Member Since: 12/2/2011
Posts: 52,765
|
Why America Owes Janet Jackson a Huge Apology
Quote:
The aphorism goes: your life can change in a split second. And no one knows this better than Janet Jackson, who went from pop music royalty to scapegoat pariah in a matter of 9/16th of a second, the blink of time her breast was accidentally exposed to an estimated 140 million people during 2004’s Super Bowl Halftime Show. What came after was a national overreaction that had very little to do with Janet and everything to do with America’s long history of sexism, racism and puritanism.
Janet took her turn slaying at America’s most popular sporting event. She pretty much did that — although we forget — with live renditions of hits like “Rhythm Nation” and “All for You.” Then Justin Timberlake joined her on stage for a duet version of his single, “Rock Your Body.” At the point in the song when he sings, “Better have you naked by the end of this song,” he was supposed to pull Janet’s bustier to reveal a red lace bra, but both pieces ended up ripping off.
Then everyone got insanely mad at Justin for messing up. Oh, wait, sorry, I forgot about the patriarchy for a second. Let me try that again: then everyone got insanely mad at Janet for having breasts and no one ever really mentioned Justin again. For example, The Washington Post’s Tony Kornheiser wrote, “What Janet Jackson did was bizarre, deliberately flopping out of her costume like that.” Justin’s grabbing hand is entirely erased from the scene.
The senseless sexism didn’t end there. Janet was disinvited from that year’s Grammys. Meanwhile, Justin was not only allowed to attend, but also performed. Janet was blacklisted from radio and music video channels for the next several years, leading to multiple album flops, while Justin got to be goofy on SNL and become a movie star.
Justin had this to say about getting off scot free, thanks to his white male privilege: “I probably got 10% of the blame, and that says something about society. I think that America’s harsher on women. And I think that America is, you know, unfairly harsh on ethnic people.”
That last point brings up the fact that Janet’s first crime was being a woman and the second that she was a black woman.
The anti-Janet uproar wasn’t just confined to talk shows, radio stations and op-eds, thanks to the efforts of Michael Powell, who was the chairman of the FCC at the time. He called the incident a “classless, crass and deplorable stunt” and effectively waged a culture war, which resulted in fining CBS $550,000, policing TV for “immoral” content, and implementing a five-second delay for all future live televised performances. The fine per indecency violation was raised from $27,500 to $325,000. All nine American network soap operas eliminated sexual storylines, ER re-edited an episode that featured some of an injured elderly woman’s breast and the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show was scrapped. It even got so bad that 65 ABC stations decided not to air Saving Private Ryan out of fear that the government would fine them for profanity within the script. Years later, Powell would say: “I think we’ve been removed from this long enough for me to tell you that I had to put my best version of outrage on that I could put on. Part of it was surreal, right?” Right.
Many people believed this witch hunt was a way to influence the election (spoiler: the conservatives won on a platform of “moral values” later that year) and distract the nation from the failing war in Iraq. Janet agreed: “There are much worse things in the world, and for this to be such a focus, I don’t understand. They needed something to focus on instead of the war, and I was the perfect vehicle for that.”
A familial connection that brings Janet’s concern into sharp focus: FCC head Michael Powell’s father is none other than Colin Powell, George W. Bush’s Secretary of State and one of the instrumental figures involved in selling the idea of the Iraq War. Things that make you go hmmm.
Over a decade later, Janet is just starting to recover. Her last album, Unbreakable, debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts and both the record and her world tour have been well received by critics. But she’ll most likely have to work against the damage done by that 9/16th of a second for the rest of her career, a tiny momentary blip that contains projections of some of the ugliest facets of America. And for this, we owe Janet Jackson a huge apology.
|
x
Such a good read 
|
|
|
|
It's her fault. Such a pathetic publicity stunt.