(CNN) – This week, Rihanna stunned in a new cover shoot for Interview magazine, which challenged a lot of what we know and expect from the traditional image of a nun. This lip-stained cover debuted shortly after the theatrical release of the new nun film “Immaculate,” starring Sydney Sweeney (as a secretly pregnant sister) fighting for her life in an Italian convent.
In fact, these nun parties are the latest in a long line of subversive pop culture interpretations of the lives (and loves) of nuns.
In the world of fashion, sisters have long been a source of inspiration for designers. During his tenure as creative director of Dior, John Galliano in 2008 created a haute couture collection featuring pointed stripes reminiscent of those worn by nuns in the 1950s. Divine inspiration struck him again in 2019, when he sent models down the runway at Maison Margiela wearing black-and-white fabric veils. The classic design has also been recreated time and time again by the likes of Schiaparelli, Marine Serre, Emilia Wickstead, Vaquera, and more. Recently, Bella Hadid walked the runway at the Coperni Fall/Winter 2022 fashion show wearing a headdress reminiscent of a nun's habit.
Nuns are depicted eating ice cream on the front of greeting cards, or are drawn accepting communion with a tongue piercing. A particularly popular photo taken in 1965 – widely attributed to the Holton-Deutsch collection – depicts four sisters gathered around a cigarette. Andy Warhol was also captured by the image of the convent, reimagining Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman as a Catholic sister in his 1983 pop art portrait The Nun. American painter Ken Vrana and Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara created their own versions of the painting “The Flying Nun.” In Vrana's 2014 painting, a sister is shown dressing in a wrestling ring, while Nara's 2002 painting shows a nun soaring through the air in a small plane.
But why have they captured the imagination of so many?
Dr. Lin S. said: Neil, author of Religion in Vogue: Christianity and Fashion in America, said in an email to CNN: “Some fascination stems from the pleasure and/or interest generated by pushing expectations and boundaries.” “When people see a nun's habit it raises a whole set of connotations and assumptions…one's commitment to holiness, self-denial, and service to others.”
Cinema – which has often subverted those very connotations – has long had an ongoing interest in the lives of nuns. The 1959 Western thriller The Nun's Story, which featured Audrey Hepburn as a reclusive bride of Christ who rejoins the secular world, was one of Hollywood's first forays into examining sisters wrestling with their faith. Then came the wave of bloody European filmmaking in the 1960s and 1970s. The “Nunsploitation” subgenre saw nuns transform from icons of piety and sacrifice into harbingers of evil and sexual obsession. In “Our Lady of Lust” (1972), “Behind the Convent Walls” (1978), “The Sinful Sisters of St. Valentine” (1979) and others, women are depicted as lewd and sometimes lecherous, unable to maintain their commitment. To God because of their dangerous sexual desires. The Killer Nun (1979) tells the story of Sister Gertrude, the head nurse at a public hospital who suffers a psychotic episode and goes on a murderous rampage.
(Many of these films were produced in Italy, a country where nearly 80% of the adult population says they consider themselves Catholic, according to a 2018 Pew Research Center study.)
Nuns still influence films today. The horror series “The Conjuring” has already spawned two spin-off films — “The Nun” (2018) and “The Nun 2” (2023) — and viewers are eagerly hoping for a third. Arthouse production studio A24 released Saint Maud in 2020, while Benedetta, a film about a forbidden lesbian relationship between two 17th-century nuns, debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021. The third film in the beloved “Sister Act” series in '90s starring Whoopi Goldberg is currently in development.
In this context, then, both Rihanna and Sweeney — who used her spot on “Saturday Night Live” last month to joke about her sexual cross-dressing — participate in a long and hallowed tradition of subverting the chaste expectations often associated with nuns.
“The juxtaposition of a nun's habit with blatant sexuality or the development of personal identity and style is shocking and grabs people's attention,” Dr. Neal wrote. “Some delight in this desecration of what is considered sacred as a way to criticize institutional religion or express rebellion against prevailing norms. Others are offended and criticize these actions as disrespectful or even blasphemous. Either way, attention and publicity usually follow!”
CNN Wire
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