For fuck's sake, people, it's just a boob. Get over it.

The BBQ Pit
121

Well, obviously I’m not an “uptight prude with a sick up my ass” and I don’t think anyone reflecting on this event with a viewpoint that countervails yours, Diogenes, necessitates that characterization.

If you ask me, boobage, for lack of a better word, is good. Boobage is right. Boobage works. Boobage clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the entertainment spirit. Boobage , in all of it’s forms - boobage for life, for money, knowledge - has marked the upward surge of mankind and boobage - you mark my words - will not only save corporate television but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you. End Gecko.

But…

We all have the right to make a choice and to expect those we have a contract with to honor that agreement. If I want boobage, I’ll find a channel and pay them to provide me with such. If they don’t, I’ll get after their ass.

If I’m sitting with my family and don’t want boobage, FOR WHATEVER FREAKIN’ REASON, if they try and force boobage on me, again I’ll get after their ass.

It’s not whether or not the sight of any sexual part of human anatomy is good or bad. That’s not the issue here. It’s that someone is forcing their morality on me, circumventing my standards and level of comfort with regard to what I want to bring into the privacy of MY home.

I wasn’t horribly offended at all, but I know it was wrong and I’ll not support economically or otherwise those that have so little regard for my sensibilities.

122

“The whole half time show was tacky, crass and base.” Canvas Shoes nailed it on the head right there.

I feel sorry for the people of Houston. Forever more, their super bowl will be remembered as the one with the crappy, stupid halftime show, not as the great football game that it should be remembered for.

123

Does this thread suddenly go into bold font after World Eater’s post for anyone else?

124

testing** something…

125

So your fun is more important than my fun. It is so much more important that I can’t even complain when I’m not having fun. Thank you so much for explaining this.

Get real, DtC. You are way too intelligent not to have understood the arguments and reasons in opposition to your position.

This is a numbers game to sell time for the adverts. People who want boobage (thanks lieu) at all times in all places with no ability not to choose boobage, and people who wish to be able to choose or not choose boobage according to their preference at the moment. The group with the larger amount of people will win.

I will argue more later tomorrow, I have to be up to catch a train in 4 1/2 hours. :frowning:

126

DIOGENES, I’m amused as hell that anyone not meeting your own standards of what is appropriate is a “prude with a stick up their ass,” while at the same time you assail society’s standards of what is appropriate because in your opinion there’s no injury. Who died and made you the Arbiter of Appropriate Behavior? I agree with you 100% that the outrage over Tittygate is beyond ridiculous, just because there appears to be no perspective about how important (or un-) 10 seconds of boobage is when compared to what else is happening in the world. This is news? This is a national outrage worthy of protracted media attention and a government investigation? I don’t think so. But to act like there was nothing whatsoever wrong with it, and those who didn’t like it are out of line – that’s just nuts. There are general standards for what is considered decent in the U.S., and while they vary based on time, place, and audience, they do not include 3 p.m. boobage on CBS. Don’t like the standards many Americans expect and ascribe to? Go start a Great Debate.

Change the half-time show? What, from the tit-fest it usually is? I think you’ve somehow flown right past what the expectations were, and just who was the one “changing” things with behavior intended to “shock.” And – surprise! – people were shocked. And a lot of them didn’t like it. The only one acting like that was a big surprise is you.

When should people have changed the channel? When CBS flashed the WARNING! IMPENDING BOOBAGE! message? Oh, wait, that’s right – no notice. No chance to change the channel. No chance to decide whether it’s something worth seeing, or having the kids see. If you had time to change the channel, it must have been when you were playing it back in slo-mo.

Actually, you have. Someone already said they have been teaching their son about football and now the kid thinks it’s Breasts On Parade. One of the best Superbowls in the history of the game, and all people can talk about is Janet’s right mam. And that’s a shame. So there’s two “injuries,” and here’s a third: Little girls who take their cues on what is cool and appropriate from people like Britney and Madonna and Janet Jackson – and the message they are constantly bombarded with that what is cool and appropriate is to be overtly sexual, to objectify yourself, and to be valued based not on how smart you are but on how you look. Now you’ve got the message made explicit: It’s okay for a man to rip your clothes off, it’s okay to take something that ought to be private and personal (sex) make it public, it’s okay to be extremely sexualized and quite literally on display. A lot of people think that is not okay, and I’m one of them. And you’re hardly in a position to decree that we are wrong, just because you don’t happen to agree.

Again, you appear to have a hold of the wrong end of the stick, in that it appears that by “everyone else’s fun” you really mean your fun. The majority of Americans do not like to see the flag disrespected, and traditionally wearing the flag as an article of clothing is considered disrespectful. See here. Maybe your rant would be more successful if you just spoke for yourself instead of “everyone else.”

It’s disrespectful because the flag isn’t worn as an article of clothing. It’s a symbol of our nation and tradition has it that it should be treated with the utmost respect, up to and including never so much as touching the ground, and being burned when disposed of. Again, you might not find wearing the flag to be disrespectful, and fine for you. But don’t act like you don’t know that a lot of people do. And no, it’s nt the most pressing problem in America, but the only one implying it might be is you.

IMO, you can say it wasn’t that big a deal, because it wasn’t. You can say it’s been overblown, because it has. But to act like there are no grounds for any offense at all by anyone is just stupid. It sounds you have no idea what the prevailing standards and expectations of middle America are. Worse, it sounds like you think you know better than middle America what the standards for propriety and taste should be. Like I said, you’re not in charge of that, so do us all a favor and stop acting like you are.

127

Heard on the radio this morning on the way to school was a mother of at least two children who compared the grinding of JJ and Timberlake and the exposure of JJ’s right breast to the activities with which Jackson’s brother has been charged in the past.

I don’t know whether to laugh, weep or get a straightjacket. The double-standard (which I’ve grown to fairly well accept as the norm, even if it does amuse/annoy me) present of topless male dancers but l’uproar, le scandal, il faut que l’on pense des enfants* over JJ’s right breast … aren’t there more important things in the world?

[sub]*Roughly translated to “the uproar, the scandal, won’t someone think of the children?”, but with Americanized words.[/sub]

128

I was under the impression that everything but nipple of a woman’s body, from the waist up, at least, can be shown on the four major stations (NBC, CBS, FOX, ABC, listed inthe order I remembered them). The rules are obviously different for HBO and the like, else we’d be in almost a perpetual fit over Sex and the City.

129

Beg to differ, John. Houstonians didn’t counsel anyone to pull this stunt. T’was something Janet and MTV had to get off their own chest. We’ll be remembered for the world class stadium and pleasant hospitality. Janet’s gotta bear what she chooses to bare.

130

Yup, the whole thing suddenly goes bold for me, too.
Anyway, What suprises me is that we are getting more flack about the boob then we are about the image the flashing itself sends. I certaintly don’t want my son to think that ripping clothes and exposing a woman intentionally is “fliratious”. It isn’t. So I think we were damned if we did and damned if we didn’t. If we acted like this is all ok, people would get the message that ripping a woman’s clothes to reveal her bra is “sexy”. However, the way we are acting now might send girls the message that her body is wrong or bad.

131

The nipple was exposed!!! The nipple was exposed!!! Run for your lives!!!

(What time is Survivor on? Now THAT’S entertainment.)

132

Whoops!! Badly crafted post. Replace image in the first sentence with "message.

133

I think that’s what he meant, though. It wasn’t your idea, but it’s what everyone’s gonna remember. You’re now in the same position as Dallas, albeit on a much smaller scale.

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**

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135

Dallas?

Did someone try and assissinate her tit?

136

Level of comfort? Your level of comfort was circumvented by this event? What do have against a woman’s breasts? Do you find them threating? Why is there something wrong with an exposed female breast but nothing wrong with an exposed male breast? The very notion that it’s obscene, is obscene in and of itself and in my opinion mysogynist. Also note, that most people that are outraged with think nothing of watching a National Geographic special that features footage of woman of color Wth their breasts exposed. Oh, but wait, that’s in the interest of science. Riiiiiiight, BULLSHIT!

Sounds to me like moral grandstanding on your part, but don’t take it personally, because this goes for anyone else in this thread that was outraged by the few seconds of so-called offensive imagery. Now, if they were fucking on stage, that would have been controversial.

It’s funny what people are outraged by during a game of violence.

137

Dude, it’s a television, not a fucking Pinto.

138

I haven’t seen anyone CLAIM to have been injured.

Why are you insisting that someone has? What people were was explained very well by punditlisa.

Personally, while watching it, the thing that I noticed most was that the accoustics and sound quality were horrible, as were the arrangements of the songs they did. The singing couldn’t be heard over the musicians, and the musicians couldn’t be heard over the percussion. And hardly any of it could be heard over the crowd noise. I sure don’t remember that in past superbowls.

The choreography of both of the numbers that Janet did was unimaginative, dull and lacking energy. The dancers on the P Diddy/Nelly number were worse, they looked like cats in heat. No decent moves, just the same thing over and over, no choreography at all.

Tacky, tacky lame entertainment, even without the whole boob issue.

The thing that I find most irritating about the little stunt, is that they took it upon themselves to decide what everyone needed to see for entertainment. That and the whole Tittygate thing has overshadowed the game and the folks who won the game.

And no, I’m not “uptight” or prudish. I’ve danced and taught dance for years, and I have taught in night clubs, where my smart ass teaching comments aren’t always the cleanest.

I’ve even entered a wet tshirt contest before, and had a blast. You know? The “any old thing goes” attitude is no more “correct” than what you see as the “uptight prude” one. There IS a happy medium, trouble is, Janet didn’t meet it, she went WAY over the top.

PS, I thought that there was a nipple? It sure looks like a nipple in the stills I’ve seen.

139

Howdy there! Have you considered shutting the hell up?

lieu, who has always struck me as a thoughtful poster, went out of his or her way to point out that it’s not the breast itself, but rather the forcing of someone else’s morality upon his or her home. You proceed to launch into some diatribe about the hypocracy of breastophobia? What the hell? Did you quote the wrong post?

I’m with lieu. I’m not a prude by any means. But I sure as hell don’t want my five-year-old nice (who loves music and dancing) to see that nonsense they called a halftime show. If I saw it at midnight on MTV, I’d flip on by without so much as a shrug. When I see it during what’s supposed to be a sporting event for the whole family, I get upset. And mind you, it’s not just the boobage, but the general laciviousness of the whole production. Couldn’t we get Toby Keith back out there for fifteen more minutes? I would have had to cover my ears, but at least I wouldn’t have to worry about my niece seeing that stuff.

And those of you saying that a little boob isn’t going to hurt a kid - could you please email me your contact info. My wife and I are planning on starting a family soon and I’ll want to be sure to run any difficult decisions about what they should or shouldn’t see by you. Thank you, oh ye of magnificent wisdom.

140

Actually, you both nailed the problem and got it ass backwards RIGHT THERE. WIth this part “change the halftime show for everyone else”.

That’s exactly what THIS particular halftime show did. Without our knowledge or request, it changed what HAD been a nice little bit of entertainment, into something that a LOT of people don’t want to see out of context.

So, Janet and Justin effectively accomplished JUST that which you complain about above. That is, they “changed the halftime show for everyone else”. With no thought to anything, or anyone but themselves and their agendas.