Word: jacksonã
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Nearly two full weeks have passed since Justin Timberlake “accidentally” ripped off part of Janet Jackson??s top and exposed her right breast during the Super Bowl halftime show. Despite the hysterical media coverage that ensued, the event itself was not much of a spectacle—among other things, the considerable distance between TV camera and breast prevented even the most attentive of viewers from glimpsing anything much of interest. For a stunt that supposedly degraded a nation and marked the first step in the collapse of western civilization, there really wasn?...
...watch it just to see what had actually happened. Yet even more frustrating than the limited visibility was the subsequent failure of TV executives and conservative critics to identify the most disturbing element of the performance: its presentation, as entertainment, of an act of sexual violence. Ripping off Jackson??s bra was ultimately the decision of just one person—Timberlake—and the public shaming of Jackson that followed was misguided, sexist and undoubtedly the single most regrettable aspect of the entire fiasco...
...actual performance, which combined two of Jackson??s biggest hits and one of Timberlake’s most recent, could have been groundbreaking. Barely a generation has passed since the white singer Petula Clarke insisted on touching the arm of black musician Harry Belafonte during a duet on her 1968 NBC special. Despite pressure to cut the segment in “deference” to (racist) Southern viewers, NBC exercised the good judgment to leave the duet...
...Great Breast Debacle immediately evaporated any potential interest in this aspect of the performance. Viewers and TV executives were offended by the flashing, but their obsessive focus on Jackson??s sun-shaped “nipple shield” completely missed—forgive me, please—the point. More problematic than the distant, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it exposure was the action which caused it: Timberlake’s violent ripping-away of Jackson??s clothing. Whether or not he meant to leave behind Jackson??s bright red bustier...
Whether legally sanctioned TV toplessness like Jackson??s comes before or after universal marriage rights is a matter for the networks and Congress to decide. The political necessity of the latter far outweighs the former, as the Massachusetts Supreme Court presciently ruled last week (but as Gov. W. Mitt Romney foolishly failed to recognize this week). Thank heavens the court isn’t comprised of CBS executives and conservative culture critics, whose regressive politics blame the woman and exonerate the man after the most widely watched sexual assault reenactment in the history of mass entertainment...