time before the Lenten season" which was always a time of fasting and denial of treats and snacks for what seemed a terribly long time.



But, as stated in the article, the revelers are "imports" who don't have a clue as to why this celebration is taking place. The "imports" look at it as a way to get-away from mom and pop and any kind of moral code and do whatever they think is good for themselves, even if it may some day come back to haunt them through the news media or some other type of film documentation. I know that things change, but if it is for the better, more power to it--if not, and results in degrading a wonderful, joyous, musical affair, I'm sad to say the end result may be the ending of these festivals which would result in great cultural loss for all.



--Jeanette



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Mardi Gras, Christmas, Halloween all have their roots in ancient rituals, and celebrations. They all deserve to be respected, but as all traditions they evolve. They evolve due to interaction with society. as more groups begin celebrating that holiday the more it evolves. That mix of customs and society has made they holidays what they are today.



Why? Because the U.S. has created such bizarre stigma on sexuality. This stigma has created customs and laws which in turn mold society. A society where willing women want to show their breasts, butts, and nether regions for a pair of beads. Nobody is forcing anybody to do anything they don't want. Complain all you want but this is the society we all helped to create.



--John Shafft



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With all the hoopla about Carnival this year, I suggest it be moved to the most logical city of all. Can you just imagine all the floats and throws and partiers (yes, with all the T & A that goes with them) on the Strip in Las Vegas?? How have the casinos missed this obvious shot at completely filling their rooms?



--Dale



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The rise of Mardi Gras in other areas is part of a general trend that has nothing to do with religion. Halloween has gone from being a quaint kids activity to a time for adults to dress up in costumes and party, sometimes in a very erotic fashion. Activities such as Burning Man and the rise of Pagan Faires bring people together in a spontaneous fashion without a lot of sense of decorum (or clothing). On a more political front, the uprisings of the Seattle protest were noteworthy as much for their apparently ad hoc nature as for the message being presented.



On the other hand, more traditionally religious holidays such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter are on the wane. My suspicion is that part of this has to do with the fact that these all have a strong Puritan ethos to them, and they are all strongly associated with Christianity. Moreover, they have been heavily commercialized (especially Christmas) and rely heavily on a reliance of family…at a time when the traditional nuclear family is getting increasingly replaced by alternative forms. In other words, I think that Mardi Gras, Burning Man, Samhain, etc are all manifestations of a more profound change in the nature of society.



--Kurt Cagle



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