> Sure, we're a primarily visually-stimulated culture now, but is singing about it really THAT much different than showing it?

The state of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable in this country is completely screwy. I didn't see the Superbowl, or its half-time show, but had I, I would have been annoyed by it. Not for the skin exposure, but for its context: the song and the stunt were indeed crass and classless. I don't think there's anything at all inherently offensive about the human body, but to treat it as a device for cheap thrills, shock value, and something to snicker about in private -- well, maybe junior high school students are immature in that regard thanks to the example set to them. It is doubtful that the inherent sight of a breast is going to corrupt any impressionable minds, but the manner in which skin is exposed and the reaction people have to it is likely to be a formulative moment for young minds. Observation is the primary means by which developing human brains learn social attitudes and behavior.

So yeah, that whole stunt annoys me, but I would have been annoyed even without the "wardrobe malfunction." And I think most people who are also annoyed are annoyed for the wrong reasons.

The overwhelmingly harsh reaction to it is insane, given what kind of perversity regularly slips under the radar. Try watching any sitcom these days -- almost any single one on network television -- and the cheapening of and junior high school style snickering at sexual innuendos matches that of the half-time show within five or ten minutes.

Meanwhile, "innocent" nudity (medical contexts being the one exception) is avoided at all costs, and forget about any content that handles sex with reverence, because that's right out.

The MPAA ratings board is absurd in this regard. Movies like the Austin Powers series, with wall-to-wall perverse sexual behavior gets a PG-13, while significantly less explicit but serious films are threatened with NC-17, even lacking actual sex scenes. Austin Powers's PG-13, by the way, is the same rating given to the recent Whale Rider, so rated because if you freeze the frame at just the right time, there's a hash pipe visible in the background.

With parenting being typically weak these days, society ends up raising our children. Interesting values, being impressed upon them by it.