{"id":40359,"date":"2021-11-19T12:17:07","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T12:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&#038;p=40359"},"modified":"2021-11-19T12:17:07","modified_gmt":"2021-11-19T12:17:07","slug":"malfunction-janet-jackson-justin-timberlake","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/malfunction-janet-jackson-justin-timberlake\/","title":{"rendered":"What \u2018Malfunction\u2019 Clarifies About Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake\u2019s Infamous Super Bowl Halftime Show"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_40360\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-40360\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-40360\" src=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2021\/11\/GettyImages-2920858-e1637156020230.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Janet Jackson performing at the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show\" width=\"1024\" height=\"575\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-40360\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Janet Jackson performing at the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show (Photo by Frank Micelotta\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The ongoing cultural project of re-evaluating past scandals and controversies through the clarifying lens of our post-#MeToo sensibilities has been both noble and, in many cases, effective. In September, after years of rumors about his sexual abuse of underage girls, R. Kelly was found guilty of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation of a child, among numerous other crimes. In February, HBO\u2019s four-part documentary <em>Allen v. Farrow<\/em> shed new light on Dylan Farrow\u2019s nearly 30-year-old claim that her adopted father Woody Allen had sexually abused her as a child. Most recently, a Los Angeles judge <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/11\/12\/arts\/music\/britney-spears-conservatorship-ends.html\" target=\"_blank\">ended<\/a> the <a href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/britney-spears-mum-lynne-conservatorship\/\">conservatorship<\/a> that has controlled <a href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/britney-spears-oprah-interview-2\/\">Britney Spears<\/a>\u2019s life for the past 14 years.<\/p>\n<p>The not particularly reassuring reality is that it seems unlikely that the tide would have turned in these cases if it weren\u2019t for the various documentaries made about the rich and famous people at the center of them. On the one hand, that\u2019s what the media, at its best, is for: exposing injustice so that it can no longer be ignored. On the other, if people like Spears and Mia Farrow couldn\u2019t get justice for themselves and their families without the help of documentarians, what hope is there for the rest of us? And then there\u2019s the added irony that the very media infrastructure now engaged in this noble reconsideration is essentially the same one that hounded women like Spears and protected men like Allen and Kelly.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The New York Times Presents | The Undressing of Janet Jackson - Season 1 Ep.10 Preview | FX\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OddhPlcQrmo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Still, there is edification to be had in these matters, and the latest imbroglio up for review is the sad case of <a href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/janet-jackson-laverne-cox-oscars\/\">Janet Jackson<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/justin-timberlake-jessica-biel-second-child-name\/\">Justin Timberlake<\/a>\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/janet-jackson-super-bowl-wardrobe-malfunction\/\">calamitous<\/a> 2004 Super Bowl halftime show. Calamitous for <em>her<\/em>, that is, which is the essential thesis of FX\/Hulu\u2019s latest New York Times Presents documentary <em>Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson<\/em>. The doc doesn\u2019t necessarily reveal any groundbreaking new details about the infamous \u201cwardrobe malfunction\u201d that exposed Jackson\u2019s breast on broadcast television of mere seconds. What it does most effectively is contextualize the outrage that even at the time seemed so out of proportion to the actual event.<\/p>\n<p>Director Jodi Gomes spends considerable time setting the scene: Jackson\u2019s rise to fame, her mid-\u201990s pivot to more sexually frank material; the growing conservative panic around sexually explicit content in music and on TV. It\u2019s ironic, then, that leading up to the 2004 Super Bowl, Jackson was actually the least controversial halftime show performer. The show, which was produced by MTV, included appearances by Nelly, P. Diddy and Kid Rock, all of whom had the NFL extremely stressed. The owner of the Houston Texans reportedly wrote a letter expressing his concern.<\/p>\n<p><em>Malfunction<\/em> doesn\u2019t deviate from what is already widely known about \u201cNipplegate.\u201d Neither Timberlake nor Jackson participated in the doc, so the story we get is essentially MTV\u2019s version of events\u2014one that Jackson also confirmed in one of her apologies after the fact. After the show had been meticulously vetted, after wardrobe had been approved, Jackson and her team devised something to punctuate the finale, unbeknownst to MTV or the NFL. They shared the new plan with Timberlake moments before the show, again without anyone from MTV of the NFL present. It remains unclear what exactly was <em>supposed <\/em>to happen. (Timberlake was originally supposed to rip off Jackson\u2019s skirt at the end of the performance, on the line \u201cgotta have you naked by the end of this song.\u201d This was nixed at final dress rehearsal earlier in the week.) Though by all accounts Jackson herself was involved in planning of the stunt, it\u2019s worth pausing to think about the fact that these images of a man ripping the clothes off of a woman\u2019s body were even considered back then.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_39356\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-39356\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-39356\" src=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2021\/11\/GettyImages-2920783-e1635881277136.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson onstage during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show\" width=\"1024\" height=\"579\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-39356\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson onstage during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show (Photo: Frank Micelotta\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The documentary\u2019s accounts of Jackson leaving the stage in tears and immediately fleeing the arena are devastating\u2014even more so considering MTV\u2019s former senior VP Salli Frattini\u2019s callous framing of the situation. \u201cIf she had been there, in retrospect, to sort of take the heat\u2026She never said anything to us.\u201d On Timberlake, who did not have his clothing torn off on national television, Frattini\u2019s tune is markedly different: \u201cHe was very apologetic. He manned-up.\u201d Frattini\u2019s recollections have the queasy ring of someone blaming a victim for fleeing the scene of trauma. Of course, as we all know, this was a pattern in the aftermath of the incident: Janet was blamed, Justin was let off the hook. Janet\u2019s statements were viewed as insufficient; Justin\u2019s plethora of comments and apologies were nearly universally accepted. According to <em>New York Times<\/em> reporter Rachel Abrams, then CBS CEO Les Moonves wanted in-person apologies from both Jackson and Timberlake. Justin reportedly complied; Janet didn\u2019t\u2014and incurred Moonves\u2019s wrath. The now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2018\/08\/06\/les-moonves-and-cbs-face-allegations-of-sexual-misconduct\" target=\"_blank\">disgraced<\/a> mogul reportedly went so far as to try to get Jackson to pay CBS\u2019s historic FCC fines.<\/p>\n<p>What followed, in hindsight, was essentially a cancellation\u2014but by people in power, all of them white men, rather than the public. While Timberlake\u2019s career continued to thrive, Jackson\u2019s flagged. It wasn\u2019t until <em>he<\/em> was invited to once again headline the 2018 Super Bowl halftime show that calls to rethink the way Jackson was treated reached a critical mass online. The sense of injustice that many Janet Jackson fans had always felt finally grabbed the attention of the media, resulting not only in her 2019 induction into the Rock &amp; Roll Hall of Fame, but also in this very documentary.<\/p>\n<p>What <em>Malfunction<\/em> does best is put all the pieces together, confirming that nagging, diffuse sense that someone was wronged here. It\u2019s worth thinking about what happened to Janet Jackson not only in the context of the turn-of-the-millennium culture wars, but also in contrast to so-called \u201ccancel culture.\u201d For so long, men like Moonves\u2014who has been accused of sexual assault and harassment\u2014were the ones with the power to stymie the careers of anyone who crossed them. It\u2019s only recently that the public has been empowered by social media\u2014for better or worse\u2014to demand accountability, and along with that, justice for women like Janet Jackson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29097,"featured_media":40360,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[38,16,3925],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v18.5 (Yoast SEO v20.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What \u2018Malfunction\u2019 Clarifies About Janet Jackson\u2019s Super Bowl Performance<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson doesn\u2019t necessarily reveal many new details about the infamous \u201cwardrobe malfunction.\u201d What it does most effectively is contextualize the outrage that even at the time seemed so out of proportion to the actual event.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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