Homosexuella nunnor och heliga kondomer : En studie av gruppen The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence och deras estetik

Sammanfattning

This article examines the group named The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and the aesthetic expressions which are present in their rituals and performances. It takes root in the big medial outcry which followed the LA Dodgers honouring of the group for their “Outstanding services to the LGBT community”. The aim of the study is to examine counter-cultural and progressive movements and their uses of religious aesthetics as a form of cultural critique. To fulfil this aim, three questions are formulated. These are: How do The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence make use of Catholic aesthetic expressions? What role does their use of religious symbols and aesthetics fulfil in the rituals which they perform? And how is the meaning which the group wants to communicate created? These questions are examined through a multimodal lens to shed light upon all the ways in which different modalities create meaning and how this meaning is communicated to the participants and onlookers. The study concludes that the group uses Catholic aesthetics in such a way that they invert its meaning, mainly by juxtaposing it with queer aesthetic expressions. This serves the role of provocating through creating disruption which leads to massive outcry, and as a result the broader broadcasting of their message. The meaning that they want to communicate is created by creating shock-value through confusing gender expressions and differing moralities.