June 13, 2011

John Wayne’s Pom Poms

By Michael Shaw

Miguel Angel Morenatti—AP

You’re not in Kansas anymore, Champ.

What I love about this photo (yeah, I used the word “love”) is how much fun it’s having with the European versus American perception of sexuality. Whereas many here in the States would take this, at a fast glance, as a classic reference to the Old West (it’s actually a religious pilgrimage in Southern Spain), the immediate “double-take” would likely involve consternation around “blue-things” and “pink-things” and possibly a sense of violation around macho codes.

This is really hilarious, topped off, as it is, with just the hint of blue sky.

( caption: June 9, 2011. Pilgrims make their way to the shrine of El Rocio during the annual pilgrimage in which hundreds of thousands of devotees of the Virgin del Rocio converge in and around the shrine, in Villamanrique, Spain. Via TIME Lightbox “Photos of the Week.”)