Starting with Controversy
Adam Levine, the lead singer of Maroon 5 first lit up a controversial conversation when he agreed to be the Super Bowl LIII’s halftime performer. Maroon 5 was not the NFL’s first choice in halftime performers, but due to Colin Kaepernick’s “take-a-knee” movement and the controversy around it, their primary choice (Rihanna), as well as other top picks (Cardi B), declined the offer in support of Kaepernick, who is still unemployed and has been since 2016.
When Levine took on this performance invitation, he knew it would stir some pots, but what he didn’t realize would start a conversation was the fact that he took his shirt off on stage during his performance. Adam must’ve not known that he was performing on the 15th anniversary of Janet Jackon’s most known wardrobe malfunction, known as “Nipplegate” which took place on Super Bowl Sunday 15 years ago.
Janet’s Super Bowl Debut 
Janet Jackson, the half time performer at Super Bowl XXXVII gave a performance to remember with special guest Justin Timberlake. The two artists ended the show with quite a shock. Ending with the song “Rock Your Body,” Timberlake sang the final lyrics, “gonna have you naked, by the end of this song” and as he sang, he reached to remove the top piece of Janet’s costume to reveal a red lace bra, but too much came off and her entire breast came out. As you can imagine, people were going haywire. People got so upset that over 540,000 of them had filed complaints with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about the incident.
Because of this matter, Janet Jackson’s career took an unfortunate and unfair turn. Jackson who was supposed to perform and present at the 2004 Grammy’s a week after this incident occurred was banned from the event. Let us also note that Timberlake was also set to perform and present at the same event and was still allowed to show up to perform his “duties.” (Even though he did the physical action of revealing Jackson’s breast-accidentally or not, he did it and did not get penalized for this.) Not only was Jackson banned from the Grammy’s, but she was also blacklisted. Her music and music videos were banned from MTV, VH1 and radio stations, as well as she was forced to drop a movie deal, she had just signed.
Coming full circle
So how exactly does Adam Levine taking his shirt off during his performance relate to all this Janet Jackson controversy from 15 years ago? Well, for one thing, Adam Levine has two nipples (in case you were wondering) which were all over the Super Bowl viewer’s television’s screens during much of the half-time show. When people reacted to this, it wasn’t attacking Levine per se, instead just raising the point of how women’s nipples are more sexualized than men’s and how that can be severely damaging to a woman’s career and even their life. Many tweets about Levine’s topless performance were funny, but in all seriousness, the sexualization of women’s nipples over men’s is an issue that needs to be fixed.
Nipples are nipples
A woman’s career was nearly lost because of an accidental breast reveal, while the man who did the revealing (again, accidental or not, he still did the action) did not receive any backlash whatsoever. Why are women’s nipples vastly sexualized when women’s compared to men’s serve more than one purpose? For example, though the primary function of the woman’s nipple is to breastfeed babies, they also used to be the primary resource in assessing women’s health. It is evident that even though men and women both have nipples if a woman is exposed publicly, she will be torn apart while when we see men’s no one thinks twice about it.
As the world continues to evolve, people will hopefully realize seeing a woman’s nipple is no reason to demolish her. Like all mammals, men and women have nipples, and that shouldn’t be a shock to the world. Adam Levine, no one hates you for showing the world your nipples and loving your body, but why can’t women freely love their bodies in the same way WITHOUT backlash?
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