Class action lawsuit example of misplaced priorities

OLGA WROBEL

Feature Editor

Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past few weeks, you have probably seen or at least heard about a little “breast incident” that took place during the Super bowl. I know, I know, we are all extremely sick of hearing about it, but maybe not everyone has heard the news about the lawsuit regarding Ms. Jackson and Mr. Timberlake.

A woman in Texas has filed for a class action lawsuit against Jackson, Timberlake, CBS, MTV and whoever else had any sort of involvement in this fiasco. She is suing on the grounds that she, and the rest of the United States, suffered “outrage, anger, embarrassment, and serious injury” because of the “sexually implicit conduct” portrayed during the halftime show. There is also something there about “billions” of dollars in damages.

This has got to be one of the most outrageous and ridiculous accusations I have ever heard. Serious injury? Suffering? It seems that some Americans have become obsessed with the incident, and are taking their disappointment way too far. Jackson and Timberlake are performers, and they obviously intended on shocking audiences during their musical number. It was not exactly appropriate behavior, and I definitely agree it shouldn’t have taken place, but to say that a females breast is enough to cause serious damage means that these people are too prude for their own good. I am going to make an assumption that this Ms. Carlin from Texas may even have a pair of breasts herself! It may come as a surprise to many, but in European countries, especially in the west, women bathe topless at family beaches. This is widely accepted and does not even turn heads. If Carlin traveled to Italy, would she sue the entire country?

There is an acclaimed film, The Dreamers, coming out soon, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, who has been called a visionary by film critics. Unfortunately, there is too much skin and racy action, so the movie has received an NC-17 rating. Which means unless you live in a more metropolitan area you will not be seeing it. Why are Americans afraid of such a film, when in other places it would be viewed as what it is meant to be – art, and nothing else?

The reason I bring this up is because too much attention has been focused on this issue. There are many worse things on television besides the human body, which is natural and not as taboo in other Western countries. Turn on the television any time of day and you will see beer commercials which completely degrade women and may even have a negative impact on impressionable young men. Other images show anorexic models as men’s ideals, which also leave lasting impressions on young women who already may have low self-esteem. Even our own leaders partake in behavior that is much more inappropriate, and the suffering and pain that come from these issues is real and needs to be addressed. To spend time on suing a station for showing a “private part” is as silly as suing McDonalds for being fat, or suing the makers of alarm clocks because they are just too annoying. To completely censor an award winning film from the majority of Americans because it has too much sex, while showing gun after gun on R and PG-13 rated movies, show that our priorities are not in the order they should be.

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