Can you believe the reaction to the Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake, um, performance at Sunday's Super Bowl? I asked my second-grader if kids were talking about the matter at school — they were, and opinions ranged from "ewwww" to curiosity. Cincinnati-area eighth graders reacted similarly.
I found the whole halftime show inappropriate given the time-place-audience, but hey, you turn on the teevee to an MTV-produced show, you take your chances. What frosted my cookies were Nelly's crotch-grabbing and Kid Rock's singing about crack and hookers as scantily clad Playboylike babes waved US flags. Ewwww. Those incidences — along with violence — are more offensive than having my kid see a woman's breast any day of the week. (David didn't see Jackson's mammary revealed; he had been hustled from the room the first time Nelly caressed his private parts.)
On the whole, though, I think the grown-up reactions are most hilarious. You can find some fascinating Janet Jackson and Super Bowl talk at Blogcritics. But, as Salon's Charles Taylor notes (get the Day Pass to read it), other reactions are just pathetic: I mean, a federal investigation of the halftime show? National Football League Commissioner Paul Tagliabue — Mr. Greed Is Good — being morally outraged? Janet and Justin possibly being pulled from performing at the Grammy Awards? Come on.
And this is a real shame: While nearly a billion people fixated on Ms. Jackson's — wait, I'm not nasty — Janet's right breast, most missed some good advice she sang before launching into Timberlake's "Rock Your Body":
We are a nation with no geographic boundaries, bound together through our beliefs. We are like-minded individuals, sharing a common vision, pushing toward a world rid of color-lines.
With music by our side
To break the color lines
Let's work together
To improve our way of life
Join voices in protest
To social injustice
A generation full of courage
Come forth with meContinued on the next page Page 1 — Page 2
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