I did a 'noser' when I read this opening paragraph, drinking my morning espresso. When did the display of the human body, even in abstract, become a crime against the state?
The New York Times > Arts > Frank Rich: The Year of Living Indecently:
LET us be grateful that Janet Jackson did not bare both breasts.On the first anniversary of the Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction that shook the world, it's clear that just one was big enough to wreak havoc
The ensuing Washington indecency crusade has unleashed a wave of self-censorship on American television unrivaled since the McCarthy era, with everyone from the dying D-Day heroes in “Saving Private Ryan” to cuddly animated animals on daytime television getting the ax. Even NBC's presentation of the Olympics last summer, in which actors donned body suits to simulate “nude” ancient Greek statues, is currently under federal investigation.
This repressive cultural environment was officially ratified on Nov. 2, when Ms. Jackson's breast pulled off its greatest coup of all: the re-election of President Bush. Or so it was decreed by the media horde that retroactively declared “moral values” the campaign's decisive issue and the Super Bowl the blue states' Waterloo. The political bosses of “family” organizations, well aware that TV's collective wisdom becomes reality whether true or not, have been emboldened ever since. They are spending their political capital like drunken sailors, redoubling their demands that the Bush administration marginalize gay people, stamp out sex education and turn pop culture into a continuous loop of “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.”
yeesh. Burqas for all!
Tags: Frank_Rich, /Current Affairs, /repression
