image-transcribing-bot:

fuckyesjanet:

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At the 2004 Super bow!, Janet Jackson
performed with Justin Timberlake. At the end
of the performance, Justin sang “Gonna have
you naked by the end of this song,” reached
across and pulled away a part of Janet’s
costume – too much came loose. Her breast
was “exposed” for half a second in a wide shot.
Watch the clip – it’s barely noticeable

After the incident, Janet made (and later
retracted) an apology – it was an accident, and
she felt to apologise suggested wrongdoing.
Justin, however, bowed to every whim and
issued grovelling apologies that, to be frank,
threw Janet under the bus.

She was subsequently blacklisted from all
radio, and music channels wouldn’t carry her
videos, right at the start of her ‘Damita Jo’
album release. She was uninvited from the 04
Grammys, where she was supposed to
introduce a tribute to Luther Vandross. Justin,
meanwhile, was invited and given two awards.

Two subsequent Janet albums were given little
to no promotion, while Justin’s star continued
to rise.

Now, for context and perspective – at the time,
the US was at war with Iraq under highly
questionable circumstances. Television
broadcasts (including commercials during that
very Super Bow!) aired sexualised content,
glamourising alcohol, etc. And yet a brief,
accidental exposure of a woman’s breast
became headline news, and caused then-First
Lady to say it was evidence of a loss of “moral
values” in the USA.

Janet was one of the highest paid and most
influential artists of her generation, and
inspired the biggest names we know and love –
Beyonce, Rihanna, Kendrick, Drake, Ciara,
Tinashe, the list is endless. She used her
platform to combat topics like racism, domestic
violence, social inequality, sexual freedom,
drug abuse, children’s rights, female
empowerment, LGBT rights, et al. And yet her
history isn’t even afforded a footnote.

She refused to apologise for an accident, really
for having breasts, and was subsequently
dragged through the mud and accused of
single-handedly ripping America’s morality to
shreds.

She remains the only artist to be blacklisted
from the Super Bowl. The other person on that
stage, who pulled the costume apart and left
her high and dry, is being welcomed with
plaudits and fanfare.

Oh, and one final thing – YouTube exists
because the founder was frustrated he didn’t
have a place to watch the clip the next day. It’s
still on there. Go take a look and decide for
yourself whether 14 years is quite long enough
to pay penance for her “crime”.

Daniel J. Layton
For anyone wondering why Justin Timberlake

being invited to perform at the Super Bowl is
an insult to Janet Jackson’s legacy – an essay…

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