Tempest in a D-cup
Well, almost everyone has heard of the dire circumstances surrounding last Sunday's Super Bowl and how terrible MTV exposed the better part of Janet Jackson's right breast for all of .5 seconds. There is moral outrage, wailing and gnashing of teeth (Justin and Janet took care of the rending of garments themselves).
My reaction goes something like this: How dare they interrupt the annual family festival of violence and barely dressed cheerleaders with less partial nudity than appears in a single episode of Baywatch! Really, CBS doesn't know what an MTV video is like? They didn't know what to expect? I was frankly more distressed by the nature of the lyrics and the dance in general (all the stuff they "approved" of in advance) than I was by Janet's mountainous asset popping out. In fact, just a glance at the backup dancers and what they were doing makes the overexposure Miss Jackson has experienced seem tame by comparison.
Also, I think we need to ask ourselves what kind of wholesome family entertainment we're dealing with in the case of football. In a world over-sensitive to curse words, violent video games, and addicted to shows like Jerry Springer does any of this really matter. Football is by its nature a violent activity. People are injured, people fight, and they don't apologize for it, but instead vow to hit the opposing team harder and push them back. It seems to me that a brief flash of a partially covered breast just does not matter in the face of that.
I went to see "Cold Mountain" a few weeks ago with my father and it contained a bit of gratuitous nudity (female), anachronistic sexual practices, and there were nearly a dozen kids in the audience under the age of 12 - with their parents. No one left in outrage. No one complained to the management. These same kids probably stay home and are exposed to soap operas in which the main characters switch partners more than a politician switches positions during an election year. I'll drag out all the Jerry Springer-like shows (which do seem to be dying off) that these kids watch unsupervised. Janet's breast is hardly the downfall of western society - it is at best a symptom, but certainly not as big a deal as everyone seems to want to make it.