Ten years ago when Nipplegate happened, I missed it completely. I was at a friend's house with six other guys and we played poker through most of the Halftime Show. The women, came downstairs to watch the Halftime Show, but long story short, through twelve sets of unfocused eyes, Janet Jackson's left nipple was not seen by my pizza guzzling bunch.
Yesterday, it happened again. This time I watched the game at home with my wife, who only wanted to watch the Halftime show. This time while watching, we again missed it, this time it was the extended middle finger of M.I.A.. It may have only been on screen for half a second, yet it has set the internet a buzz with opinions. So.....want to hear mine?
First off, let me say I thought Madonna killed it. Many have criticized what appeared to be lip synced, but after the abuse Fergie took last year for her out of tune performance, a perfectionist like Madonna likely thought she would take the safe route.
This leads to the next statement about Madonna: since when did she start playing it safe? Since she got old, that's when. Look, everyone can agree that Madonna was the ultimate Pop Chameleon, and she still is. She has now transformed herself from the Pop's Queen, to the "Queen of Pop"; a Diva that is to be looked up to and respected. She knows she is 53, and for her to prance around in bare mid riffs would look silly (even though she has a better body than 90 percent of women half her age). She is acting her age, and not trying to look desperatley cool; basically what i am saying is that she is entering the icon to legend stage and doing it with far more grace than we would have thought she was capable of based on her 80's persona.
Now, M.I.A. did something controversial and Madonna is no stranger to this. Here is the difference though: when Madonna pushed the sexual bundaries, it was well crafted and considered and you could make a statement that everything had an artistic base to it. So what does M.I.A. do on the largest stage imaginable? A finger. A lousy finger that has everyone offering an opinion. Here is mine: I am not offended by it, and I belive that goes for many of the people I associate with, but I understand why some people are. I also like televised controversy as it makes things interesting.
However.....this is just plain lazy. This was the best she could do? Is there a statement she is trying to make, because i don't see it....especially after a hologram for "World Peace" flashed shortly after the performance. It didn't fit, it had no artistic message, nor was it interesting. It was nothing more than an immature gesture from am acclaimed artist capable of way more than that.
The only controversy here is that we care so much.
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