Here
we go again – I’m
writing another article regarding the NFL! In the National Football
League’s latest bout with hypocrisy it has decided to denounce
entertainer Janet Jackson for bearing her breast (with the assistance
of singer Justin Timberlake) during the Super Bowl halftime show. The
NFL’s partner in crime, CBS, also feigned concern over showing
Jackson dancing provocatively with Timberlake and her breast
antic during, of all things, “The Family Hour!” This must be
the sign of the apocalypse! These fine institutions are aghast
over the body part that helped to create “The Family Hour?” Heavens
no! Seriously,
let’s explore
this event further. There are two major issues inherent to the
affair:
- Race:
Is the NFL and CBS concerned about a black woman grinding
her behind
against a white male? Considering America’s racial history
of white men raping and having their way with black women for
hundreds of years, from white slave masters and their sons
sexually experimenting with their black slave women to the
modern-day exploitation of black women by the late former (?)
segregationist and U. S. Senator Strom Thurmond (Note: we
called him “Sperm Thurmond” in South Carolina because of his
little tryst with his black domestic, which produced a daughter),
America should be happy that Janet “Miss Jackson, if you’re
nasty” wanted (and got paid) to grind against Timberlake
instead of being forced to grind against him. This
is progress, isn’t it? (On another note, isn’t it interesting
that when it comes to race, the NFL and media outlets like
CBS have no problems showing black men and their acts of minstrelsy – dancing
and profiling after touchdowns, pointing up to the clouds,
and chest thumping after good plays?)
- Sexuality: The
NFL and CBS knew what it was getting when it hired Jackson. Anyone
who has seen or attended any of her concerts knows that they
are in for sexually provocative songs and dance. The NFL and
CBS, in criticizing Jackson highlights their brazen double
standards: it’s ok for any NFL team cheerleader to wear clothes
so scanty and tight and dance so sexually suggestive (enough
to make even a sex industry worker blush) and have it promoted
on television while it is inappropriate to have an someone
outside their realm do the same. (I guess it is a matter of
nipples.) Moreover, the Jackson incident becomes more ludicrous
when CBS showed beer commercials that suggested bestiality
(a monkey making a pass at a woman and another with a bear
and a woman on a date), cowered to conservative ideologues
by not showing the MoveOn.org commercial criticizing President
Bush’s failed economic policies and how our children and grandchildren
will pay for those policies (and failed to show a movie on
Ronald and Nancy Reagan during their White House years), and
had numerous (implicitly sexual, I might add) drug commercials
promoting male erections. The NFL and television stations
like CBS are junior members of the sex industry by collaborating to
promote sexuality and reinforce male/female images and stereotypes
like men driving big trucks, like men guzzling beer, like women
as sex objects that like the men who drive big trucks and guzzle
beer, and like men that are messianic leaders (i.e. Tom Brady
and the New England Patriots versus whomever or Brett Favre
and the Green Bay Packers versus…) or individuals instead of
team members.
So,
in retrospect, what does this breast-bearing mean? Absolutely nothing, other than
the NFL trying to maintain or project an image of being a good
corporate citizen on one hand while selling sex and stereotypes
in order to make billions of dollars on the other hand. And,
finally, for those that experienced psychological pain (or arousal,
depending on your point of view) from seeing Janet Jackson’s
breast, fear not because Lil’ Kim will be performing during the
2004 National Basketball Association All-Star Weekend, and she,
in no way, has any problems in revealing her breasts. Besides,
I know more about psychological pain than anyone; I’m a New York
Jets fan!
Reynard
Blake, Jr. is a East Lansing, Michigan based freelance writer
and has a business, Community Development Associates, which
serves nonprofit and faith-based organizations. He is still
at work on his book on hip-hop, black leadership, and the black
church and hopes to complete it by mid- to late 2004. And,
despite his penchant for using raw language in his writings,
he is a master’s degree student in Pastoral Ministry at Marygrove
College in Detroit. (Heaven help him!) |
