catapult magazine

We all heard about (or maybe saw) the Janet Jackson…Justin Timberlake Superbowl choreographed “stunt”, or one of its many partly covered repeat plays.

Those of us who saw the half time show also observed bits of talent ,interspersed with persons grabbing their (own) genitalia, and S& M costuming on some of the participants. According to one source, an estimated 14 million kids saw the “stunt” etc.

Lots of people worldwide got a “view” of American culture here…more “ammo” for some Mideast anti US activists on the depravity of US culture.

so what does the exhibition above have to do with my children hopefully learning how to choose a good partner & enter into a sound, good, (mutually respectful) marriage?

Nothing. Which is the biggest damage done here. A simulated “attack” instead of affection & respect for the woman. How many will simulate this on their date???

The Janet/Justin Superbowl “stunt” played more like a choreographed “assault” on a woman. The assaults carried into many joke punch lines…based on female anatomy. Swell.

I heard two male commentators, on news/commentary channels I normally respect, coming out with a string of crude jokes about the "stunt…all based on word play concerning female genitalia…

My junior high daughter reports that the boys in her class (in a Christian school, incidentally) thought the stunt “hilarious”.

But there is one good effect of that stunt…My daughter spoke up and scolded those male classmates who laughed at “the stunt”. She spoke up at how embarassing it was to her.

She is finding her activist Christian female voice in this crude culture. Look out!

this is not a quote and it belongs in the general discussion folder.

this discussion has been moved to the “current events” section of the board.

i think what is most interesting to me about this occurence is that all of the “family values” proponents who are whining about being accosted unawares by indecency don’t seem to be questioning the indecency of allowing their children to absorb the annual ad-worship extravaganza in the first place.

we Christians are obviously concerned about teaching our children that the exposure of a decorated breast on television is not acceptable—why aren’t we equally adamant on teaching them about the lie of consumption? why is public nudity so much more overtly upsetting than the worship of stuff?

Maybe they mute the commercials.

i’d rather see widespread discerning discussion about commercials among Christian families than muting.

I’m not saying those discussions aren’t valid. After a point, however, it’s probably better to either a) turn off the tv altogether or b) at best mute the damn things. After all, I’m not about to demand families have discerning discussions every 10 minutes.

Muting is a form of protest.

I have to say I’m shocked that noone else viewed this as a choreogreaphed assault on a woman.

Choreographed…because when I watched the digitized replays, I noted how Jackson stood quite still & tensed up right before the assault happened.

Persons from, say, late teens on upwards can probably process this & blow it off. But what of the effect on young teens and children???

(Note that young teens (jr high age) per some teachers & stats that now imitate the Bill Clinton oral sex acts on their peers in greater numbers than before the highly publicized Clinton eposides).

Regarding excess consumerism “versus” the choreographed assault on a woman…

I want to win all the assaults directed towards shaping my childrens’ thoughts & actions. I want to win all t he battles be it consumerism or sex without love/vows.

Yes excess consumerism is wrong, but the tons of damage done to our society (particularly to the young) by loveless, many times vowless sex is one of the biggest wastes around…both in mega dollars & in human lives.

If you ask me specifically to choose between that Superbowl display (the whole thing mainly “marketing” casual, “assault based” sex)
and maybe between consuming too much Pepsi (or whatever other product on the Superbowl that was targeted at kids)…
I will have to say I’d risk my kid’s teeth rotting from too much pepsi over her learning that it is at ALL acceptable to stand there & take an assault on, say, a date.

(But ideally, I can teach her that both excesses are wrong. Why choose between them when I can fight both wars???)

This discussion leads me to the fact that I need to discuss the ramifications of this action with her…& what her strong andw immediate response should be if a guy grabs at her.

Then, I have to do more damage control—-and bring in maybe some of the Song of Solomon here….What was a gesture of hostility —even of demeaning a woman in the Superbowl context is a gesture of love between a loving couple—in private.

The Song of Solomon (also called the Song of Songs) is about love & sex and is found in the Bible. Both love (vows implied or stated here also) and sex together.

Not sex surgically removed from all sacrifice, caring, unselfishness as it is in the Superbowl halftime show.

I agree, vanless, that the choreographed “assault” is disturbing for all the reasons you mentioned.

It reminds me of the first season of MTV’s Real World, in which one of the male housemates was kicked out because he thought it was funny to try and pull a blanket off a female housemate who was only wearing her underwear. They struggled over the blanket for awhile while she screamed at him, but he finally got the blanket off and she dashed into a bathroom. There was such “sensitivity” on behalf of MTV during that escapade that the guy was kicked off. I see little difference between this incident and the Jackson/Timberlake show, except that MTV has obviously degenerated into promoting the types of acts for which it used to kick people off its shows.

I’ve heard stories about women’s clothes being ripped off during Mardi Gras, or parties, or during miliary hazing incidents and it’s never been “okay” in the eyes of most Americans. What was MTV thinking.

i haven’t read too much on this in the news media, but did MTV or CBS know this was going to happen? we are talking about LIVE tv here. they can’t kick anyone off or shake their finger or fix it, all they can do is say “bad janet” “bad justin” and repremand them in their TV popculture way.