Malfunction

One Oscar nomination

First woman nominated for Producer of the Year Grammy

27 top 10 hits

Record for most consecutive top ten hits on Billboard by a female artist

First and only artist in history to have seven top five hits from one album.

All of that suddenly went away after the 2004 Superbowl Halftime show. The phrase 'Wardrobe Malfunction' became a punchline and Janet Jackson was ostracized from the music business. Yes, that's right: 1/16th of a fucking second caused America to turn its back on one very talented woman. All America is... America.

And of course it was not just the nipple shield that Justin Timberlake (barf) let out what caused such terrible backlash: it was the blatant racism and misogyny that was unleashed upn Janet after the incident what caused the interruption in a brilliant career. And that 'malfunction' was not Janet's words: it was Timberlake's. That weasel kissed ass and groveled and threw Janet under the bus in order to have a career (sounds familiar, right, Britney?). A career that he may have not had if Janet wouldn't have plucked Insync from obscurity and put it under her spotlight when she chose them to open for her during her heyday. 

Timberlake is a dick, but he was also used by the Religulous Wrong and the Rethuglyclowns of the time to take control of the airwaves, because they thought the were losing their grip on what people could see. I don't know if you remember, but back in 2004 MTV reigned supreme in what concerned music. Janet's songs would get forty plays a day on MTV alone. She was huge. But she did not show the contrition that white America was demanding of her. And her career suffered because of it.

So then the powers that be (Old White Cisgender Straight Men) came down on her. They could not forgive her for being an assertive, powerful, sexy Black woman. They could not forgive her for rebelling against the rule white men have created that Black women can only be sexy under THEIR vigilant eye and for their pleasure. Janet was blamed, shamed and blacklisted out of a fantastic career. Instrumental was Les Moonves (who was kicked out of CBS after allegations of sexual assault, natch) and people in VIACOM and the NFL, even when they deny it. And they do, to this day.

I watched the documentary by the New York times and I can say that today I abhor Justin Timberlake a little bit more than I abhorred him last week. He benefited from the privilege of being male and white and half- apologized to everybody (except Janet ) to get an award and then to go back and perform at the Super Bowl again. The documentary does present some Black people's perspective, but I think it's more telling on how the white people involved actually point at their own blame for what happened while trying to squirm away from any responsibility.

If you have Hulu (or cable, it's on FX) you can watch it, or wait for what I think will be superior: the Lifetime documentary (it will air both on Lifetime *television for women* and on A&E *for the masc4masc crowd*) and it's JANET'S tale. I want to watch that one now. I want a documentary that allows Janet to have autonomy over her own story (Malfunction kinds of wags its finger over the sexist, racist assholes who blacklisted her and that's about it). So I'll wait until January 2022 for her side of the story.

So I'll leave you with that. I'd recommend the New York Times documentary, if you really want a refresher and another perspective on the 2004 debacle, or if you're not familiar with it. But I'm going to wait for the 2022 Janet documentary to make any comments. At the end of the day, I'll always be on Janet's side. No matter what happened with that 'wardrobe'. 

Also, fuck pencil dick Justin Timberlake. He's a spineless cunt. 

XOXO