Super Bowl Militarism

by Meyer London Tuesday, Feb. 03, 2004 at 9:41 PM

Commercia media, like Ashcroft when he draped the Justice Department statues, goes berserk at the sight of a woman's breast but is silent about killing machines featured at a sports event.

What a display of militarism at the Super Bowl - Beyonce' Knowles escorted arm in arm on to the field by a general, while attack helicopters similar to or identical to those which killed thousands of people in Indochina and in the Middle East, hovered ahead. It was like a festival of death. Apparantly the macho display was intended to implant in the minds of young working class men the idea that the military is cool, that pop singers and football players love it, and wearing a uniform makes you some kind of celebrity yourself rather than a serf who is insulted and ordered around at will by some brain damaged, sadistic non-commisioned officer and then sent off to kill peasants and to have his legs blown off. Not a word of criticism about this appeared in the commercia media, though, just hysteria from hypocrits who claimed that they were shocked by the sight of Janet Jackson's breast. Incredible.

That being said, the performance was a bad idea. The dance routing Ms. Jackson and her partner went through was supposed to portray a man pursuing a woman who was hard to get or at least pretending to be hard to get. He solved the problem by ripping off part of her blouse. Now, what kind of message does this send to teenage boys - a big part of the audience? Probably that women who say no are really saying yes and that they really like you to do things like rip their clothing off. Nothing like encourageing rape, sexual harassment, and 17 year-olds winding up with prison sentences and ruined lives. Janet seemed to be having a good time playing an irresistable woman pursued by a younger man, but she should have considered the message this was sending - that was the problem, not the bared breast.

Original: Super Bowl Militarism