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One Year Since the "Wardrobe Malfunction"

February 3, 2005 - 6:38pm — birdie

Frank Rich (who was one year ahead of me in high school in Washington DC, and yeah, he was editor of The Beacon) commemorates Janet Jackson's faux pas and analyzes how things have changed in terms of what (some) Americans think should be censored and how networks are responding. New York Times (registration).

Comments

February 3, 2005 - 9:09pm — Fang-Face

Scarlet Letters = Scarlet Attitudes

Why is it everyone insists on blaming JJ for this debacle? Because it was her boob? So what? Timberlake is the one who ripped of the bustier; but Janet gets all the heat. And do you know why? Because she's the chick. In the commentary I wrote following the incident, I likened Timberlake to Reverend Dinsdale in Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter. Everybody pissed all over Hester Prinn, but nobody (except her cuckholded husband) ever asked who it was that fathered her child; in short: which male she had committed adultery with. An attitude that is inherently sexist and still prevalent today. Especially in fundamentalist religious responses to the least thing sexual.

My official stance is: Justin Timberlake is to blame for the wardrobe malfunction; not Janet.

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February 3, 2005 - 11:29pm — birdie

Re:Scarlet Letters = Scarlet Attitudes

To mix metaphors, let's go to W. Shakespeare: The fault dear Fang-Face, is not in our breasts (or breast), but in ourselves...

I don't assign blame to either Ms. Jackson or Mr. Timberlake. It was a boob, and those who found offense are...boobs!

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