Apparently, not much has changed since show biz icon Janet Jackson’s popular wardrobe malfunction several years ago. Yes, we all remember Jackson’s nipple slip; it was in 2004 when she accidently exposed her nipple during a Super Bowl
halftime performance. While performing on stage with Pop star Justin Timberlake, in front of more than 90 million viewers, Timberlake ends the medley with the lyric “Cause I, got to have you naked by the end of this song,” Timberlake did just that. Tearing Jackson’s nipple section of her bustier, out pops the then 38-year-old’s pierced nipple.
It was to no surprise that this fired up controversy through out the United States and even made headlines all over the country. Even the First Lady at the time, Laura Bush had her input, stating that this was not the kind of television for children to see. The Federal Communications Commission received over 500,000 complaints while the network CBS was fined $550,000. To turn this into a laughing matter, comedian Chris Rock, among many comedians, joked about the incident during his popular 2004 live comedy show Never Scared.
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Fast-forward seven years later (2011) and some of the public still doesn’t buy that Jackson’s nipple slip was an accident. In fact, critics concluded that the pop star did this on purpose to garner more publicity for herself. After all, chaos and controversy does equal publicity, good or bad.
“There’s so much more going on in the world that was so much more important, I couldn’t believe they put so much emphasis on this,” explained Janet in an Oprah Winfrey interview. To her defense, she claims that it was a “very embarrassing moment.” Doesn’t this sound familiar?
Former Destiny’s Child member Kelly Rowland recently had a nip slip during a nightclub performance in New Jersey, the “Motivation” star did express her embarrassment, but at the same time she tweeted “New Jersey crowd was amazing!! hope you enjoyed the show and didn’t mind the peek-a-boo LOL!!! #kanyeshrug #stuffhappens.”
Perhaps Rowland’s exposure was just that, a peek-a-boo, simply because she was only at a nightclub and not on national television in front of millions and millions of viewers and families.
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Let’s consider another diva that wasn’t so lucky. Young Money artist Nicki Minaj, is the recent victim of a nip slip. The Barbie bombshell suffered an “embarrassing exposure” during a Good Morning America concert. Outfitted in big blonde hair, a pink suit and a plastic looking skirt, the 28-year-old rapper’s boob popped out of her bra while on-stage. The network however failed to censor out Minaj’s exposure in time. And there it was our generation’s notable malfunction, broadcasted to millions of waking families.
Perhaps a megastar isn’t complete until something badass goes wrong. Maybe the malfunction puts a stamp on Minaj’s fearless image?
Marilyn Monroe did say, “Well behaved women rarely make history.”
To some, Minaj would have gone down in history with or without the nip-slip and she certainly doesn’t need the publicity, being that she is the highest paid female rapper, cashing in at cool $6.5 million.
However, several different organizations will still insist on dragging Minaj through the mud.
“For the umpteenth time in recent memory we have a morning news broadcast airing explicit content when millions of families are starting their day and are looking to get caught up on the news. With so many such instances, the network apologies are beyond hollow,” says the Parents Television Council.
It does baffle a few folks why such organizations care so deeply about a five-second accident, when like Jackson said, there is much more going on in the world that is incredibly more important.
