> > 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.


A good addition to the show would have been a stern grandmother. I would have turned that young lady over my knee and washed out quite a few mouths with soap.