Football, wardrobes, and perspectives

Remember when Janet Jackson suffered through that “wardrobe malfunction” when she performed at the Super Bowl a few years ago? Colin Powell’s son Michael, who happened to be head of the FCC at the time, called the incident “a classless, crass and deplorable stunt.”

Imagine children seeing a woman’s naked breast! Oh, the horror!

Personally, I like football, but it is kind of a guilty pleasure. I can’t say that I think it is worth it for the players–it is kind of like being a gladiator. In this odd culture that we have concocted for ourselves, the extreme violence that took place during the actual game itself is perfectly acceptable for everyone to witness, but the boob is not. After all, football is “family entertainment,” an American institution.

In 2007 a Buffalo Bills player named Kevin Everett nearly died after a violent on-field collision. Several NFL players have died shortly after games, and an Arena League player, Al Lucas, an NFL alum, actually died on the field from a spinal injury in 2005.

People live to be about 77 years of age on average, but the life expectancy of a former NFL player is approximately 55.

Everyone can watch boxing, ultimate fighting, flaming NASCAR crashes, and depictions of any and all sorts of violence in movies and on TV. But a naked breast, well, there’s a big problem there.

We routinely recruit seventeen year old kids to fight in illegal wars, exposed to depleted uranium, suffering, killing, and dying. They experience the ultimate obscenity.

Ours is a culture that glorifies violence, and many of the biggest proponents of this Neanderthal mindset are the very same people who would express outrage over the sight of a woman’s breast on television.

Sex is an innocent pleasure, natural and harmless when practiced safely. The naked human body is a gift, and some would call it a temple. Exemplifying nature and her extraordinary artistry, the human form is the quintessence of purity and beauty.

Violence on the other hand is desperate and ugly, a self-defeating plague that begets itself over and over and over again. Perhaps we should reconsider what we glorify, and what we demonize.