Did Innocent X Fail to Live Up to Their Name?

Spoiler Alert! At the end of Conclave, Cardinal Benitez, the dark horse who becomes the leading contender for the Papacy, reveals he has a uterus. It’s a brilliant touch in an otherwise prosaic, movie. Look at Velasquez’s "Portrait of Innocent X" next time you go to the Pamphilj. There's a reason why Innocent became the model for Francis Bacon’s "Screaming Popes". No Innocent was probably no more of a buggerer than any other pope. It’s that Innocent X was a girl. Role reversal was actually even more common in that era than it is now. In Elizabethan theater all the female parts were played by boys or eunuchs. Now of course many major male Shakespeare parts ate played by female actresses like Glenda Jackson. While a female Pope might be a stretch even in the current era of gender fluidity, there are rumors that Innocent May have gotten under the wire. But if he were a woman, there would have to be a major rewriting of that pope's cv.

read "Pet Buddha" by Francis Levy, Vol. 1 Brooklyn

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