Every February, America sits down to watch the biggest pro-football game of the year. The Super Bowl is a part of our culture. It's in our blood. We throw parties for all our friends and family. We make plates and plates of food like, for example, buffalo chicken dip. I'll eat that dip until I can't eat anymore. Some of us watch it for the game depending on who is playing. The rest of us watch it for the star-studded and high-price commercials. Some do watch for the 20 to 30-minute halftime show that have featured some of the biggest musicians of our time.
Fifteen years ago, singers Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake along with rappers P. Diddy, Nelly, and Kid Rock performed at Super Bowl XXXVIII in Houston, Texas. The entertainers performed some of their greatest hits at the time like "All for You", "Hot in Herre", "Mo Money Mo Problems" and more. Towards the end of the performance, Jackson and Timberlake were performing Timberlake's 2003 hit "Rock Your Body". As soon as Timberlake sang the final line "I'm gonna have you naked by the end of this song", he pulled off a part of Jackson's costume which ultimately exposed her right breast on live TV in front of millions of people for only a few seconds. However, those few seconds caused a lot of controversy.
After the performance, which was dubbed Nipplegate, Jackson received a lot of backlash and hate for absolutely no reason. For the next couple of years following the performance, her singles and music videos were blacklisted from radio stations and television. Her next three albums were significantly affected because critics were only talking about the performance and not how good the albums were. Even though Timberlake was essentially the person who caused the whole Nipplegate situation, his career wasn't affected at all. His songs weren't blacklisted from radio, his music videos weren't blacklisted from television, his albums were still successful after the performance, and he was even invited back to headline the halftime show at Super Bowl LII last year.
This whole event is a prime example on double standards which sadly still exist in our society. Jackson is an iconic performer from an even more iconic family who was one of the biggest stars throughout the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. In my opinion, I don't think her career hasn't fully recovered since. Timberlake was just starting out in his solo career after leaving his successful boy-band *NSYNC when the whole scandal broke out and afterwards he got more successful. I do understand that this was over fifteen years ago and we have come a long way since 2004 but the problem of double standards is still very prominent in our society in every career field. Why can't we get to place where all genders are equal? Why can't everyone be put on the same pedestal when it comes to situations like this one? The NFL and the American people still need to apologize to Janet Jackson for essentially putting her successful multi-decade career at a standstill. She deserves better.
