Tuesday, February 03, 2004
Janet Jackson in the nude
Janet Jackson showed her bare breast on live national TV during the superbowl. Normally, I would just find that kind of funny. All the pictures seemed to indicate that she was surprised as everyone else. Ignoring for the moment whether or not it was truly an "accident" (rock stars get paid to be looked at and talked about, and there's no better way to do either than to get naked), the entire "episode" lasted for a split second, at least according to the news reports.
I didn't see the superbowl. I'm living in Switzerland. The game would be on in the middle of the night on a Sunday, the day before the start of the work week, and being the diligent and hard worker that I am, I just HAD to get my beauty sleep for that big important meeting in the morning. Or, if you don't like that excuse, I was busy saving Princess Kimberly in an all-night, and thoroughly macho, kung-fu fight with hoodlums from the Russian underworld. American guys aren't supposed to miss the superbowl for ANY reason.
The thing is, I haven't seen a superbowl since the Chicago Bears won in 1980-something (and even then I didn't watch the whole thing). I can't stand watching sports. I think I'd have a better time banging my head against the pipes in the bathroom than being forced to sit through a 2-hour football game (or basketball game, or soccer game, or...).
I have no idea why. When I first started my consulting career, someone recommended I read at least the front page of the Sports section every day so I could maintain interesting banter with my clients. I tried that, but discovered that reading the Sports page was like reading a book in high school you really didn't want to read. You end up getting through 4 or 5 paragraphs and realize you have no idea what any of them said. Not having a high threshold for boredom, I gave up and decided I'd just scare everybody with the weighty topics I tend to force everyone to talk about.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, naked breasts. Apparently, this was considered SCANDALOUS. LOTS of people called in the CBS offices to complain (I bet these are the same kinds of people who called to complain about that mythical gay Teletubby).
This makes no sense to me.
Perhaps my perspective is a bit warped from spending the last 4 1/2 years in Europe. If they think a half-second blast of Jackson boob is bad, they would be bowled over just walking by a newspaper stand in ANY city in Europe. Turn on the TV, and if your lucky, you MIGHT just catch a gratuitous shower nudity scene to advertise a shampoo product (your luck is higher if the channel happens to be Italian). My favorite was a washing machine ad (on an Italian channel) where the woman involved just HAD to wash every stitch of clothing she owned. Spend time on a European beach, and you will see acres of naked breasts.
Europeans grow up with nudity all around them, and yet somehow manage to create a society with low crime and low teenage pregnancy. Americans, by contrast, are OBSESSED with sex. MOST of the pornography in the world comes from American shores, which is a bit ironic for a nation terrified that naughty words and naked images might be broadcast to their radios and TV sets.
What really drives me nuts is the reason given for being so concerned: Superbowl is broadcast during typical "family hour," and KIDS are present. Janet Jackson should sell her half-second boob shot as a weapon of mass destruction. Set it off in an unsuspecting nation and blammo, a whole generation of children is spoiled rotten.
It's the same argument we use for continuing our utterly useless war on drugs. It would be a BAD EXAMPLE for kids if the government were to say it is okay for ADULTS to have legal access to drugs. Apparently, it is NOT a bad example for adults to have access to alcohol, a drug which leads to reckless driving and violence. Similarly, it's not a bad example to turn Columbia and Bolivia into nation state-sized versions of Al Capone's Chicago.
Adults aren't walking billboards spreading sanitized slogans for the good of children. The world of adults is complex, and kids, as people who someday will be a part of that world, will naturally want to learn about it. Unfiltered exposure would be just as harmful as extremes of denial. hiding it from them until they're old enough to leave the home, however, just leads to a bunch of neurotic adults.
A half-second boob shot SHOULD be funny. Unfortunately, our obsession with keeping our kids in the cultural equivalent of plastic bubbles makes us take everything too seriously.
Janet Jackson showed her bare breast on live national TV during the superbowl. Normally, I would just find that kind of funny. All the pictures seemed to indicate that she was surprised as everyone else. Ignoring for the moment whether or not it was truly an "accident" (rock stars get paid to be looked at and talked about, and there's no better way to do either than to get naked), the entire "episode" lasted for a split second, at least according to the news reports.
I didn't see the superbowl. I'm living in Switzerland. The game would be on in the middle of the night on a Sunday, the day before the start of the work week, and being the diligent and hard worker that I am, I just HAD to get my beauty sleep for that big important meeting in the morning. Or, if you don't like that excuse, I was busy saving Princess Kimberly in an all-night, and thoroughly macho, kung-fu fight with hoodlums from the Russian underworld. American guys aren't supposed to miss the superbowl for ANY reason.
The thing is, I haven't seen a superbowl since the Chicago Bears won in 1980-something (and even then I didn't watch the whole thing). I can't stand watching sports. I think I'd have a better time banging my head against the pipes in the bathroom than being forced to sit through a 2-hour football game (or basketball game, or soccer game, or...).
I have no idea why. When I first started my consulting career, someone recommended I read at least the front page of the Sports section every day so I could maintain interesting banter with my clients. I tried that, but discovered that reading the Sports page was like reading a book in high school you really didn't want to read. You end up getting through 4 or 5 paragraphs and realize you have no idea what any of them said. Not having a high threshold for boredom, I gave up and decided I'd just scare everybody with the weighty topics I tend to force everyone to talk about.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, naked breasts. Apparently, this was considered SCANDALOUS. LOTS of people called in the CBS offices to complain (I bet these are the same kinds of people who called to complain about that mythical gay Teletubby).
This makes no sense to me.
Perhaps my perspective is a bit warped from spending the last 4 1/2 years in Europe. If they think a half-second blast of Jackson boob is bad, they would be bowled over just walking by a newspaper stand in ANY city in Europe. Turn on the TV, and if your lucky, you MIGHT just catch a gratuitous shower nudity scene to advertise a shampoo product (your luck is higher if the channel happens to be Italian). My favorite was a washing machine ad (on an Italian channel) where the woman involved just HAD to wash every stitch of clothing she owned. Spend time on a European beach, and you will see acres of naked breasts.
Europeans grow up with nudity all around them, and yet somehow manage to create a society with low crime and low teenage pregnancy. Americans, by contrast, are OBSESSED with sex. MOST of the pornography in the world comes from American shores, which is a bit ironic for a nation terrified that naughty words and naked images might be broadcast to their radios and TV sets.
What really drives me nuts is the reason given for being so concerned: Superbowl is broadcast during typical "family hour," and KIDS are present. Janet Jackson should sell her half-second boob shot as a weapon of mass destruction. Set it off in an unsuspecting nation and blammo, a whole generation of children is spoiled rotten.
It's the same argument we use for continuing our utterly useless war on drugs. It would be a BAD EXAMPLE for kids if the government were to say it is okay for ADULTS to have legal access to drugs. Apparently, it is NOT a bad example for adults to have access to alcohol, a drug which leads to reckless driving and violence. Similarly, it's not a bad example to turn Columbia and Bolivia into nation state-sized versions of Al Capone's Chicago.
Adults aren't walking billboards spreading sanitized slogans for the good of children. The world of adults is complex, and kids, as people who someday will be a part of that world, will naturally want to learn about it. Unfiltered exposure would be just as harmful as extremes of denial. hiding it from them until they're old enough to leave the home, however, just leads to a bunch of neurotic adults.
A half-second boob shot SHOULD be funny. Unfortunately, our obsession with keeping our kids in the cultural equivalent of plastic bubbles makes us take everything too seriously.
