A Matter of context?
I’ve learned something important this week, context matters more than almost anything else.
Certainly it matters more than common sense.
I’m talking about the whole Janet Jackson scandal, which continues to scatter and leave marks like buckshot on our collective, unwitting backsides.
The main victim?
Not the American public.
We were merely entertained. Or, offended. Take your side.
And you could argue that the media, particularly the tabloid game I’m in, flourished after Boobgate.
The main victim, according to those offended, CBS and FCC Chairman Powell, is decency.
Do you agree? I don’t.
Janet’s flash, which I’ve already argued was intentional and well within her rights as a pop icon who regularly breaks barriers, was just a breast.
I mean, how many times have we seen Madonna naked? No one freaks out about that.
The whole point being, Madonna never got naked at the Super Bowl.
Just in magazines, her book “Sex,” in videos, movies, and on the red carpet once or twice.
One bare breast at the Super Bowl, however, and our nation spirals into pearl-clutching, tongue-clucking, high-necked Victorian-era mode.
There goes that context again.
Though I thought the moment itself was fun and surprising, the fallout has been completely terrifying.
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Article by Alex Richmond
Source: Associated Press
Thanks to Memphis
One big shocker was the billion dollar class-action lawsuit filed by one Terri Carlin of Knoxville, Tenn. She maintained that she and countless others suffered “outrage, anger, embarrassment and serious injury.”
Serious injury?
What, did someone’s eyes pop out of their head? Was there a stampede and collision during the mad rush to get closer to the television set? Maybe extreme finger fatigue from rewinding the TiVo over and over again?
The suit, thank goodness, has been dropped. But the cultural regression marches on.
Worst of all being an incident at the Tyme Gallery in Haverford, Pa.
Owner Edna Davis told an Police Chief Gary Hoover said the township’s codes department directed him to check out the painting of a nude man and a nude woman in the Tyme Gallery’s front window.
The complaint being that the front window of an art gallery is an inappropriate place for a public display of nudity.
Even if that public nudity is art that depicts a bible story.
The Tyme Gallery was not found guilty of any code violations.
Davis removed the painting voluntarily, but said she was surprised that it offended anyone.
Last summer, she had the same painting displayed in her front window for more than a month without any complaints.
Last summer, we were all up to our ears with Bennifer sightings, not Janet’s piercing-sightings.
See how context matters?
After the turbulence regarding the artwork, Davis is debating whether to display the piece again.
“It is a well-accepted piece. There is nothing pornographic about it at all,” she has said.
Similarly, there was nothing pornographic about Janet’s Super Bowl performance.
It was a shocking, MTV-styled moment.
Blink and you missed it.
It was just a breast, people.
One bare breast.
Half of the time, people are actively looking for them.
The rest of the time, we blithely watch MTV or commercials for the “Girls Gone Wild” videos and just keep on living.
Maybe Janet should wear a giant red “B” on her chest to atone.
Or maybe we should all grow up and remember that a breast is just a breast.
Not a cause for alarm.