Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras (“Fat Tuesday,” literally translated from French) has long been considered an epicenter of social deviance in modern American life. The days that lead up to this famous Tuesday before Ash Wednesday of each year are all part of the Carnival, which stretches from the 12th night of Christmas (e.g., the evening of January 6) until Lent begins. As this should signal to the reader, the Carnival has its roots in Catholic traditions as a period of celebration before a time of introspection and soul-searching, which Lent beckons. Areas with densely Catholic populations have been renowned to have extravagant festivities planned throughout the Carnival, with the most notable being on Mardi Gras; many of these festivities are peppered with bohemian, raunchy, and racy activity likened to the masquerades of the famous Moulin Rouge in Paris, at its height of notoriety. Provocative costumes, binge alcohol and drug consumption, sexual promiscuity, and outlandish behavior all seem to be inseparable from the common conception of the Carnival. It truly seems as though the Carnival is an incubator for social deviance wherever it is observed around the world.

The State of Louisiana, the City of New Orleans in particular, has enjoyed a rich history of Carnival tradition that dates back to the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The vast majority of festivities revolve around social clubs whose various get-togethers do not center on social deviance at all. Carnival goers, on the other hand, have long been depicted in their hedonistic displays of deviance. In old local newspapers, for example, one can find coverage of public nudity dating back to the late 1800s. In contemporary times, the majority of deviant and transgressive behavior is concentrated in a few key areas in the City of New Orleans on Mardi Gras and the roughly 10 days that precede it. These areas include the French Quarter and Marigny (pronounced mare'-in-ee), where many revelers seek out lewd and lascivious behaviors, especially after dusk. In these areas, law enforcement tends to concentrate on public order rather than strictly enforcing local rules and regulations, and this relaxation of formal social control (up to a point) is widely accepted and anticipated. As such, displays of public nudity (e.g., exposure of women's breasts and male genitals) and public intoxication are commonplace after dark as Mardi Gras approaches. Since the 1970s, most of this behavior has concentrated along Bourbon Street where the core entertainment district is located, which houses many of the city's bars and almost all of its strip clubs and risqué establishments. The vast majority of these establishments and the local hotels offer up their balconies facing Bourbon Street to Carnival goers who throw beads and other trinkets to individuals below in exchange for public displays of nudity. Face-to-face encounters on the streets below may offer different exchanges such as kissing, groping, and fondling, and perhaps sexual favors (sometimes in public, which is not tolerated by law enforcement).

These exchanges are frequently controlled through informal means outside the French Quarter where families tend to congregate to enjoy the parades that also make the New Orleans Carnival famous. In this regard, Carnival goers across the State of Louisiana (including the more rural parishes and bayou countryside) enforce rules largely through informal means, while law enforcement takes a more relaxed approach to ensure everyone's safety. Meanwhile, it is well-known among the locals that certain parades, locations, and times are reserved for adult-only Carnival goers. Krewe du Viuex (pronounced crew doo voo) is a recent example of a string of social clubs that form to create a raucous parade that travels through the Marigny and the French Quarter late in the evening roughly 2 weeks before Mardi Gras. This parade offers satirical floats that graphically depict political figures sodomizing citizens, bondage and sadomasochism, and many other common taboos. This parade attracts drug use (in particular, marijuana and hallucinogens, e.g., psilocybe mushrooms and LSD), while alcohol consumption remains persistent, as with a large proportion of Carnival festivities across the state.

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