That Breast Again

Jim Henley offers the post-mammaral statement a more honest NFL would have issued.

Comments

[Isaac Bartram]

xray

OK, I'm a little out of date. What I said was true 25 yrs ago though before I moved to Florida.

Actually you only got to see tits on the French network then. But my friends have told me since that it was better to watch movies on Can networks than US networks cos they don't edit as much. But I'd also been led to believe that the attitude on porn was pretty much the same (and Hustler was considered porn and regularly confiscated by Customs along with the occassional issue of penthouse).

Anyhow I seriously doubt that tits on TV goes over any bigger in Regina or Saskatoon than they do in Dubuque or Peoria. It's just that Canada's yahoos don't have as much say as the eastern urban elites.

[Teapot Tempest]

1) Just be glad it wasn't a Justin flash.
2) Anybody remember "Gauguin The Savage" on US network primetime TV in 1980? Plenty of naked breasts, even underaged ones. No controversy then.
3) Look at the bluenoses slamming Janet for being 37-years old! Not only are they offended by her nudity, but also by her age?!?! There's the outrage.

[Danny Riendeau]

Listen Issac,

Clearly you have no idea what the hell you're talking about. Have you ever been to Saskatoon? No, didn't think so. The excessive UV radidation you've soaked up in the sunshine state has obviously interfered with the ol' synapses. Canada (granted French more so than English) is worlds more tolerant than our populous, demented neighbours to the south. Right now I can go to downtown Vancouver buy a bag of weed in front of a cop, shoot heroin in the government sponsored injection site and marry boyfriend Vinny all with the blessing of my government. In the future when disparaging my hometown attempt to do so with a modicum of intelligence.

[Warren]

Teapot
"Look at the bluenoses slamming Janet for being 37-years old! Not only are they offended by her nudity, but also by her age?!?! There's the outrage."
What bluenoses? Is this true? I assume the objection is that she is too old to be flashing her titty.

PHI! BOOO!

I think Janet is aitch oh tee, but others find her skanky. Whatever, I still say the sexually desirable category needs to be opened up. As an aging male, (40 in two months) I am finding older women more attractive, and thirty looks much better to me than some teenager child. More than that, I think we are in desperate need of more soft curves on women (fat, not silicone) the blond anorexic and implants (lollypop with bowling balls) standard turns me off completely. So I say, what this country needs are more fat old boobies to ogle.

Danny,
OK, but can you buy wanking material at the corner mini-mart?

[Sean E]

Danny, I live in Saskatoon and the boob-flash has been getting as much discussion here as it has been in the US. And I'm not sure that downtown Vancouver is very representative of the attitudes of Canadians as a whole. Granted, CBC-French is much racier than most network TV, and CBC-English is as well to a lesser degree. But I think the CRTC would be asking some questions if that happend on TSN during the Grey Cup.

Sorry, can't help you on the mini-mart question.

Regarding the Janet-is-too-old line of discussion, I only saw one article on it, which may not be the one referred to here. I think its point was that she was too old for the MTV demographic, not that she wasn't attractive. If you're selling sex to 14 year old boys, Britney and Christina are better choices that Janet and Madonna.

[Isaac Bartram]

Danny Riendeau

I was mostly kidding really. I hope your freedoms last; it was not always so and pendulums have a strange way of swinging back. Didn't Joe Clark and a couple of other old PCers refuse to join the new Conservative Party over issues like Gay marriage and decrim'ing pot. I would watch next election's returns real closely if I were you.

And yes I have been to Saskatoon several times but it was a long time ago. 38 yrs ago I dropped out of college in Regina and got on a train for Toronto and have never gone back. But I was not trying to disparage Saskatoon any more than Dubuque or Peoria, just making an observation that I think is as accurate as any you have made. However when I was 18 I thought that if God was going to give the world an enema Regina is where he'd stick the tube. But I might find it quite nice now.:)

Sean E, I hope you didn't think I was trying to disparage Saskatoon too.

[Sean E]

"Sean E, I hope you didn't think I was trying to disparage Saskatoon too." What, you mean where you called us yahoos? Still better than being lumped in with the eastern urban elite. 😉

And I've lived in both Saskatoon and Regina and your description of Regina is as accurate as any I've heard.

[Pavel]

Show me a popstar that has aged gracefully and I'll show you a network that wasn't asking for it.

[Isaac Bartram]

"...you mean where you called us yahoos?"

But I meant it in a good way.:-)

[ron jermey]

What's with all the Canadians in this thread? And why are they all down on us in the US. Yes, the Janet things makes us come off as prudes, but the US (actually CA) is the world's capital of porn. There is a lot of crazy-ass fucking going on down here, so stop dissing us. So we're hypocritical? So what?

Yeah, yeah, Vancouver has a lot of social freedoms. Where are your economic freedoms? Last time I was in Vancouver I was paying some outrageous VAT or some other BS and your BC politicians on TV sound like typical Green Party-types.

[Jennifer]

The boobs at the FCC offend me far more than the boobs on Janet Jackson.

[Pavel]

And why are they all down on us in the US. Yes, the Janet things makes us come off as prudes, but the US (actually CA) is the world's capital of porn. There is a lot of crazy-ass fucking going on down here, so stop dissing us.

Well Japan is the world capital of shit-eating rape cartoons. Aren't they just the epitome of unprudish healthy sexual liberation.

To each their own I guess...but out of all the manifestations of sexuality in culture, America's standard seems the blandest.

[Stephen Fetchet]

Speaking as one of the emotionally crippled theocratic repressed morality warriors, I actually bitched pretty bad in the last thread, that the S&M Leather bathhouse theme, with all the simulated copulation was probably far more offensive than the nanotechnology employing flash.

And as for Canada, the land of the free ? well, all?y?all are now prosecuting Christers who restate their dogma of ?no buggery here, please.? There?s a good chance that a politician who is opposed to gay marriage is also liable to be prosecuted for merely saying that heterosexuality is preferable. In other words, all speech and expression unless it?s potentially offensive. Except for sex, in which case defending inoffensive sex is considered criminally offensive. Therefore, if I were you, I wouldn?t hold up Canada as the land of the free, not until you get that freedom of speech thing un-inverted.

[ZZZZZZZZZ]

Are we bored yet?

[dhex]

NEVER!
NEVER!
TITS 4 EVER!

[dlc]

"Are we bored yet?"

Nope, now that the Canada bashing has begun. Seriously though, US residents on this thread need to stand up for their messed-up, but interesting and diverse culture.

"but out of all the manifestations of sexuality in culture, America's standard seems the blandest."

Why? Because we don't show tits on TV?

[MJ]

The breast baring was a crude, stupid, deeply immature stunt done on the wrong show at the wrong time. It's not the collapse of American civilization but it's not a moment to be proud of or happy about either.

And could one of you who thinks it matters explain why we Americans should give a rat's hindquarter's about what the Europeans or Canadians think about our reaction to this?

[dj of raleigh]

This was a violation of trust
between the American TV viewer and CBS.
In the USA, no one expects to see a live breast,
or penis pulling, on their living room TV
in the middle of a football game at 9pm at night.

If Canada or France expect to see boobs at nine
on mainline TV, that's for them in their games.
That the American public was offended is apparent.
To act surprised by that is just that, an act.

[Stephen Fetchet]

Well, DSL, if that bloated, pustulent bag of tripe Michael Moore ever said one good thing in his life, it was this line from Canadian Bacon:

"Blame the Canadians."

I mean, you guys are really much better than we are. Your minor anti-semitic riots only occur at second rate schools in Montreal. Ours occur at our flagships, like Berkeley. You only want to ban speech that's offensive to minorities; we're actually looking to ban political free speech if it costs money. So perhaps it's a pot calling a kettle rather dark.

[Steve in CO]

Ah, honesty. Where art thou?

🙂

One can imagine the average European completely failing to understand the American obsession with, and public revulsion and disdain with the female breast.

[Danny Riendeau]

It's not just a Europe-America thing. Just above the 49th parralel Canadians are wondering what the hell is wrong with your culture. Further analysis here

[nobody]

I believe it's called "wanting to have your breast and eat it, too."

[Pavel]

As funny as this is, I have a hard time blaming the NFL for their ridiculousness. I blame these moron middle class fathers sitting down with their sons to watch the Superbowl and being *shocked*...absolutely *shocked* to see a breast during the half time show. Then they're flooding the NFL the FCC and everyone else with letters and emails for allowing something like this to happen.

A goddamn breast is probably the least offensive "bad influence" part of the Superbowl, at least to me.

They argument could be made that these overzealous schmucks are just a loud minority, and hence the NFL shouldn't be too keen on placating them.

I can't rightly say, but from my experience as a European in America for 18 years, I feel pretty safe saying that they aren't.

Things like this almost make me want to move to France.

[Jesse Walker]

If you really want to tee off some sports fans, you should show them Heidi's breast.

[JD]

Good one. Me, I've been wondering why the _rest_ of the Janet Jackson show was evidently OK with people (including the people at the FCC). Half-naked dancers in fetish wear, no problem. One nipple visible for 1/4 of a second, and the wrath of God must come down?

[fyodor]

I can honestly report that I experienced the Heidi game firsthand (on TV that is, where the Heidi effect mattered). I was rather young and mostly remember feeling bafflement, but I well remember how pissed my older brother was!!!

[fyodor]

JD, that ties in with what I kept saying on the big long thread on this subject, but I don't beleive any of the morality warriors addressed what I said. Which was that not only was the rest of that particular dance routine lasvicious, but half-time shows have been fairly racy, by prime-time US TV standards anyway, for some years now.

But I suppose someone has a right to think an exposed breast is different from suggestive, scantily clad wiggling. Whatever...

[Isaac Bartram]

Danny Riendeau

Yea I can see tits on CBC-TV at noon but I can't buy Hustler at the Mini-Mart. Those Canadians are just so open minded, eh.

[xray]

Isaac: Where the fuck do you live? I can't buy a copy of reason magazine without having to reach past Hustler, Hustler Honeys, Hustler Classics, Hustler Gold, Hustler Family Fun...

[Warren]

xray:Where the fuck do you live?

[Jean Bart]

The next time Janet Jackson performs, she should do it with "The Hooters." 🙂

~All you tits in high places...~

And a guest performance by A-Ha. 🙂

~Tits enclosed in a sun always shine on T.V....~ 🙂

[Jean Bart]

Another A-Ha song that would do well is:

"Living a boy's adventure tale..."

[Jean Bart]

MJ,

But mocking America's reaction is such fun and so apropos. 🙂

[MALAK]

While I think the original link, ahem, covers it nicely, I must protest. At my local mini mart I can buy condoms, porno (both written and video), and get dope from the dipshit outside. What really pisses me off is that I cannot buy BEER there. C'est la vie.

[Douglas Fletcher]

Canadian beer, not for export -- more alcohol than we get in our beer down here. Let the newcomer be wary.

[Sean E]

Just in case we're not all sick of the Canada-talk yet, I just wanted to add that while Canada does tend to be more liberal than the US (with all the good and bad that implies), that's certainly not true across the board. I think most Texans would feel quite at home in Alberta, for example. Quebec, on the other hand, is probably the most liberal jurisdiction in North America (assuming a strong undercurrent of racially-tinged nationalism is not incompatible with leftism).

The reason Canada, as a nation, comes across the way it does is that the governing party tends to see most of its members elected from the most urban, liberal parts of the country. It's as if the US congress was made up soley of Manhattanites and the President came from France.

[Eh?]

Let's not forget that Canada also has better beer. I hauled 10 cases back to Florida a few years ago.
I was drunk and popular for months.

[Isaac Bartram]

"...and the President came from France."

Sean, compared to (Go-Go) Trudeau, De Gaulle (who was very unpopular in English Canada, thanks to his "Vive la Quebec libre" speech in '67, but also because he pulled out of NATO, but who I, by the way, think is one of the giants of the 20th C) and Chirac are pillars of the Church and so square and so not with it, etc.

The PMs since PET are so boring or inept (Kim whatsrname, I mean what is this destroying John A McDonald's and Diefenbaker's Party) or corrupt (Mulrooney). Aah, but in my youth there were giants, Pearson and Diefenbaker and Kieffer Sutherland's Grandpa battled in historic debates on the floor of the House of Commons.