I am upset.
I am upset that Janets nipple is the big distraction of the day while really
offensive and obscene things are normalized in the name of capitalism. And
Justin Timberlake says he is just so "shocked and appalled" bygollymissmolly!
He wasn't bothered by the plan to rip the woman's top off so long as it
only "revealed" a boob in a red lace bra? He wasn't shocked or appalled that he
was asked to represent himself as a man who rips womens clothes off of them in
a sexual context. I wonder what he thought that image would do for *his* career.
Cherie
Wednesday, February 4, 2004
Curse Words For Janet Jackson
Daddy, why does that f--- politician hate women's breasts? Because he's a s--
and a hypocrite, honey
By Mark Morford
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
file=/gate/archive/2004/02/04/notes020404.DTL
----- Forwarded message from CALEB & ANGELA MILES <ajrcm@msn.com> -----
Date: Sat, 7 Feb 2004 11:12:40 -0800
By Mark Morford
Jaws were clenched. Brows were furrowed. Scowls were scowled. Fake
sanctimony was hissed. Pasty cellulitic butts were scrunched. This is
what happened.
Just last week, well before Janet Jackson reignited her limp career
in the most nipple-riffic PR stunt in months, uptight members of
Congress from all corners squeezed their narrow ideologies into
little fiery balls and decided to berate, as they so often do, radio
and TV for being "vile, crude, disgusting, and awful," yo hey pot
kettle black. And, lo, lightning did not strike them dead on the
spot.
Why the outburst? Because Bono said the delicious f-word during the
Golden Globes, and it wasn't edited out. Because a few of the
country's crude 'n' obnoxious Clear Channel shock-radio stations you
would never listen to because you have taste and a brain aired one of
those vapid sexist gag radio bits that appeal only to semicatatonic
homophobic frat boys.
Oh, and because S.F.'s own KRON-TV dared to accidentally flash a shot
of a real penis during a segment about the very much
not-all-that-funny "Puppetry of the Penis" theater show. Shocking.
Appalling. Honey cover your eyes.
And thus did the sanctimonious pseudo-Christian cry go out, powerful
and time tested by politicians worldwide, guaranteed to induce fear
and ignorance and allow them to paint themselves as all
self-righteous and ethical and pretend they're not a corporate shill
raping the environment from the back pocket of an oil lobbyist: Who
-- pray, who -- will protect the children?
So the politicians, they hissed, they derided, they wrapped
themselves in cloaks of hypocrisy and righteousness and proposed a
bill to quintuple the Federal Communication Commission's powers to
punish "crude, vile" media violators -- i.e., anyone who broadcasts
certain "forbidden" swear words or exposes genitalia or offers up
crude schlock-radio pap, as if these are the true demons of society,
the true leeches sucking the souls of the virtuous and the young.
Wrong again, pols.
Which leads us, naturally, straight to Janet Jackson's nipple. To the
instantly infamous fully intentional breast-exposing PR stunt wherein
Justin Timberlake "accidentally" ripped off one of Janet's breast
plates, exposing one actually quite cool silver sunburst nipple
shield, just before a panicky NBC cut to a much more morally virtuous
Pepsi commercial.
Once again, America was shocked and appalled. Families were
horrified. Civilizations trembled. Churches crumbled. Eighty-nine
million viewers gasped and made the sign of the cross and realized
just how desperate Janet's career must've been that she had to try to
pull that one off. So to speak.
And oh yes, children were traumatized, too. Deeply scarred. Forever
and ever. So very sad.
Because children are always traumatized by such events, aren't they?
The wee ones simply can't handle sex and nudity and swearing and it's
a wonder the damn little things can get out of bed in the morning,
what with all the f-words and exposed nipples and penises flopping
around out there. Right, senator? The poor dears. Thank god for
Spongebob.
So outraged was the populace that Michael Powell, sanctimonious head
of the FCC, he of the flagrant corporate whoring who recently tried
to cram through new rules that would've allowed a handful of media
giants to own almost every media outlet in the nation, is actually
launching a probe into the Janet episode. How cute.
This is the message: A woman's bare breast is a horrific and
disturbing thing, completely inappropriate for an afternoon of
wholesome macho homoerotic skull-bashing NFL violence and endless
hours of nauseating commercial crassness -- unless the woman is, you
know, a cheerleader. Now rush off to bed kids, and read your Bibles
while Mommy and Daddy pop some Zoloft and Levitra and crack a few Bud
Lights and head off to the fetish dungeon to lick our new Ford GT.
Got it.
Yes, a woman's flesh is unspeakable evil. However, umpteen
erectile-dysfunction commercials and crotch-biting pisswater Bud
Light commercials and toxic-junk-food commercials and faux-macho
truck commercials and the ad featuring two old people beating each
other up over a bag of greasy potato chips, why, that's just
tasteful, healthy capitalism. Is that it, Mike? Politicians? Just
want to be clear.
Because there is no outcry. There are no snide FCC honchos or uptight
politicians hurling the terms "vile," "disgusting" and "crude" at the
true poisons of the culture, like those above -- not to mention
politicians' own oil cronyism or easy lies about war, or the
decimation of our foreign policy. You want to talk vile and
disgusting, senator? Have you seen the new BushCo budget?
Most telling side note: Bono, of U2, was barred from performing a
song about AIDS awareness at the Super Bowl because he is "too
political," given how he fights for those horrible un-American causes
of peace and Third World debt relief.
But pseudo-gangsta P. Diddy can pimp like a talentless thug and Kid
Rock can, well, be Kid Rock and NFL players can kneel in smarmy bogus
prayer rituals, praying fervently to crush the other team's vertebrae
and win a shiny trophy. My God but we are so beautifully, deeply
screwed.
Mind, this is no impassioned defense of vulgar radio or tacky
overblown halftime stunts, which are, by American tradition, inane
and insulting on 157 levels. After all, a nation gets exactly the
type of schlock entertainment it deserves. And, as for the children,
well, if you let your 5-year-old listen to Howard Stern, you get
exactly the kind of kid you deserve, too.
But in the final analysis, which is more harmful to your innocent
unsoiled perfect child? Hearing Bono say "this is really fucking
brilliant" during the Golden Globes and ogling Janet Jackson's
PR-happy breast for all of 1.7 seconds, or the endless stream of
blood-soaked images of BushCo's bogus war machine interspersed with
never-ending commercials featuring misogyny, bestiality, cheap beer
and toxic sodas, along with arrays of pneumatic bleached-toothed
cheerleaders doing the splits while sweaty 300-pound men in tights
pulverize each other like gorillas on meth?
Verily, congressman, and truly, Mr. Powell, why are you not out there
screaming and clenching your fists and protecting our innocent
children from the endless array of sociocultural lies and abuses and
corporate whorings you yourselves support and help perpetuate?
Why are you not, in short, ranting about the need to protect our
children from the likes of, well, you?
----- End forwarded message -----
By Mark Morford
Jaws were clenched. Brows were furrowed. Scowls were scowled. Fake
sanctimony was hissed. Pasty cellulitic butts were scrunched. This is
what happened.
Just last week, well before Janet Jackson reignited her limp career
in the most nipple-riffic PR stunt in months, uptight members of
Congress from all corners squeezed their narrow ideologies into
little fiery balls and decided to berate, as they so often do, radio
and TV for being "vile, crude, disgusting, and awful," yo hey pot
kettle black. And, lo, lightning did not strike them dead on the
spot.
Why the outburst? Because Bono said the delicious f-word during the
Golden Globes, and it wasn't edited out. Because a few of the
country's crude 'n' obnoxious Clear Channel shock-radio stations you
would never listen to because you have taste and a brain aired one of
those vapid sexist gag radio bits that appeal only to semicatatonic
homophobic frat boys.
Oh, and because S.F.'s own KRON-TV dared to accidentally flash a shot
of a real penis during a segment about the very much
not-all-that-funny "Puppetry of the Penis" theater show. Shocking.
Appalling. Honey cover your eyes.
And thus did the sanctimonious pseudo-Christian cry go out, powerful
and time tested by politicians worldwide, guaranteed to induce fear
and ignorance and allow them to paint themselves as all
self-righteous and ethical and pretend they're not a corporate shill
raping the environment from the back pocket of an oil lobbyist: Who
-- pray, who -- will protect the children?
So the politicians, they hissed, they derided, they wrapped
themselves in cloaks of hypocrisy and righteousness and proposed a
bill to quintuple the Federal Communication Commission's powers to
punish "crude, vile" media violators -- i.e., anyone who broadcasts
certain "forbidden" swear words or exposes genitalia or offers up
crude schlock-radio pap, as if these are the true demons of society,
the true leeches sucking the souls of the virtuous and the young.
Wrong again, pols.
Which leads us, naturally, straight to Janet Jackson's nipple. To the
instantly infamous fully intentional breast-exposing PR stunt wherein
Justin Timberlake "accidentally" ripped off one of Janet's breast
plates, exposing one actually quite cool silver sunburst nipple
shield, just before a panicky NBC cut to a much more morally virtuous
Pepsi commercial.
Once again, America was shocked and appalled. Families were
horrified. Civilizations trembled. Churches crumbled. Eighty-nine
million viewers gasped and made the sign of the cross and realized
just how desperate Janet's career must've been that she had to try to
pull that one off. So to speak.
And oh yes, children were traumatized, too. Deeply scarred. Forever
and ever. So very sad.
Because children are always traumatized by such events, aren't they?
The wee ones simply can't handle sex and nudity and swearing and it's
a wonder the damn little things can get out of bed in the morning,
what with all the f-words and exposed nipples and penises flopping
around out there. Right, senator? The poor dears. Thank god for
Spongebob.
So outraged was the populace that Michael Powell, sanctimonious head
of the FCC, he of the flagrant corporate whoring who recently tried
to cram through new rules that would've allowed a handful of media
giants to own almost every media outlet in the nation, is actually
launching a probe into the Janet episode. How cute.
This is the message: A woman's bare breast is a horrific and
disturbing thing, completely inappropriate for an afternoon of
wholesome macho homoerotic skull-bashing NFL violence and endless
hours of nauseating commercial crassness -- unless the woman is, you
know, a cheerleader. Now rush off to bed kids, and read your Bibles
while Mommy and Daddy pop some Zoloft and Levitra and crack a few Bud
Lights and head off to the fetish dungeon to lick our new Ford GT.
Got it.
Yes, a woman's flesh is unspeakable evil. However, umpteen
erectile-dysfunction commercials and crotch-biting pisswater Bud
Light commercials and toxic-junk-food commercials and faux-macho
truck commercials and the ad featuring two old people beating each
other up over a bag of greasy potato chips, why, that's just
tasteful, healthy capitalism. Is that it, Mike? Politicians? Just
want to be clear.
Because there is no outcry. There are no snide FCC honchos or uptight
politicians hurling the terms "vile," "disgusting" and "crude" at the
true poisons of the culture, like those above -- not to mention
politicians' own oil cronyism or easy lies about war, or the
decimation of our foreign policy. You want to talk vile and
disgusting, senator? Have you seen the new BushCo budget?
Most telling side note: Bono, of U2, was barred from performing a
song about AIDS awareness at the Super Bowl because he is "too
political," given how he fights for those horrible un-American causes
of peace and Third World debt relief.
But pseudo-gangsta P. Diddy can pimp like a talentless thug and Kid
Rock can, well, be Kid Rock and NFL players can kneel in smarmy bogus
prayer rituals, praying fervently to crush the other team's vertebrae
and win a shiny trophy. My God but we are so beautifully, deeply
screwed.
Mind, this is no impassioned defense of vulgar radio or tacky
overblown halftime stunts, which are, by American tradition, inane
and insulting on 157 levels. After all, a nation gets exactly the
type of schlock entertainment it deserves. And, as for the children,
well, if you let your 5-year-old listen to Howard Stern, you get
exactly the kind of kid you deserve, too.
But in the final analysis, which is more harmful to your innocent
unsoiled perfect child? Hearing Bono say "this is really fucking
brilliant" during the Golden Globes and ogling Janet Jackson's
PR-happy breast for all of 1.7 seconds, or the endless stream of
blood-soaked images of BushCo's bogus war machine interspersed with
never-ending commercials featuring misogyny, bestiality, cheap beer
and toxic sodas, along with arrays of pneumatic bleached-toothed
cheerleaders doing the splits while sweaty 300-pound men in tights
pulverize each other like gorillas on meth?
Verily, congressman, and truly, Mr. Powell, why are you not out there
screaming and clenching your fists and protecting our innocent
children from the endless array of sociocultural lies and abuses and
corporate whorings you yourselves support and help perpetuate?
Why are you not, in short, ranting about the need to protect our
children from the likes of, well, you?