I’m sorry, I know I post about these things a few days after they’re really relevant, but that’s what happens when your life is filled with too many things and you don’t have time to keep up with your blog. So what is going on with society? Is it all connected? Is the fact that we have another 4 years with that bozo really connected to Janet Jackson’s nipple?
I am, of course, referring to this. The television network (and a host of others involved) apologized after numerous viewers complained about a pre-show spot airing at 9 p.m. before “Monday Night Football.” The spot, as I’m sure you all know, featured Nicolette Sheridan seducing Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens in a locker room. There was no nudity, only “implied nudity,” as Sheridan drops her towel in a locker room and jumps into Owen’s arms. Apparently, implied nudity is now enough to tick off enough people to cause an television network to apologize. And to think, for a while we were seeing naked butts on “NYPD Blue.” Now, suddenly because of Janet Jackson’s nipple a little implied nudity is verbotten. I have to tell you, this causes me to feel a bit of concern.
Are we becoming so prudish that a woman’s naked back, something we see in countless ads for soap, shampoo, and shaving cream, is now off limits? There was an article in a recent issues of something I was reading (I want to say that it was EW, but I’m not 100% sure) that talked about several network affiliates refusing to run the uncut version of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, not because it features one of the most realistically violent openings ever committed to screen, but because the word “fuck” is used too many times to bleep. These affiliates were afraid of being penalized with the new, steep fine that has been instituted since (you guessed it) Janet Jackson’s nipple. (Don’t get me started on the way American society glorifies violence but demonizes sex.)
If I seem a bit preoccupied by Janet’s breast, well, I just don’t get it. I’m not going to go on about it here, but let me just say that I am so horrified by the level of puritanism that is currently running rampant in the United States in 200-fucking -4!