Double standards arise after Super Bowl halftime show
Maria Ly
Staff Writer
Many people watching Super Bowl 53 this past weekend took to social media after the halftime show to question the double standard of Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction and Adam Levine’s shirtless performance.
The event, nicknamed “Nipplegate”, put a halt on Jackson’s career as a slight wardrobe malfunction occurred during her halftime show with Justin Timberlake.
During the performance, the two stars did a duet of Timberlake’s song “Rock Your Body” with suggestive dance moves. The performance ended with Timberlake pulling a part of Jackson’s outfit revealing her right breast.
After the incident, the Federal Communications Commission took CBS and Viacom to court and tried to sue the two big companies $550,000 for indecent exposure on live television. The fine was eventually appealed and voided.
Jackson was then asked by CBS to write a written apology while Timberlake remained clear of any punishments. Jackson was also banned from performing and presenting at the Grammys a week later while Timberlake was not.
The punishment did not stop there as Jackson was also blacklisted from Clear Channel Communications who also own Infinity Broadcasting and Viacom who own a number of channels such as MTV and CBS. All of Jackson’s music was banned from airing making her album “Damita Jo” her lowest selling album to date. The singer was also forced to resign from a movie deal.
What happened to Timberlake? Nothing.
The “Nipplegate” situation has sparked controversy in this year’s Super Bowl as Adam Levine stripped away his clothes and exposed upper body during his performance. This outraged fans as they called out the double standard with many taking to Twitter to express their concerns.
One twitter user, Vicky Mochama tweeted, “Wow. So brave of adam levine to honor janetjackson’s legacy by showing both of his nipples.”
Another Twitter user, Kory Kuhl, shared, “friendly reminder that janet jackson got blacklisted for exactly what adam levine just did.”
The event also garnered celebrity attention as rapper Aminé tweets to his followers, “ay if janet can’t show skin why can adam?”
Why are Levine’s nipples acceptable and not Jackson’s? Why was Timberlake’s career not affected by “Nipplegate” even though he was the one who exposed her? Why did Jackson have to take the fall while others did not?
Jackson was briefly exposed with one nipple for one second during the show and had part of her career ruined whilst Levine had two exposed nipples for over two minutes with no consequences.
Jackson had no control over the exposure of her nipple, and Levine purposely tore his shirt off. Why does the media have this double standard when it comes to males and females?
Representatives from the Women’s March wrote on Twitter that CBS and the NFL should apologize to Jackson, writing, “White male performers like Levine and Timberlake are allowed to do what they want with their bodies; to show their nipples and even expose others,” the statement continues, “Black women, on the other hand, are demonized for having their nipples shown, even without their consent. The double standard is clear. It’s time the NFL, the entertainment industry, and the nation stop policing and hyper-sexualizing women’s bodies.”
Due to this controversial event, Feb. 3 is now deemed Janet Jackson Appreciation Day with many using the hashtag to honor the singer.
Feature photo courtesy of Flickr.
The difference is that women’s breasts are sexualized…rated r movies feature women’s breasts, while pg movies and have a topless male. A second issue with Jackson is that JT exposed her…not good to show on tv! Double standards? Maybe…but maybe if breasts weren’t so sexualized, it wouldn’t be a problem! It’s women that have issues showing breasts, not men!
It’s not women who have issues. It’s men for sexualising a part of our body. Do cis men breastfeed? So why should we blame women for showing their nipples when their counterparts have useless nipples?
I have seen travel ads on the net with women on the beach in g strings. Is there one lousy advertisement on the net or television with a man or boy in a g string? Or how about a lousy Speedo? I can’t think of the last time I saw a male in a Speedo or Arena swimming bikini on a beach in America or much less in an ad on television or in an American magazine–not since the late sixties with Mark Spitz. I want to see Justin Beiber in a bikini. All his beach photos show him in knee length shorts.
And what about Bruno Mars? His videos will show him driving a Cadillac in Las Vegas or Miami Beach, then will suddenly incongruously line up four women in g strings bent over with their bums staring into the camera, then back to him singing in his Cadillac. What about Bruno’s butt? I want to see Bruno bent over showing his bare butt to the screen or singing in his hot pants. I bet he has a nice bum and nice smooth thighs, but it is too much for feminists to address this sexist double standard against men’s bodies, but such is America’s denial culture.
The Japanese line up their young males on celebrity shows standing on stage in their little micro Speedoes. They used to send their elementary and middle school boys to school in “hanzubon” hot pant short shorts, and they would dance around on NHK children’s television in their denim hot pants and cotton yellow micro gym shorts singing songs like, “Consider Yourself,” from the musical, Oliver or that famous Italian song, “Children Of All Culture”, no longer available on You Tube, but maybe I can send them to you, especially if you are a Gender Studies professor with a rag of interest in what I am talking about. Hanzuobon shorts were part of a post nuclear holocaust strategy to attempt to instill pride in the Japanese male body. (I have read the Japanese are sick of American hip hop ghetto culture and are going back to “hanzubon” which you can Google.)
The Russians send their boys to summer camp in micro shorts that reveal up to half their bums. Check out videos on You Tube like, vnr14 03, vsmp92 14, BZTKZN1 051. There are well over two hundred videos, some of them dealing with quasi homosexual themes, most of them dealing with boys innocently collecting leaves, hauling telescopes up mountains, repelling down cliffs in their bummy shorts in Socho National park near the Black Sea. All these videos were made in 1997 in Socho National Park.
Don’t expect the campus feminists to talk about how American homophobic culture suppresses male sexuality, while the macho cultures of Japan, Russia and Brazil celebrate both the male and female bodies equally. Perhaps all this Russia phobia is motivated by America’s distaste for Putin’s macho male narcissism of showing his fit body off in public in front of the Russian people. Let’s see Trump do that. I bet he would look great in a Speedo, the blob.
From your friend Daniel, and MSU almnus writing from my adopted home town of Bangkok or Krungtep, the “city of angels” and freedom of the genders, the trans katoui boys, the gays, the hets–everyone. You won’t find this in America, not with neoliberal style multiculturalism. I am not interested in nipplegate. It’s ridiculous.