Wednesday, February 25, 2004

Lewd halftime show?

By GREGORY K. MOFFATT, PH. D
Child's Play

I’m assuming there is no one left in the nation who has not seen or heard about the Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake interchange during the Super Bowl halftime show. I never watch the halftime show during the Super Bowl, but even for people like me, one couldn’t help but hear about it.

Frankly, I’m amazed at the whole outcry. I’m not surprised people are upset and I’m not even surprised that it took less than a week after the event for some ambulance-chasing attorney to file a class action lawsuit against MTV, Viacom, CBS, Jackson, and Timberlake, saying that the “sexually explicit conduct” caused millions of people to “suffer outrage, anger, embarrassment and serious injury.” Nothing lawyers do surprises me.

What does surprise me is the clear mixed message this whole debacle presents. It may surprise my regular readers to hear me say that I don’t think it is as big a deal as the media has made it out to be. Here is why.

We almost never watch TV programs in our home because of all the offensive things on TV. I don’t choose to be subjected to, nor do I want my family to be subjected to, daily doses of murder, rape, filthy language, sexual innuendo, homosexual ideology, promiscuity, implied acceptance of immorality of various kinds, and the constant stream of violence that inundates the airwaves. Even some commercials aren’t safe to watch with children in the room. I don’t have to sue anyone. I simply exercise my option to shut the TV off (or, more likely, I don’t even turn it on).

The halftime show started with sexually explicit movements and scantily dressed people — a theme that continued throughout the program. It concluded with crotch grabbing, lewd lyrics, and Janet Jackson rubbing her rear end against Timberlake’s pelvis. Yet after all of this, a partially exposed nipple created a stir. Frankly, you could see more breast at a local basketball game from women feeding their infants. What is it about the breast that got everyone so upset?

You can’t tell me that MTV and CBS didn’t have some idea of what they were getting themselves into. Almost since its inception, MTV has had a reputation for pushing the envelope with programs like “Jackass” where people acquire fame for their stupidity. Likewise, any casual perusal of the lyrics by most of the artists on the halftime platform should have given one the idea that explicit sexuality would be a part of the show.

Janet Jackson has performed many songs with exceptionally explicit sexual content and she has posed quasi-nude on at least one album cover (not to mention posing partially nude for other publications). Finally, rappers aren’t exactly known for their puritan lyrics and gyrations. How could anyone be surprised? Didn’t CBS know whom they were getting? Of course they did. In fact, everything except the actual baring of the breast was rehearsed.

I was amused by the comments of FCC Chairman Michael Powell. In his initial statement on the Monday following the event, he said that he was watching the program with his family and was offended by the stunt. Apparently after all of the profanity, sexual suggestion, graphic violence, promiscuity, adulterous behavior, and so forth that are a steady part of television viewing - and after watching 20 minutes of men grabbing their crotches, women strutting on stage just short of naked, and simulated sexual intercourse between Timberlake and Jackson, he was suddenly offended by a nipple? Give me a break. In my opinion the bare breast was one of the very least offensive things in the program. (To give Powell credit where it is due, several days later he delivered another statement to the press saying the whole “on-stage copulation” performance by the duo was offensive.)

How upset are we really? Not very if you consider the fact that this was the most replayed TiVo event ever. Similarly, Janet Jackson’s bare breast was the most searched Internet image ever - including 9/11 images. Based on these facts, we apparently wanted to be repeatedly offended.

I am not lobbying for nudity on television by any means. I am proposing, however, that if we really are offended, if this behavior is really so unreasonable, we have a lot of accounting to do in these other areas. Musicians, producers, television shows and movies are totally driven by consumer demand. If we wouldn’t watch it, play it, or buy it, they couldn’t afford to produce it. We can most quickly demonstrate our outrage by exercising our option to leave the TV off.