Breasts! Art? Freedom of Speech?

"A year later, terror of Janet's breast lingersIn post-flash America, no 'damn' in sports shows, but Cialis for all"
Michael Ventre, MSNBC contributor


At Zandrea, we don't shy away from controversy, nor do we shirk intelligent philosophizing. So when I awoke at 6:15 this morning to NPR's coverage that it had been a year since Janet's malfunction, my first thought was, "How is this still news?" and my second was, "How can I work this to the benefit of all Zandrea's readers, who have been painfully wondering when we will update our blog?"

The broad implications of this event were issues pertaining to free speech and control of the media. But also, is there an underlying innate sexism? What is really more terrorizing-- Ms. Jackson's breast or a 72 year old male with a 12 hour erection? I personally was never traumatized by the Super Bowl scandal of 2004, but the subject of breasts does come up in common conversation with me (seriously).

My boyfriend frequently submits photos to a website community of like-minded photographers, and there have always been photos of naked women, often taken by men. Recently there have been more and more self-portraits by women baring their breasts and I'm torn between weather this is art and self-expression or a grab for attention. On the one hand, it would be nice if this wasn't taboo, but on the other hand I think most people view it as erotic and so the women come off as being exhibitionist and the whole field of art is degraded. For example, Gabriel has a picture of a young woman looking through a pane of glass at him...she was caught off guard, but has a look of longing for something-- an escape? This , to me, is a very sensual picture. The women who take pictures of their breasts are pigeonholing themselves and essentially defining themselves by a physical feature. I think women embody much more than that, and there are more complex ways to capture that.

Women think, laugh, work, care...Ms. Jackson's career might just be defined by her infamous moment on stage, not by the whole work of her many years of entertaining.

Your opinions are welcome!