“The Error Is Systemic To The Genre, It Seems”: Writer Reveals How Noah’s Ark Illustrations Frequently Have Gay Pairs Of Animals
Interview With Author
Most of us have heard at least something about that world-engulfing flood myth. A God figure gets so frustrated with folks that he decides to destroy all the people for all their sins and wrongdoings in order to give the planet a second chance, essentially acting as that humanity re-birth kind of thing.
However – the said deity finds a family that he chooses to save and instructs them to build an ark that will also hold examples of all the world’s animals, male and female specimens, who will later repopulate that sparkling clean and brand new world.
What’s amusing is that this Twitter user spotted a common quirk. The illustrations for Noah’s Ark, specifically the ones that are made for children, often include two lions that are, in fact, gay. Whether that’s an oblivious mistake or not, it doesn’t matter, as the online folks are truly living for it. The thread received over 2K likes and heaps of comments discussing this entertaining occurrence.
More info: Twitter
A periodically occurring quirk managed to lighten the mood of many online users
Image credits: meakoopa
It’s not a secret that religion is a very controversial topic. People that believe in spiritual things and don’t shame others for living a different lifestyle have been involved in a public affair with those who like to blame their religion for openly hating others. The ongoing issue where LGBTQ+ folks are treated as a walking sin, and that whole pregnancy termination malarkey, is nothing more than the ignorance of extremely ill-educated individuals.
A writer spotted a recurring habit of illustrators portraying Noah’s Ark lions as both males
Image credits: meakoopa
So, despite all the sensitivity behind this topic, this online user has found a rather pleasing error in a bunch of Noah’s Ark illustrations. Without hesitation, Bored Panda contacted the author to get a little bit more information on this hilarious thread. The author of the post is a PhD, writer and a host of a podcast called The Devil’s Party, where Anthony and his colleagues “read Christian poetry through a queer scholarly lens.”
Image credits: meakoopa
Image credits: meakoopa
The very first thing BP decided to ask was how the author came across such an oblivious and recurring mistake, to which Anthony replied: “we were doing our podcast episode on the section of John Milton’s Paradise Lost in which he describes Noah’s flood (in the poem’s very last movements as it looks forward through all of human history). I was researching depictions of the flood in art, and I noticed this habit of depicting the two lions charged with repopulating their entire species as… both male. Poor Noah also struggled with the peacocks (usually both with their beautiful tails) and a tendency towards pairs of lesbian cows…”
Image credits: meakoopa
Image credits: meakoopa
Going back to the complexity of religious topics, we asked the OP whether he’d had any interesting encounters with religious folks since the thread went viral. Oliveira replied: “there was a weird passel of messages that seemed to think I was responsible for the depictions? Or that I was ‘distorting the scriptures with [my] abomination.’ Buddy, I didn’t paint the mural in the baby’s room, I’m just saying that those lions are both boys.”
Image credits: meakoopa
Image credits: meakoopa
Image credits: meakoopa
The podcaster also added a few soft-hearted words: “perhaps the murals and toys are not accidents but acts of providence – perhaps they are merely the Lord working in His usual mysterious ways to remind us that there are more important things in life than ensuring its rote mechanical reproduction. When the ark finally scrunched against sand again, I hope the gay lions disembarked to live very happy lives.”
Image credits: meakoopa
Image credits: meakoopa
Image credits: meakoopa
No one truly knows if there’s anything above or beyond us, but believing while practicing kindness and peace seems like the only right way to go. It’s been decades if not more since some folks started using their faith to discriminate left, right and center and it’s a shame that not accepting people for the way the alleged creator created them is a little two-faced, at the very least.
Image credits: meakoopa
Image credits: meakoopa
Image credits: meakoopa
Nevertheless, these days people are a little more close-knit and are fighting all the unjustified discrimination together. Even if it’s in the form of pointing out a very oblivious biblical “mistake” on some books and toys. The world will be forever packed with negative individuals, and sometimes all we can do is just laugh and continue living our happy and colorful lives.
Image credits: meakoopa
Image credits: meakoopa
Image credits: meakoopa
Even with all the apathy of some folks, all we have to remember is that love is beautiful and it definitely has no gender. Sometimes it’s impossible to educate a person that, in reality, doesn’t want to be educated – so why waste your well-being on someone who doesn’t care about yours? So, just like Anthony said, may the gay lions live a very happy life.
Fellow online users loved the thread, and even added their own speculations
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Image credits: Jade_Gryphon
Image credits: PrairieScribe
Image credits: MattyMuseAuthor
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Image credits: SaraHLahtinen
Image credits: OneLoveReligiom
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I had no idea this was a reoccurring theme, but it is absolutely hilarious.
Two cows with udders, Two lions with manes, Two elephants with tusks, etc.
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Seems like the only instances when a lion has no male counterpart is when he is paired with a tiger. Is it some mass hypnosis? Utterly hilarious.
Same people who grew up thinking dogs are male and cats are female?
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One of our wedding presents was a set of salt and pepper shakers in the shape of cardinals. Two male cardinals. I love my gay birbs.
A lot of these seem like they copied the lion and flipped it to create the other one. So it seems a few of these are due to laziness.
To be fair it is quite common to see homosexual behaviour in lions (and many other species). So maybe Noah was just ahead of his time. Coincidentally this is the same in Disney's Mulan. There are a few scenes with lion statues depicted. In China one is supposed to be female (with a cub) and the other one male (with a ball under the paw). In disneys movie both lions are holding a ball under their paws. So gay lions
"People said I was crazy for building this ark!" "You ARE crazy - you've filled it with same-sex animal couples!" "Hey, there are parts of the Bible I like and parts I don't like." ~Futurama
hmm yes gay lions but what about the fact that the gay lions in the Renaissance art look like they are stoned as s**t
I love how Noah just shoves them in and they're all "What? Duuuuude, why're you putting us down there with all the food, man?"
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here is what i think the reason is, and it's quite short, representation, in many forms of media, the lion has a mane, it's most popular feature, so they just go "all lions have manes!"
Also fun when they make one animal of the pair noticeably smaller: you've paired an african elephant with an asian elephant is what you've done
I also wondered what all of the animals ate on the ark. I mean if those Lions just had one dinner there goes a species. Also there are about 900 species of tick alone. I don't care how many cubits the ark was there just wasn't room. And leaving the unicorns? Inexcusable!
Some lionesses grow manes too. It's been documented in Africa and India.
That is true, however those females are believed to be infertile, so even if they did bring a maned female it would be the end of the species.
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I don’t think anyone who literally believes in the flood fable takes the time to closely examine the world around them, so none of this is surprising.
I feel like this kind of thing crops up with fictional animals in general. It's not entirely uncommon for fiction to feature things like lionesses with manes, female birds with colorful feathers (in the case of species where the female doesn't have colorful feathers), male kangaroos with pouches, bulls with udders, female deer with antlers, and whatnot.
Why does Noah only bring one rabbit, one crocodile, two different birds, one racoon, one dove, one dragonfly, a seal, and three different butterflies in the second image?
Also, one of them has gay male peacocks, and another has gay male ostriches.
Drawn by the same people who drew Rudolph, a male reindeer, with antlers on December 25? The people who grew up thinking dogs are all boys and cats are all girls? And other such demonstrations of a lack of understanding of the animals they're drawing...
The Noah's Ark tale is one of the biggest reasons I left Judeo-Christianity. The whole myth and history around its formation is highly suspect.
Although interesting how a flood story is present in MANY cultures/many cultures have their creation story starting in lots of water. While there isn't a consensus it is quite possible that if it didn't happen, it was based off of an actual event.
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I have a question WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE GAY LIONS? Also i am legit asking because i don't understand so if you have an answer then pls respond.
So I'm wondering whose art this is. It almost seems like it's a challenge or something like that. I'm probably just jumping to conclusions . I actually liked quite a few of these. I would hope that the artist was being intentional in some of these.
Marketing and sales above all else. If it looks appealing, it will sell. No one cares about the details... evidently.
I think you should google-check your definition of "b********y".
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No you can't visit the remains of the Ark, because the story is a fable. Unless you believe that all animal life, after the flood, originated from a mountain in Turkey, and spread back out to their countries of origin. The flood tale is common in a few religions, and predates Christianity.
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Sarcasm, right? The whole point of Noah's Ark is Noah gathering two of every species to repopulate the globe. Considering there are roughly 9 million species of plants and animals on the planet, this is an awful lot of gathering for a people who don't believe in evolution.
Load More Replies...
I had no idea this was a reoccurring theme, but it is absolutely hilarious.
Two cows with udders, Two lions with manes, Two elephants with tusks, etc.
Load More Replies... Seems like the only instances when a lion has no male counterpart is when he is paired with a tiger. Is it some mass hypnosis? Utterly hilarious.
Same people who grew up thinking dogs are male and cats are female?
Load More Replies... One of our wedding presents was a set of salt and pepper shakers in the shape of cardinals. Two male cardinals. I love my gay birbs.
A lot of these seem like they copied the lion and flipped it to create the other one. So it seems a few of these are due to laziness.
To be fair it is quite common to see homosexual behaviour in lions (and many other species). So maybe Noah was just ahead of his time. Coincidentally this is the same in Disney's Mulan. There are a few scenes with lion statues depicted. In China one is supposed to be female (with a cub) and the other one male (with a ball under the paw). In disneys movie both lions are holding a ball under their paws. So gay lions
"People said I was crazy for building this ark!" "You ARE crazy - you've filled it with same-sex animal couples!" "Hey, there are parts of the Bible I like and parts I don't like." ~Futurama
hmm yes gay lions but what about the fact that the gay lions in the Renaissance art look like they are stoned as s**t
I love how Noah just shoves them in and they're all "What? Duuuuude, why're you putting us down there with all the food, man?"
Load More Replies... here is what i think the reason is, and it's quite short, representation, in many forms of media, the lion has a mane, it's most popular feature, so they just go "all lions have manes!"
Also fun when they make one animal of the pair noticeably smaller: you've paired an african elephant with an asian elephant is what you've done
I also wondered what all of the animals ate on the ark. I mean if those Lions just had one dinner there goes a species. Also there are about 900 species of tick alone. I don't care how many cubits the ark was there just wasn't room. And leaving the unicorns? Inexcusable!
Some lionesses grow manes too. It's been documented in Africa and India.
That is true, however those females are believed to be infertile, so even if they did bring a maned female it would be the end of the species.
Load More Replies... I don’t think anyone who literally believes in the flood fable takes the time to closely examine the world around them, so none of this is surprising.
I feel like this kind of thing crops up with fictional animals in general. It's not entirely uncommon for fiction to feature things like lionesses with manes, female birds with colorful feathers (in the case of species where the female doesn't have colorful feathers), male kangaroos with pouches, bulls with udders, female deer with antlers, and whatnot.
Why does Noah only bring one rabbit, one crocodile, two different birds, one racoon, one dove, one dragonfly, a seal, and three different butterflies in the second image?
Also, one of them has gay male peacocks, and another has gay male ostriches.
Drawn by the same people who drew Rudolph, a male reindeer, with antlers on December 25? The people who grew up thinking dogs are all boys and cats are all girls? And other such demonstrations of a lack of understanding of the animals they're drawing...
The Noah's Ark tale is one of the biggest reasons I left Judeo-Christianity. The whole myth and history around its formation is highly suspect.
Although interesting how a flood story is present in MANY cultures/many cultures have their creation story starting in lots of water. While there isn't a consensus it is quite possible that if it didn't happen, it was based off of an actual event.
Load More Replies... I have a question WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE GAY LIONS? Also i am legit asking because i don't understand so if you have an answer then pls respond.
So I'm wondering whose art this is. It almost seems like it's a challenge or something like that. I'm probably just jumping to conclusions . I actually liked quite a few of these. I would hope that the artist was being intentional in some of these.
Marketing and sales above all else. If it looks appealing, it will sell. No one cares about the details... evidently.
I think you should google-check your definition of "b********y".
Load More Replies... No you can't visit the remains of the Ark, because the story is a fable. Unless you believe that all animal life, after the flood, originated from a mountain in Turkey, and spread back out to their countries of origin. The flood tale is common in a few religions, and predates Christianity.
Load More Replies... Sarcasm, right? The whole point of Noah's Ark is Noah gathering two of every species to repopulate the globe. Considering there are roughly 9 million species of plants and animals on the planet, this is an awful lot of gathering for a people who don't believe in evolution.
Load More Replies...
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