Trash TV
Will Super Bowl Sleaze Prompt A Real Crackdown On All That Media Smut?
Well, at least now we all know what breast jewelry is. That includes the Manesiotis family, Mike and Sally and their three kids, ages 12, 10, and 8. They were watching Super Bowl XXXVIII in the family room of their Hilton Head Island, S.C., home when Justin Timberlake ripped off a piece of Janet Jackson's bustier, revealing that famous right breast. Like the other 90 million folks watching, the family got to see that, for, ahem, decorum's sake, Jackson was wearing something now billed as a "nipple shield." Her breast was visible for just a few seconds, but long enough for 12-year-old Mikie to shriek, "Mom, is that what I think it is?" His father, who was looking away at the critical moment, reassured everyone: "There's no way that would have happened. The network would never allow it!"
Get with it, Dad. True, CBS, and MTV, which produced the halftime show, and Viacom, which owns them both, say the grab-and-flash was a last-minute surprise they knew nothing about. But the protestations are falling on deaf ears, especially since MTV had been hyping a "shocking" halftime surprise days before. The stars initially blamed "wardrobe malfunction," but by week's end Jackson had essentially admitted the disrobing was by design. Either way, the moment will go down in Super Bowl history.
For one thing, it will be the first bowl game to become the subject of both congressional hearings and a federal investigation on indecency. The Federal Communications Commission is threatening fat fines against whoever was responsible. It may also prompt at least a temporary cleanup of the rest of television. CBS, running scared, has since promised to use tape delays to bleep out any obscenities at the Grammy Awards. Likewise, ABC will employ a five-second delay when broadcasting the Academy Awards. And Timberlake's fellow 'N Sync-er, JC Chasez, was cut from the Pro Bowl's halftime show.
Such actions will hardly meet with unanimous applause. Many fans couldn't get enough of the titillation. Among TiVo users, the performance generated the biggest spike in viewer reaction that TiVo has ever measured, as hundreds of thousands of households paused and replayed the incident over and over. The search engine Lycos reported that Jackson's unexpected exposure was the most searched event in one day in Internet history.
But for many other Americans, it was the moment they decided they had finally just had enough. Enough of the crudity and salaciousness, the violence and easy morality that have so permeated U.S. mass culture that even the Super Bowl, the quintessential family television event, is no longer immune.
Impressions. "The violence of him ripping her clothes off was like an assault," says Sue Woods, a real-estate broker and mother of three from Madison, Conn. "Then she's feigning surprise. I think it's hideous." Sally Manesiotis worries that it will make a lasting impression on her kids and others as well. "When someone touches my daughter inappropriately, I don't want her to say, `It must be OK; I saw it on the Super Bowl,' " she says.
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