Thread by @MikkiBrock

I want to talk a bit about the demonology of Lil Nas X's “Montero” video. It is a fascinating, fantastical piece of art that plays with and subverts conservative Christian ideas. It also follows a long, sophisticated tradition of using demonic imagery to resist and reclaim. 1/

The video opens in an Edenic garden, featuring Lil Nas X resting at the base of a tree with a serpent lurking just above. Here the fall is sensual and soft, an erotic take on a scriptural event historically used by (male) writers to suggest the carnality and weakness of women. 2/

But the gendered dynamics here are ambiguous; “Eve” is seduced, but not necessarily to blame. (I love this part of the video). 3/

Lil Nas X then stands before a jeering crowd in a coliseum—he resembles a persecuted Christian—before being condemned to Hell (which comes more from the mind of Tolkien than Dante or Bosch). After arriving via a long pole dance, he encounters Satan on his throne. 4/

The devil is every bit the beast of the western imagination: red, horned, large, humanoid. The recently damned Lil Nas X gives a mostly passive Satan a lap dance. The seduced becomes the seducer, and soon, he becomes the devil himself. 5/

This is a video about sex, power, and empowerment. Lil Was X’s unapologetically queer anthem follows a long tradition of using demonic imagery to not only to challenge structures of power, but to play, fantasize, and imagine. 6/

The romantic tradition recast the devil as an ambiguous figure, freed from the mores of traditional theology. Satan was increasingly a symbol of resistance against the status quo rather than a threat to society. The real threat was the hegemony of intolerant Christianity. 7/

In more recent years, particular through the heavy metal of the 1980s, music has provided a powerful venue for demonic imagery—and, like the Lil Nas X video, it has provoked intense backlash from conservative Christians crying “what about the children?!?” 8/

And indeed, “what about the children?!?” has underpinned a whole range of fears and conspiracy theories, from blood libel to demonic witchcraft to the Satanic Panic to QAnon. 9/

Modern Satanists have also wielded the devil as a symbol of resistance and a tool of trolling the Right. They often come from groups that have been othered and demonized, and their satanic faith is an act of reclaiming and proclaiming their authentic selves. 10/

The reason so many folks have been moved, outraged, shocked, and inspired by this video is because it draws on a deep reservoir of cultural and religious meaning that still exists in our popular imagination. Demonology may seem like a strange and long-gone subject...11/

...but our world is still profoundly shaped by demonic imagery, fears, and beliefs. Lil Nas X has deployed these ideas brilliantly and provocatively in song, scene, and even shoes.

And I, for one, was delighted to see “Satan” trending on Twitter this weekend. /fin