Okay, I really *do* want to know. What do you folks (especially the guys) think about the spectacle of Janet Jackson on the Super Bowl HalfTime show, etc.? Should teevee have this kind of stuff on? I personally found the performance really uncomfortable (even before the top off stuff). I guess this is frequently on teevee (cable), and maybe I'm just a prude (Mr. S. doesn't think so, nor do I, but...), I found that stuff disgusting. It was like watching some sex act on teevee.

So my questions: Do you think folks have a "right" to put that stuff on teevee (just like we have a "right" to not watch it)? I guess the networks are trying to hook the 18- to 49-year-old guys (and is that working anyway?) Or do you think there should be decency laws (made or enforced)? I'm curious. Thanks.

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2004

Answers

Obscene AND stupid.

I think it's rather nice that they put all that garbage on TV; now, along with feeling intellectually superior: I can also feel morally superior to the "6 hours a day of TV average American viewer".

Not to digress, but how in the world can anyone watch 6 hours of TV a day? Do they not work, eat, read, sleep, have hobbies?

World's going to hell in a handbasket.

Probably all a plot to make the American (pardon me - United States) citizen look even more debauched, greedy, patronizing, stupid (help me, I'm running out of adjectives here) than they actually are.

(hand me that stick; I want to poke the hornets nest some more)

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2004

Speaking of obscene...did anyone catch the opening act on the Grammys last night? The song/dance act with Prince and Beyonce (?). It was nice to see Prince out in public again, but what the heck kind of a "show" was Beyonce doing with the suggestive dancing??!! She was doing some singing also, but the act didn't really need all the girations... IMO! Maybe I'm just jealous 'cause I'm fat :-)!!

Anyways...yeah, I think teevee is going to Hell in a handbasket!! It's getting so the parents are going to have to have all sorts of parental locks on ALL the channels now...even network/local channels. I also thought the Janet Jackson episode was in very poor taste because it depicted a violent act against a woman. A what was with the group on before her? The "crotch-grabbing" group?? I thought that action went out with Michael Jackson!!

I'm with you, Polly. How the heck can anyone sit in front of the "boob tube" for 6 hrs. a day??!!! I can barely sit still long enough for a half hour of the local news :-)!

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2004

I think kids are already dull to the stuff on TV. You should see the video games my son plays. I don't believe it will make him a monster as an adult. Waca waca...

I heard today that the nipple cover that Janet wore is now in demand and that in order for it to stay on, there has to be a piercing first. EEeeewwwww...

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2004

That's GOTTA hurt!!!! Yuck!

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2004

Thanks!

Guys? Wanna weigh in on this?

-- Anonymous, February 10, 2004

My opinion of TV is from the point of view that it is there to entertain us, hardly ever enlighten us or educate us, although PBS does a damn good job of educating us most of the time. As entertainment, we are free to turn the channel or turn it off at any time, so the stuff that is on is not crammed down our throats forcibly. It is like the spam and adult e-mail we get, the delete button works ever so efficiently and I don't get offended with what they are trying to sell me! Laugh hard at at it sometimes, but shocked or offended, no.

Then there is the "kids are watching" question, again, like the internet, it remains the parents responsibility to supervise what their children are watching in either place, TV or the internet. As for the "flashdance" of boob that appeared, I have seen a larger quantity of boob hanging out on Baywatch, usually bouncing in slow motion for all to see, in scene after scene after scene. It's a boob, what's the big deal? As long as the human body is portrayed as a specimen or object of art, and not in the process of being protrayed in an intimate act meant for the participants only (porno), I don't have a problem with nudity on TV, or anywhere. We should not be so uptight about our bodies, and having a more European attitude towards nudity would do us all a world of good, and maybe we wouldn't have to be deluged with Viagra type ads at all hours of the day on TV!

I am really disappointed the TV network didn't show us more footage of the male streaker at the Superbowl, now that would have been funny, how does one apprehend a naked man, just where do you grab him without him slipping away???

-- Anonymous, February 10, 2004

I don't know. Given the fact that young people are all about sex, (those raging hormones) I guess these things will happen?

Have you guys seen what they watch on M teevee? Mercy! I guess the violence that seems to go side by side with the sex disturbs me more. That and the degrading of women.

I think My generation who got drafted and send to Vietnam were worse than the M T.V. kids. Baad clap plus those nifty pictures of V.C. severed heads! For Real!!! Maybe its better to watch T.V.???

Anyway On a scale of 1 to 10 it gets a 1.5. Silly and don't much care I guess....

-- Anonymous, February 11, 2004

I was so happy to read your post,Marcia, cuz I have been wondering why no one anywhere has been discussing why I personally found the thing offensive, and it wasnt cuz of a (sorta) exposed breast. It was the assaultive nature of the whole production that made me nuts and sad. Whatever the hell happened to the women's movement anyway?Looks to me like we have gone backasswards, that its still just dandy to represent women as sex toys, and the women involved have bought into it as well. There was no love in that song/dance number, it wasnt about making love, and the way the shirt was removed had real violence to it, regardless of how much was exposed.

My guess is the public acceptance and even the embracing of anti- women and flatly disrespectful rap music had a chilling effect on how we view sexuality and the overall tone of attitudes in this country. I think I understand as well as a white bleeding heart can about the foundations and causes of the rage in the 'hood, and I am certainly no apologist for this racist culture we live in. But violence is always wrong, IMO of course, and we need to do everything we can to discourage it and deal with its roots.

I think Janet Jackson should be ashamed of herself, and not because she 'accidentally' flashed the world.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2004

Thanks for your replies, everyone. Thoughtful discussion...

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2004