Why Mardi Gras kings are much older than queens
I rarely look at it for blog ideas or any other ideas, but on Monday, 2-28-22, the WLOX-TV Facebook page became the unusual source of inspiration for this post.
WLOX is the ABC and CBS affiliate in Biloxi-Gulfport, and on Saturday, the 10 p.m. newscast announced the Gulf Coast Carnival Association’s king and queen for 2022.
I’ve lived on the Mississippi Coast since 1960, so I’m well-acquainted with the region’s Mardi Gras traditions. The Biloxi-based GCCA, according to its website, is the Mississippi Coast’s oldest and most prestigious Carnival organization.
King d’Iberville and Queen Ixolib lead the royalty and have the honor of presiding over the Fat Tuesday parade, canceled in 2021 because of Covid-19.
It’s unusual to see lucid comments on many Facebook pages, so it came as a surprise to see one about WLOX’s GCCA story.
Why is the king old and the queen young?
A person identified as Top Fan chimed in.
Sounds creepy and designed for the old man.
The reply:
The fetish old men have for young women.
C’mon, folks. It’s not like Harvey Weinstein is running the krewe.
At least I can come up with a well-researched answer.
With Wikipedia as one of my sources, I learned that a Mardi Gras queen is usually between the ages of 18 and 21, not married and in high school or college.
The king-and-queen age gap goes all the way back to 1743, the year Carnival balls were established in New Orleans. Yeah, The Capital of Mardi Gras.
Christine Maynard, a novelist, journalist and screenplay writer who lives in New Orleans, explained why the queen is much younger than the king in her 2015 article for the Cowbird website. The story, “Debutantes and Queens in New Orleans’ Mardi Gras Balls,” delivers information and entertainment.
The King of Rex took his first queen (in 1743) and a new species appeared. The New Orleans Mardi Gras debutante.
From its inception, the balls were the venue to sponsor daughters “coming out.” A century ago, if these debutantes failed to sufficiently impress a man and his family, the alternative (to not snaring a husband at a Cajun cotillion) might have been a bleak future as a nun, a spinster, or a school marm.
This decathlon of morals, manners and majesty has its own Fantasy Debutante League, of late. Maid status rakes in 60 points, and the Queen, 200. Extra points are awarded for extravagant parties, and girls get tally marks for side pony tails and toe rings.
What’s Biloxi got to do with this? Debutantes become queens. That’s all I’ve got.
On the WLOX Facebook page, I can imagine someone asking, “Why debutantes? Are they Little Debbies?”
The answer I could do without.