?Contains 60cc ink and 1 drop of human blood The world found out about the Satan shoes from this tweet on March 26, which immediately went viral:
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The resultant controversy has spawned a series of endlessly entertaining moments - cascading dominos of devilish diversion, starting with the enjoyably campy video that began all of this hysteria:Īnd beyond the initial hilarity, the shoes have also prompted a broader discussion about bigotry, homophobia, the historical roots of Satanic Panic in the US, and whether all that much has really changed since Satanic Panic began in the 1980s.
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But if the video drew a wave of backlash, the video plus the Satan shoes drew a veritable tsunami.
The “Montero” music video, with its decadent queer eroticism, spurred an initial homophobic backlash as conservative viewers chided Lil Nas X for supposedly corrupting children. According to many outraged conservatives, in fact, these boots were made for pied-piping children directly into the fiery pit of eternal damnation. After all, how much trouble could a few hundred pairs of shoes possibly cause? Yet in the three days since they were announced, all hell has broken loose.
Outside of sneaker culture, you wouldn’t typically expect a limited number of shoes being sold at a very high price to set the world on fire. Together, Lil Nas X and MSCHF designed “Satan Shoes”: a limited edition of 666 pairs of custom Nike Airs in which the air bubble in the sole has been filled with a mixture of red ink and “one drop of human blood.” The shoes, which cost $1,018 per pair and went on sale at 11 am Monday, reportedly sold out in less than a minute (or should we say … soul’d out?) - although Nike has reportedly moved to sue MSCHF and block sales of the shoes, citing infringement. In 2019, MSCHF released a viral pair of sneakers called “Jesus Shoes,” which claimed to contain a drop of holy water in every pair. So he partnered with a creative agency named MSCHF, a Brooklyn-based promoter with serious Zardulu energy that’s become known for a string of viral stunt promotions. So you can see how the music video might be a little bit shocking - especially from the portion of the public that loves a good moral panic and believes queerness is a sin.īut Lil Nas X apparently wanted to ratchet up the potential for outrage just a bit further. “I’m not fazed, only here to sin.” The song’s subtitle, “Call Me by Your Name,” also doubles as a refrain, in which he sings, “Call me by your name / tell me you love me in private” - another reference to the closet, as well as a reference to the acclaimed 2017 film about an illicit gay affair. “You live in the dark, boy, I cannot pretend,” he sings. Oh, and he does all of this while singing with a mix of joy and wryness about gay sex, the frustration of living a closeted life, the pain of loving someone who’s still in the closet - Lil Nas himself is openly gay - and the jealousy he feels toward straight people who get to live their lives without facing bigotry and oppression due to their sexuality. Sebastian) into a stripper pole, and then slides all the way down the pole into hell before giving Satan a lap dance as an excuse to seduce him, murder him, and steal the crown of hell for himself in a win for bottoms everywhere. It all started with the March 26 release of his latest music video, “ Montero (Call Me by Your Name),” in which he cavorts erotically with various iterations of Satan, is stoned by a crowd throwing buttplugs, transforms a spear that’s been homoerotically aimed at him (à la St. Not content to merely spur controversy and debate within the country music industry, Lil Nas X has jump-started the 21st century’s first foray into Satanic Panic by selling blood-infused Nikes. Lil Nas X put human blood into 666 pairs of Nikes because being queer means embracing your villainy.