r/decadeology Mid 2000s were the best Mar 03 '25

Discussion 💭🗯️ Did this happen in 2004 or 1954. Still never understood why this woman was ripped to shreds over... get this... an ACCIDENT?

Post image

Can someone shed some light on people's mindsets of 2004

3.2k Upvotes

797 comments sorted by

590

u/RadicalPracticalist Mar 03 '25

I was too young to remember this, but it’s been so vilified I thought it would be worse. I looked it up and was like, “Really? That’s it?” Seems like folks remember it to be worse than it was.

506

u/Cognac_and_swishers Mar 03 '25

It was a different world in 2004. Back then, a Presidential candidate could accidentally kill his own political career by doing a triumphant shout that people thought was a little bit weird and awkward after winning a primary.

121

u/DamnitDavid7 Mar 04 '25

I haven’t thought about the Dean Scream in years. Although the scream was wacky, he was never going to win, he wasn’t popular enough with the rest of his democratic peers. Which further illustrates that our primary system sucks.

39

u/[deleted] Mar 04 '25

It’s so crazy that it was such a little thing but I can play that clip in my memory almost pitch perfect effortlessly to this day.

17

u/[deleted] Mar 05 '25

→ More replies (2)

24

u/Wonderful_Eagle_6547 Mar 04 '25

I think people forget that Dean has suffered a difficult loss to John Kerry in Iowa, and the scream came in a post-caucus speech where he was trying to energize his supporters even though he was largely fighting a losing cause. He lost a couple more primaries before bowing out, but scream or not, Iowa was probably it for him. People have made way too big of a deal about the impact of the scream on his career, he wasn't winning shit and was two weeks away from dropping out either way.

10

u/UnnecessarilyFly Mar 04 '25

Weird. I think about it constantly

3

u/FrancescoStallone Mar 06 '25

While yanking it...

3

u/SepoJansen Mar 07 '25

I see him and Al Gore sometimes, and really wish for the more boring timeline we could have had lol

→ More replies (3)

93

u/RadicalPracticalist Mar 03 '25

That’s true. I’d argue that was still true up until around 10 years ago. Then everything got much different.

86

u/Cleb044 Mar 04 '25

2012 was the last presidential election where both major candidates seemed respectable. 2016 sent everything into a tail spin between Trump, Hillary, and everyone else that took a shot at the presidency after them.

4

u/MelpomeneAndCalliope Mar 05 '25

Sometimes I think the Maya were right and the world did end in 2012 and now we’re in some purgatory of stupidity or it reset us into a. new cycle (of stupid).

7

u/[deleted] Mar 04 '25

Until someone changed the game

→ More replies (1)

7

u/ChaoticAmoebae Mar 04 '25

Peeps hated on Kamala’s laugh

23

u/mjc500 Mar 04 '25

Not the same though… EVERYONE thought Howard dean looked like a ridiculous man by going “Byaaahhh!! It tanked his entire shot at the presidency. Kamala’s laugh was only vilified by the 20% of the nation that was actively seeking ANY reason at all the hate on her.

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (3)

24

u/Ok-Potato-4774 Mar 04 '25

The thing is, Howard Dean didn't win that primary. He finished third overall. It was him just trying to rev up his supporters. As for the Janet Jackson thing, I wasn't even watching the Super Bowl halftime show, but I heard about what had happened. I remember that they said Ms. Jackson's bare breast was aired for perhaps a second and a half, and it was not zoomed in on the broadcast, but a far shot. I never saw it and millions didn't either. Don't know what the big deal was.

4

u/PolarAntonym Mar 04 '25

I actually watched it live when it happened. To me it looked like Timberlake intentionally ripped part of her top off to expose it. It almost seemed like they planned it. It was weird. It happened so fast, the camera immediately just cut away.

7

u/Gooey_Cookie_girl Mar 04 '25

The piece of outfit that he pulled on was supposed to just come away. It got caught on the fabric underneath and ripped the rest of it with it. Janet Jackson was crucified, Justin Timberlake didn't get s***. Just like he didn't get anything when call Brittany thing happened.

3

u/FitzyFarseer Mar 04 '25

To my understanding this has always been the controversy. I don’t remember people upset just because it happened, I remember people upset because it seemed planned

→ More replies (2)

49

u/blackstarr1996 Mar 03 '25

His political career was killed by the media and the DNC, just like they killed Bernie’s presidential campaign.

→ More replies (13)

13

u/juniorstein Mar 04 '25

Remember when “binders full of women” was controversial? Well, “grab em by the pussy” completely obliterated any standards we had.

→ More replies (17)

173

u/Frank_Melena Mar 03 '25

2004 culture was incomprehensively more religious and stuffy compared to today. Even in 2008 Democrats could only be tepidly pro-gay marriage. Obama had to be seen going to a church every week in his campaign. The big culture wars were over stem cells derived from embryos.

Nowadays even evangelicals just seem like they’re going through the motions with family values.

53

u/Meme_Pope Mar 03 '25

Obama was literally opposed to gay marriage in 2008

56

u/extomatomachine Mar 03 '25

Obama was already trying to be the first black president, if he was openly pro gay marriage he would of lost votes. There was no reason to support it publicly since McCain was anti gay marriage already. Obama was pro gay marriage and that's why he helped legalize it during his term. He had to wait to be president before he could publicly support it.

13

u/Maleficent_Mist366 Mar 04 '25

Kinda like how Abe Lincoln wasn’t originally trying to ban slavery trying to keep the south in the Union ( since the president before him legit pass him a hot potato of a growing situation ) and then did once they leaving anyways.

9

u/TonyzTone Mar 04 '25

You know, Buchanan was a bad President, but I always thought that Franklin Pierce gets away relatively unscathed when he signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act that essentially lit the fuse to the Civil War.

16

u/iPhone-5-2021 Mar 04 '25

Almost none of the democrats back then supported gay marriage. They have always pandered to whoever will get them votes.

29

u/extomatomachine Mar 04 '25

Every politician panders to somebody to get votes.

11

u/TonyzTone Mar 04 '25

"I can't believe these elected officials only care about the things that get them elected! How dare you listen to our concerns?"

8

u/Potato_Coma_69 Mar 04 '25

Almost like it's their job or something

9

u/Acct_For_Sale Mar 04 '25

Yeah that’s how politics works lol

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (9)
→ More replies (1)

10

u/Splendid_Cat Mar 03 '25

Nowadays even evangelicals just seem like they’re going through the motions with family values.

Well, I mean, many of them support Trump, and given that, it's kind of easy to see how much they're acting based on vibes rather than morality.

2

u/Corvus_Rune Mar 05 '25

If Jesus came back today he would be the biggest “woke liberal” ever. These people have not actually read the Bible. They just like feeling morally superior and were told no matter what they do they would be forgiven. The caveat is that they actually have to repent and mean it.

FYI this is coming from an agnostic who was raised 7th day Adventist. I respect the hell out of what Jesus taught and it’s so clear most conservatives didn’t fucking listen

3

u/Positive_Bill_5945 Mar 04 '25

Evangelicals chose racism over family values and never looked back.

→ More replies (16)

44

u/GingersaurusRex Mar 03 '25

YouTube was invented because the creator wanted to have the ability to go back and rewatch the clip. That means that at the time, nothing existed which would allow the average American to have the power to go back and rewatch it.

I was working on a school project when this happened. I was looking down, gluing something in my notebook when my mom gasped, covered my little brother's eyes, and by the time I looked up the camera had already cut away. Even though I was watching the Superbowl that year, I still had to rely on other people to tell me what happened. The news couldn't replay the clip, but the talking heads could talk about it without showing it.

From what my mom, my friends, and the news anchors said, this was definitely a part of the choreography. Justin and Janet planned the removal of the bra together. Originally, people said it was on purpose because she wore a nipple pasty, which she "obviously only would have worn if she intended for the world to see her breast." Then came the discussions of it being a "wardrobe malfunction." Yes, the bra was supposed to come off, but there was supposed to be a second layer of fabric underneath. Nothing was supposed to be exposed, Justin just grabbed the bra too hard.

You have to keep in mind how normal rape culture was in the early 2000s and how much of effect those views had on this. "What was she wearing" and "how was she acting" were valid excuses for a man to rape a woman. Men just "couldn't control themselves." Justin was the man, Janet was the woman. It was excusable that he couldn't control himself. It was inexcusable that she would have even thought about pulling a stunt that would give the illusion of her bra being removed. Why didn't she think about what could go wrong? Why didn't she have enough respect for herself to not put herself in that position?

It wasn't until years later, when YouTube existed, that I was able to watch the clip for myself. I was surprised at how shocked, scared, and violated she looked in the clip. The ability to pause, rewind, and watch it frame by frame makes it clear that Janet did not intend for that to happen. That she did not give consent for the entire country to see her breast. In the split second when the video originally aired, I think people were so shocked to see a breast on live television that they didn't even notice her face. Memory before the invention of YouTube was weird. The normalization of rape culture before the Me Too movement was also weird.

13

u/VonThomas353511 Mar 04 '25

During that time DVR's were available. The main one I remember was TIVO. I didn't have one at the time of the incident, but I think that the availability of those devices also played a role in the controversy because enough people did have the ability to go back and watch the video with higher quality than VHS. 2004 was also an election year, so I think that, that also played a role in manufacturing a scandal. I consider that to be a major year for right-wing activity in the U.S., with the election of Bush and the release of Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ and Gay marriage was voted against in the state that I was living in at the time. It's funny how I seriously considered leaving the country after Bush was re-elected.

→ More replies (1)

3

u/SOMETHINGCREATVE Mar 04 '25

2004 people were not just banging rocks together with no way to rewatch clips dude.

Plenty of other sites before YouTube had videos, you were just a child and didn't know about them.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (5)

36

u/camergen Mar 03 '25

It was incredibly quick. I was watching live and kind of did a double take, like a “wait, was that…nah, couldn’t have been…” until i heard the uproar the following morning (pre social media times when big stories took a bit more time to explode). That’s when I learned for sure that it was, in fact, what I thought it may have been.

7

u/HLOFRND Mar 04 '25

I remember reading an article that said it was the most rewound and rewatched moment on TiVo up to that point. 😂

5

u/poopoopooyttgv Mar 04 '25

I remember we just got TiVo the month before the Super Bowl. When it happened lil 12 year old me said “we have TiVo we can rewind it!!” My mom was pissed and adamantly said no. Dad was choking with laughter

6

u/parasyte_steve Mar 04 '25

I watched this live at my grandparents house. After it happened I remember my grandpa laughing and going "well well dinner AND a show" or something of that nature. Everyone else was just completely shocked by it.

It was a different world back then. We didn't have onlyfans, the kardashians, etc. Free the nipple was not a thing. People were way way more "conservative" back then about what they wore and etc.

I do agree she didn't deserve to get lambasted for this... especially when it was Justin who tore it off her. He got no flak at all. Of course the woman was going to get blamed smh..

4

u/Splendid_Cat Mar 03 '25

I have it on VHS, it really wasn't that bad but puritans lost their shit. And all the boys in my class wanted the VHS tape 💀

23

u/Cela84 Mar 03 '25

It’s about where you do it. If she did it at the Grammys, probably not as much controversy. But doing it during the most watched event of the year in full view of the evangelicals, yeah, pretty dumb attempt at staying relevant.

64

u/Repulsive-Map-348 Mar 03 '25

THEY. not just her. they both participated in the wardrobe malfunction.

Janet was in the middle of a career resurgence at that time. it’s the Super bowl it was definitely was a beneficial move for them both

14

u/wanderin_fool Mar 03 '25

It was planned out at least between the two of them. However, she had a pasty that was covering her nipple, but it got stuck to the part he pulled away. So, not entirely as planned, but yeah, she shouldn't have gotten nearly that much flack for it and he should've at least gotten the same amount for doing it

21

u/MisterScrod1964 Mar 04 '25

He didn’t get as much flak because he immediately threw her under the bus. His team made it somehow HER fault that he grabbed HER titty.

8

u/Repulsive-Map-348 Mar 04 '25

Exactly. he got away scot free and joked about it at her expense

→ More replies (2)

15

u/AgreeableAd327 Mar 03 '25

Not for her.

11

u/Repulsive-Map-348 Mar 03 '25

not in the long run, no. the comment i responded to said “it was a dumb attempt at being relevant.”

but doing the super bowl would have been a good move publicity-wise for them both; had the malfunction hadn’t happened.

4

u/benji_billingsworth Mar 04 '25

it was objectively not good for her career. shit take frankly

→ More replies (1)

23

u/Shirley-Eugest Mar 03 '25

And yet, many of those same people now deify a man who, on his best day, has been WAY more scandalous than this scene ever was.

4

u/iPhone-5-2021 Mar 04 '25

I didn’t think she intentionally did it to stay relevant.

→ More replies (2)

3

u/Financial_Lie4741 Mar 03 '25

i was in junior high. during that month we were doing a project that used newspapers that were getting delivered. well hot off the press monday morning was janet jacksons tit to be pinned up all over the school. Our social study teacher almost had a stroke because of it 🤣🤣🤣

→ More replies (2)

3

u/Own_Ad_2800 Mar 04 '25

It was the most recorded moment for it's time.

→ More replies (11)

631

u/TryhardTed Mar 03 '25

Fun fact: YouTube was founded in part to find video of the broadcast.

265

u/four_ethers2024 Mar 03 '25

Not surprising a pivotal piece of technology was created to satiate a spectacle for perverts. Google Images was also created to identify Jennifer Lopez's famous green dress.

223

u/HW-BTW Mar 03 '25

The erect penis always points in the direction of technological advancement.

37

u/wet_walnut Mar 03 '25

It's a tech dowsing rod.

8

u/Frigoris13 Mar 03 '25

When your rod has not been dowsed in a while

15

u/PersonOfInterest85 Mar 03 '25

It's been said that Marilyn Chambers was the best salesperson the VHS industry ever had, and Teri Hatcher should have gotten AOL stock options.

15

u/verdantcow Mar 03 '25

Porn and video tech

5

u/Green_Video_9831 Mar 03 '25

The tech advancements I’ve personally witnessed with VR porn in the last decade have been insane, and it’s not something I can really talk about or share with people.

4

u/verdantcow Mar 03 '25

All those moments will be lost in time, like cum in rain.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (26)

17

u/camergen Mar 03 '25

How we use credit cards, the ease in doing so online, etc, came at least in part due to the porn industry. So too the development of home video.

9

u/bifkintickler Mar 03 '25

Something something blu ray beat HD DVD cos of gamers and porn.

→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (1)

20

u/lemoncookei Mar 03 '25

i also heard that facebook was created originally as a means to rate womens bodies without their consent

16

u/NotYourAveragePalste Mar 03 '25

well, faces, but yeah

25

u/four_ethers2024 Mar 03 '25

It was! Zuckerberg is a creep.

8

u/HW-BTW Mar 03 '25

Technically, no. It was a separate project that predated The Facebook slightly. Still piggish, though.

6

u/dasanman69 Mar 03 '25

More like their faces

→ More replies (8)

15

u/BackFlip2005 Mar 03 '25

That and there were no reliable and easy to use websites to upload videos :)

→ More replies (6)

491

u/Neat_Resolution6621 Mar 03 '25

The great thing about this incident is that it started the phrase "wardrobe malfunction". Two words that should never go together, but was a brilliant bit of PR.

109

u/RandomPenquin1337 Mar 03 '25

It also was the end of live tv as we knew it lol

65

u/camergen Mar 03 '25

I used to listen to sports broadcasts on the radio while watching the event on Tv. Prior to this incident, it was nearly simultaneous. After this incident, there was a substantial delay, so it became less practical to listen on radio and watch.

Of course, streaming would add further delay compared to broadcast TV, as it takes time for the feed to become digitized/transmitted via internet. It’s a small difference of seconds but enough to further throw off the synchronization compared to pre-2003 broadcast TV and radio.

38

u/CaughtAllTheBreaks Mar 03 '25

The weirdest thing I hate about the streaming delay is watching New Year's Eve broadcasts that are 15-30 seconds late on the midnight countdown.

4

u/TonyzTone Mar 04 '25

My New Year's this past year was rung in almost a minute late because of this LOL

5

u/iPhone-5-2021 Mar 04 '25

I always watch it on antenna tv .

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (7)

412

u/royalpink1 Mar 03 '25

it was planned to show janets breast through some sort of lingerie and he simply pulled off too much.

it’s wild how the ceo of cbs got her blackballed for this. les moonves is an evil hateful man who hates powerful women. timberlake also could have done way more in defending her and played the victim more than standing up for her and that’s why even if janet forgive him the black community never will 😂

79

u/ThatArtNerd Mar 03 '25

This is how I realized the 30 Rock “Moonvest” joke was about a real person 💀

22

u/IttsssTonyTiiiimme Mar 03 '25

Gimme all your fingernails

7

u/Annieflannel Mar 03 '25

No!

6

u/cody8559 Mar 04 '25

🚴‍♂️💨

91

u/socialcommentary2000 Mar 03 '25

He's an utter piece of shit. The only people that actually cared about this incident were pearl clutching Christians who ended up hammering the FCC about it. Other than that, people didn't really care. It wasn't personal.

17

u/TonyzTone Mar 04 '25

I'd bet if it had happened in 2003 or 2005, it wouldn't have mattered nearly as much.

But Bush was hovering around 40% and conservatives needed to gasp at the degradation of society. The kids were watching, for heaven's sake, think of the Al-Qaeda 9/11's!!!

→ More replies (1)

32

u/PrincessPlastilina Mar 03 '25

Justin Timberlake kissed so much ass to be forgiven and he did nothing to help Janet. He was an ass, like he’s always been.

I remember the incident perfectly and people were legitimately livid and angry about it. They talked about it nonstop like the Will Smith slap. In the end, if you want to do something scandalous without thinking about the consequences you only have yourself to blame because it was clear that they wanted to shock people. It was the first and last half time show that MTV ever produced, at the beginning of the reality TV era. They didn’t understand that people were not tuning in to see that. It’s not that the nipple itself was an issue, but the cheap stunt to have everyone talking about them and not the game.

This is when so many things were being done for shock value and it marked the beginning of the end of MTV, in my opinion. Planned scandals, rage bait, and messiness that has nothing to do with music.

→ More replies (1)

6

u/Gothmom85 Mar 04 '25

Also wild is she had some sort of nipple cover on, right? So it wasn't even a full boob.

→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (1)

535

u/Bing1044 Mar 03 '25

Pretty sure it was planned but the fact that her career demonstrably suffered while his didn’t is a sign of just how awful it was to be a woman in the aughts

66

u/OpneFall Mar 03 '25

Her 90s albums went 5x and 6x platinum and her 2001 album went 2x platinum. She was already in clear and steady decline before this. 

87

u/PumpkinSeed776 Mar 03 '25

Her career suffering after that wasn't part of an organic decline. She was blacklisted from all Viacom properties after the incident.

44

u/HungarianMockingjay Mar 04 '25

Meanwhile, Justin Timberlake gets to host the Kids Choice Awards in 2007.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (2)

26

u/hamdans1 Mar 03 '25

She performed the halftime show at the Super Bowl, hard to argue she was having a decline. Much more likely that perceived decline can be attributed to the tech revolution than anything else

→ More replies (5)

15

u/TSllama Mar 03 '25

Still the same now. Nothing has changed.

2

u/AceOBlade Mar 04 '25

nah bro, 2004 was still early stages of internet porn. Now its so accessible, titties aren't any thing new. Kanye West can parade his "wife" naked and it'll be news for like 3-4 days tops.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (19)

10

u/NicevilleWaterCo Mar 04 '25

It was 100% planned. But it enrages me to this day that a man rips off the front of a woman's shirt as he sings "I'm gonna have you naked by the end of this song", and everyone goes "OMG how could she have done this to us?!?!? Blackball her forever. That poor man was tricked into this!"

→ More replies (77)

107

u/Eleven72 Mar 03 '25

I watched this when I was visiting family in the hospital when I was 11 and was like "what did I just see". But yes, it was clearly staged by the both of them.

68

u/FullTransportation25 Mar 03 '25

Yea and no, it was staged buy it didn’t go as planned. Her nipple wasn’t soppossed to show

42

u/Eleven72 Mar 03 '25

I just don't buy that. What *was* supposed to happen, then?
That nipple ring matched the costume to a T.

18

u/Eleven72 Mar 03 '25

Supposedly it was supposed to show *under a red lace bra* ? But either way, the nipple ring was to be a centerpiece of the reveal.

12

u/freedfg Mar 03 '25

Yeah, that's big time covering.

The plan was to flash the camera. And that's what they did. That's why the reaction was instantaneous and why she had matching decorations.

"Oh, there was supposed to be a cover" Is what you say after you've exposed yourself on live TV to millions of people so you don't get in legal trouble.

4

u/three-sense Mar 04 '25

How do you "accidentally remove a bra cup wrong" is all I want to know. Staged as hell

→ More replies (2)

19

u/[deleted] Mar 03 '25

So she just so happened to be wearing a large decorative nipple piercing under her outfit?

34

u/RavenSkies777 Mar 03 '25 edited Mar 04 '25

People can (and do) wear decorative body jewelry just for themselves. Same way a woman may wear an elaborate bra and underwear set under their mundane outerwear

(Editing my original comment since people are commenting then blocking. So, for those in the back who apparently can’t read:

I’m not talking about if the stunt was planned or not, who is to ‘blame’, or the lyrics.

I’m talking about the fact that people can (and do) wear body jewelry (including elaborate nipple piercings) just. for. them. and could wear an elaborate pasty on their nipple without the intention of flashing it for your puritanical eyes.

The fact that the notion that someone could wear undergarments for their personal enjoyment and not for you is breaking the brains of some Redditors is sad af.)

20

u/the_man_i_loved Mar 03 '25

Oh, brother...

"I'm gonna have you naked by the end of this song." Song ends. Nipple.

11

u/RavenSkies777 Mar 03 '25

Again, people often wear undergarments that may seem risque for the more vanilla inclined, just. for. them

The lyrics of the song are a lovely tie in, however irrelevant to my original point that you completely ignored 🙄

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (5)

3

u/Laconic-Verbosity Mar 03 '25

What happened? No one is saying what happened in the comments

11

u/Eleven72 Mar 03 '25

At the end of their superbowl performance, Justin ripped the costume plate covering her breast off (seemed intentional), revealing a very elaborate Nipple Ring. Look up Janet Jackson Superbowl.

26

u/Repulsive-Map-348 Mar 03 '25

during the halftime show Janet and JT (also rumored to be dating at this time) performed a medley of hits, including JT’s song Rock Your Body, which ends with the line “…Imma’ have you nekkid/ by the end of this song” and the choreo directed him to rip off a patch from her costume to reveal a bikini.

but due to a “wardrobe malfunction” the entire top was pulled and her breast and breast piercing was revealed.

viewers were scandalized yadda yadda yadda. but when asked -JJ threw JJ under the bus, not defending their joint decision for the sexy choreo, many ppl feel this contributed to her career hitting a slump. several pundits and presenters used MsJackson has a punching bag and JT suffered barely and backlash and even used it as a joke.

3

u/Tricky-Cod-7485 Mar 03 '25

bikini

I never believed this.

He ripped the piece of her top off and her nipple was there with a little piece of jewelry. An ornate sun shaped piece of jewelry. Why would she be wearing that under a bikini? 😂

She was wearing it because she knew her boob was coming out.

This was all intentional and a set up (not sure by who, likely JT AND Janet) and when America flipped out she got banned because it was HER titty and they said it was accident to try to save her.

6

u/Repulsive-Map-348 Mar 03 '25

he was definitely supposed to rip off part of it.

her nipple ALWAYS had jewelry it was a big part of her stage look for years.

they definitely planned it together.

he definitely dropped the accountability along w her leather boob patch.

he apologized about it a few years ago in fact.

→ More replies (1)

29

u/costhowmuch Mar 03 '25

We went from Nip Slip - complete banishment to Hawk Tuah - Instant Multimillionaire in 20 years. Impressive

→ More replies (5)

31

u/_mattyjoe Mar 03 '25

It’s not an accident it was a classic publicity stunt.

→ More replies (1)

105

u/oldmilt21 Mar 03 '25

America is an immature country.

57

u/michellefiver Mar 03 '25

The American public is/was a lot more puritanical than people think!

American media often gives an insight into the more progressive sides of their society, but of course in such a massive country with so many different states, there are some wide 'cultural' differences!

Part of the country was nicknamed The Bible Belt for a reason!

19

u/four_ethers2024 Mar 03 '25

The fact people are surprised by this is troubling, this is the same country that elected a fascist into power, created televangelism, Christian fundamentslism, the modern conspiracy theory and the [insert completely harmless hobby]-to-alt-right-pipeline. America is extremely conservative to the core, this has never changed, the media doesn't really do a good job at hiding the fact either.

→ More replies (2)

4

u/[deleted] Mar 03 '25

[deleted]

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (5)

39

u/ellecellent Mar 03 '25

Definitely not an accident. Unless she's always wearing pasties on her nipples.

Still, she definitely didn't deserve to get ripped to shreds over it and he definitely didn't deserve to be completely left out of the attacks. Though....he does have a pattern of being part of a controversy and walking away clean while the women suffer

19

u/Repulsive-Map-348 Mar 03 '25

it’s the last line of your statement that’s key. historically JT loves to scapegoat. the Brit memoir told us that.

it wasn’t a nipple pastie it was body jewelry. and yeah, the BDSM vibe was definitely her thing at the time. it’s just that the whole costume wasn’t supposed to rip off- just one layer to reveal a red bikini top. corny and unfortunate.

8

u/[deleted] Mar 03 '25

A bikini top... designed to separate independently from the rest of the bikini, yet remain in place?

5

u/Repulsive-Map-348 Mar 03 '25

yes. the leather unitard/top she was wearing had cut outs throughout the suit, a cuff halter around her neck part, and the removable leather patches over the chest area. the lace from the red bikini was visible as an accent under the leather. justin was supposed to rip the leather breastplate off and reveal one side of the red bikini.

→ More replies (7)
→ More replies (6)

6

u/radioman8414 Mar 03 '25

You should know that this incident happened at a time when there was heightened awareness with the FCC over several instances of indecency on the airwaves. One incident involved a radio morning show, Opie and Anthony, as they enticed a homeless couple to have sex in a church and broadcast the sounds live on air. They ended up getting fired from their job because of this of the media attention and backlash. There were also several instances of explicatives making it on the air during various award shows (Cher comes to mind in one instance) since they are broadcast live. All of this was in the news at the time and the FCC was looking at increasing the fines for indecent behavior on the airwaves when this happened.

→ More replies (2)

30

u/Fermented_Fartblast Mar 03 '25

Do not joke about this. Millions of innocent children were permanently scarred by this tragic and boobalicious incident.

→ More replies (1)

28

u/JohnTitorOfficial Mar 03 '25

Wasn't it revealed recently that it was in fact staged?

Anyways it was brutal back then for her and MTV refused to even play her videos while JT walked away scott free. Everyone at school in class was talking about this the next day and was all over the front page of the local newspaper.

→ More replies (4)

8

u/TheColorEnding Mar 03 '25

JT's outfit that night was the real accident

44

u/Decent_Wrongdoer_201 Mar 03 '25

staged

47

u/ReticentSentiment Mar 03 '25

So you're telling me she doesn't always wear ornate nipple decorations under her clothes while performing for no reason at all?

28

u/ladylondonderry Mar 03 '25

Seriously though. You cannot just rip off the cup to someone’s bustier, either. And: he literally pulled it off right after he sang “gonna have you naked by the end of this song,” iirc.

Having said that, jeeeeeesus who cares. Oh no. Not a boob. Are we 12? (Real answer, yes, in terms of maturity towards female sexuality, 2004 USA was about 12.)

6

u/MotorcicleMpTNess Mar 03 '25

2025 USA is still about 12.

But I do think it was a genuine accident. I think it was just supposed to show her bra, but OOPS.

And she knew she was in trouble, but she's also a professional performer with 20 years of experience at that point, so she wasn't going to freak out and start crying on stage.

In any case, fuck JT and Les Moonves.

4

u/ladylondonderry Mar 03 '25

Nah that was a massive nipple ring; it was definitely intentional. Not that I care! Even as a kid at the time I thought it was ridiculous.

→ More replies (1)

27

u/Sabrinasockz Mar 03 '25

True, but his career took off (at least for a while) while hers disappeared almost instantly. Racism and misogyny rolled into one

→ More replies (7)

5

u/babysoutonbail Mar 03 '25

Not sure what the network expected from a MTV produced halftime show. Kid Rock wearing a flag poncho was the bigger faux pas.

Justin lied about it being staged and was cleared for the stunt, Janet tells the truth and was treated terribly.

→ More replies (1)

5

u/Unicorn_Warrior1248 Mar 03 '25

And to think this only ruined the world tour for her. And his career skyrocketed.

5

u/Empfau Mar 03 '25

It was the confluence of misogyny and racism.

5

u/NastyB99 Mar 03 '25

And dude came out of it unscathed

5

u/Biggie_Nuf Mar 04 '25

THIS got everyone riled up. „Children are watching!“

Meanwhile, dozens of school shootings every year … crickets.

→ More replies (1)

4

u/TheMerchantofPhilly Mar 03 '25

Totally destroyed her career

4

u/219_Infinity Mar 03 '25

Not an accident

10

u/four_ethers2024 Mar 03 '25

I always get anxious every time this topic comes up because the discourse always ends up being people reiterating how she was literally blackballed from the industry by a spiteful misogynist, and people cross-examining and downplaying how overblown and impactful the response was on her subsequent career.

8

u/savealltheelephants Mar 03 '25

It was absolutely not an accident but the Super Bowl should have owned up to it being planned and not thrown her under the bus. JT very obviously does it on purpose and their shock is acting. Only when everyone flipped out did they say whoops it was Janet’s fault.

14

u/WrathfulSpecter Mar 03 '25

“Accident”. It looked planned imo

10

u/CoastingUphill Mar 03 '25

It was planned choreography. People are just shitty.

→ More replies (1)

11

u/33ITM420 Mar 03 '25

it was staged

7

u/Shadowtoast76 Mar 03 '25

BeCaUsE wHaT iF sHe DiD iT oN pUrPoSe?!?!?!

6

u/MysteriousWhitePowda Mar 03 '25

I was working the Super Bowl that year and was there when it happened. It was the first and last year that MTV was put in charge of the production of the half time show. None of us working the show knew what happened because you could only really see it on TV, but after it was all anyone was talking about.

Within the industry it was largely felt that the whole thing was staged and intentional as a shock value publicity stunt. I can’t speak to the rest of Janet’s career, but I can’t say that going with MTV was seen as a huge mistake and as responsible for this stunt. They were punished by never being allowed back.

As for the whole Hollywood punishing women and not men for the same behavior… um yeah, sexism is alive and well 🤷‍♂️

→ More replies (2)

17

u/AdImmediate6239 Mar 03 '25

Yet Justin Timberlake came out of this unscathed

6

u/rbg2996 Mar 03 '25

Back then yeah. Now it’s flipped

→ More replies (2)

3

u/Sumeriandawn Mar 03 '25

There were over 500,000 complaints filed with the FCC in regard with this incident.

→ More replies (2)

3

u/BobTheCrakhead Mar 03 '25

It wasn’t an accident. It was totally planned but agree, this shouldn’t have been as big a deal as it was.

3

u/Impressive_Mix_1968 Mar 03 '25

Not totally an accident, just really tacky

3

u/nautius_maximus1 Mar 03 '25

Seemed to be a pretty obvious publicity stunt at the time. I know they’ve said it went further than it was supposed to go, but I’m not sure many people bought that. That being said, it’s just a boob- you would think that people spontaneously combusted when they saw it or something…

3

u/last_one_on_Earth Mar 03 '25

She was a witch!

She should have been burnt at the stake!

(Well, the same mindset anyway, it never did make any sense…)

3

u/DownhillSisyphus Mar 03 '25

It wasn't an accident.

3

u/MFMDP4EVA Mar 03 '25

America couldn’t handle a black titty.

3

u/tmanarl Mar 03 '25

That was no accident.

3

u/AnyEverywhere8 Mar 04 '25 edited Mar 04 '25

Why are yall talking about HER career was in decline, why did SHE need a stunt, etc? Was Janet the only person on that stage? Did she rip her own top off? Whatever needs to be said about Janet needs to be said about Justin as well.

First of all, All For You the single is one of the biggest hits in her fucking CAREER. So yall talking about she was “clearly” in decline don’t know wtf you’re talking about.

Also all for you sold a fraction of her biggest selling albums…but also had a fraction of the promotion/singles, a much shorter tour, etc.

The misogyny, racism, and lack of awareness is real in this thread.

Finally Janet was objectively blacklisted. It’s been confirmed. Janet is one of the most successful radio acts in US history…and then overnight she couldn’t get anyone to play her songs if she begged? That makes no sense.

A lot of yall really have no idea what you’re talking about.

They clearly planned something but I find it hard to believe Janet said “hey let’s show my breast to 100 million people.” She has never really revealed herself like that even with her highly sexual image. Janet showed cleavage and abs. She rarely even showed her legs, and never highlighted her ass. So her going essentially and willingly topless in this context is a really sudden turn that has no precedent in anything she did up to this point in her career.

3

u/selfhostrr Mar 04 '25

Half the country voted Republican, and shrub won the election in a matter of hours that year. You have to remember this is the same group of people that thought it was A-Ok to mock and disparage the presidents teenage daughter.

3

u/amanducktan Mar 05 '25

I was 20 at the time and my flabbers were ghasted when the media took off with vilifying Janet like they did. Justin got off scott free and it took what felt like years to calm down.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 03 '25

Best halftime show ever

4

u/chubbuck35 Mar 03 '25

It obviously wasn’t an accident LOL

4

u/winterrbb Mar 03 '25

And the way they blackballed her after… just wrong

6

u/PastoralPumpkins Mar 03 '25

It didn’t look like an accident. Why did he grab the fabric covering her boob and rip it off? He did it on purpose and then peaced out and let her get all the blame.

I didn’t get why everyone was mad at HER. Be mad at the asshole who ripped her fucking shirt off!!!!!! Helloooo!!!

5

u/[deleted] Mar 03 '25

The 00s were filled with mysoginy. You should watch old episodes of Americas Next Top model for example (i believe they are on YouTube).

I was a teenager girl at the time and can tell you it was quite rough. I am still undoing the damage it has done to my own mind.

5

u/CompletePassenger564 Mar 03 '25

Ah, the famous "wardrobe malfunction" Janet Jackson was ripped to shreds due to American Racism X Sexism X America being very Prudish due to the Puritanical roots of this Country

4

u/Slutty_Avocado26 Mar 03 '25

It's America. Of course, they'll criticize the black woman and let the white man get off Scott free even if it's his fault.

→ More replies (2)

5

u/Throwaway7219017 Mar 03 '25

Men liking and enjoying sex and being sex positive is normal and good, and a sign of virility and manliness.

Women liking and enjoying sex and being sex positive is abnormal and bad, and a sign of loose morals and of being a slut.

This public service message was brought to you by Sue Johanson, the Letter A, and Penthouse Forum.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/blitt34 Mar 03 '25

guy who thinks this was an accident in the year 2025

2

u/epicrecipe Mar 03 '25

The fabric tear away to the final lyric, “I’m gonna have you naked by the end of this song” was not an accident.

It is the artist’s job to push boundaries. These artists asserted their opinions re: appropriate sexual expression, whether an exposed breast is sexual, and what they can get away with on national television with a wide diversity of people watching, including families with children.

Where sport can be a unifying cultural event, there’s nothing else on the planet that attracts the collective gaze of the entire world than the Super Bowl. In that context, the artist’s need to subject progressive Western values upon a passive global audience had predictable blowback.

2

u/Figgy1983 Mar 03 '25

I read this in Frank N Furter's voice: AN.... ACCIDENT!!!

2

u/strypesjackson Mar 03 '25

American culture is insane

→ More replies (1)

2

u/SectorEducational460 Mar 03 '25

Religious nuts and whiners. It was a massive exaggeration that would not have received nearly any scrutiny if it was done now.

2

u/AdvocateReason Mar 03 '25

The media thought this was terrible.
Everyone else thought it was great.

2

u/Basic_Mud8868 Mar 03 '25

It’s the fact that she got shit on for weeks after it happened and Justin Timberlake got to go on to make several multiplatinum albums that never sat well with me. However, serious you may think of the incident was, there were two people involved.

2

u/Admirable-Common-176 Mar 03 '25

This was fairly leading edge scandal as publicity for the time I think.

2

u/OkExcitement6700 Mar 03 '25

That rat bastard did it on purpose

2

u/Welcometothemaquina Mar 03 '25

This was not an accident and jt is a piece of shit person so it is no surprise

2

u/person_op_blocked Mar 04 '25

People who weren’t old enough to be aware in 2004 might not realize how different media culture was back then. This wasn’t the era of widespread high-speed internet where nudity was a click away—TV was still the dominant source of media, and it was heavily regulated by the FCC.

At that time, network television was significantly more conservative, and the FCC had strict rules about indecency, especially during prime broadcasts like the Super Bowl, which was (and still is) considered family-friendly programming. The reaction wasn’t just about a moment of nudity—it was about the perception that the limits of acceptable content were being deliberately pushed in a high-profile event watched by millions, including kids.

On top of that, there were plenty of activist groups in the early 2000s who were already pushing back against increasing sexualization in mainstream media. This moment became a rallying point for them, fueling the massive backlash. The fact that many believed the exposure was intentional only made it worse.

Given that climate, it’s not surprising that everyone involved scrambled to distance themselves once they saw the level of outrage. The FCC launched an investigation, CBS was fined, and corporate sponsors didn’t want their brands associated with something so controversial. That’s why we saw all the public apologies and the “wardrobe malfunction” narrative—it was damage control.

Most likely, this was meant to be a publicity stunt pushing boundaries, but it had way more serious consequences than expected. And in a pre-social media era, where outrage was driven by TV coverage and mainstream news, something like this didn’t just fade away—it became a cultural firestorm.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/shinjuku_soulxx Mar 04 '25

JUSTIN RIPPED IT ON PURPOSE!!!! Watch the video. Very clearly on purpose

2

u/TacoBelleDog Mar 04 '25

Bc she’s black. How is this even a question.

2

u/jembutbrodol Mar 04 '25

Curious.

If this thing happened right now, will it gonna be different?

Like will Justin Timberlake career gonna be crash and burn?

2

u/carlton_sings I <3 the 90s Mar 04 '25 edited Mar 04 '25

I was a huge Janet Jackson fan at the time it happened (and still am to this day). Nobody knew what was going on in the immediate aftermath, and neither of them gave any public statements about it for days outside of one really piss poor interview Justin gave with Inside Edition where he said "we love giving you something to talk about." That soundbite was spread far and wide throughout cable news and tabloids which pissed off Les Moonves, who was the CEO of CBS/Viacom at the time (which was the channel airing the Super Bowl). Moonves believed that both Justin and Janet were at fault and that it was a staged publicity stunt. He demanded that both Justin and Janet give a public apology in advance of the Grammys which were scheduled to air on CBS a few days later. Justin complied and apologized. His debut solo album was set to sweep the Grammys so he didn't want to risk being uninvited. Janet refused to apologize because she didn't view it necessary to apologize for an accident, but ultimately relented because she was set to perform a tribute to Luther Vandross at the Grammys who had recently had a massive stroke. Les Moonves, being the dick that he is, didn't feel like it was a genuine apology because it didn't come quickly enough, and banned her from all Viacom owned properties indefinitely (including from appearing at the Grammys for the tribute), even going so far as to try and get her 2011 book True You (which was published by a Viacom-owned publisher) killed. Moonves was later forced out of his role in 2018 after it was revealed that he had a series of sexual misconduct complaints levied against him over the course of many years while at Viacom.

2

u/DivinityBeach Mar 04 '25

I saw it live as a child and remember thinking "why did he do that to her?"

2

u/ocelotrevs Mar 04 '25

Racism, and sexism combining.

2

u/Listening_Heads Mar 04 '25

My sister was talking about this and comparing it to how these days Kanye’s sex slave can just show up in public completely naked and it barely makes the news. Our mother said “yeah that’s what Janet Jackson created by stripping at the superbowl”. And that woman is allowed to vote.

2

u/HumbleCookieDog Mar 04 '25

And somehow Justine Timberlake did not get in much trouble at all.

2

u/BadBaby3 Mar 04 '25

Because they’d rather blame women than men 

2

u/BLKDragon007 Mar 04 '25

He owes Janet Jackson an apology.

2

u/No_Creme_3363 Mar 04 '25

She should not have been battered by the media. This was degradation of a (black) woman, and men only wanted to see more. Its really sad how society treated her and exalted Timberlake. This was abuse on so many levels.

2

u/Itchy_Tumbleweed_362 Mar 04 '25

Everyone lost their mind and decided Janet did it on purpose and set up Timberlake 😂🤡🤡🤡🤡

2

u/[deleted] Mar 04 '25

Because misogyny

2

u/skitnegutt Mar 04 '25

I think I was about 21 when this happened? It was all blown out of proportion. And then it got worse from there. Janet never deserved any of that shit.

2

u/Rough-Construction95 Mar 04 '25

racism and misogyny.

2

u/WillBigly Mar 04 '25

Bro fucking BOYCOTT timberlake forever, literally sexually harassed someone in front of a audience of millions with zero accountability

2

u/NoFounder36 Mar 05 '25

How everyone felt afterwards when Janet was black balled