[WikiEN-l] Equating very different things

[dpbsmith at verizon.net]

> From: Rick <giantsrick13 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Titanic, illustrated
>
> --- Joseph Osborne <josephosborne2005 at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>> We had our Familys watching the super bowl when she
>> did that.  Also we did not take the children to see
>> the Titanic!
>
> And?  How does a couple of seconds of bare breast harm
> anybody?

Actually, I'm surprised that anybody would equate these two scenes.

In _Titanic_, Kate Winslet's character Rose asks--practically 
demands--that Jack sketch her in the nude. The activity is _very_ 
clearly consensual, and is initiated by Rose. Although one breast is 
exposed, the two characters do not even touch. It doesn't strike _me_ 
as any more erotic than, say, Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner rolling 
around on the beach in _From Here to Eternity_. One scene has more 
taboo skin exposure, but one has more touching and kissing and erotic 
body language.

I wouldn't want to have kids see Titanic, but not because Jack paints 
Rose in the nude, or because the two of them steam up the window of 
that 1912 Renault. I'm more concerned about the passengers falling long 
distances and injuring themselves as the ship tips toward the vertical, 
the scenes of blue corpses floating in the water, and above all the 
scenes of kids being separated from their fathers as they're put into 
lifeboats,

Now, apart from the number of exposed nipples, the Superbowl incident 
is very different.

Janet Jackson, or Janet Jackson's "character" if you like, voluntarily 
chooses to stick around while Justin Timberlake's "character" is 
getting all worked up and singing rather aggressively about his 
intention to "have you naked by the end of this song." At the end, and 
apparently without her permission, he rips off a piece of her costume. 
A mini-drama of a woman choosing to stay in an abusive relationship and 
getting raped? No. But it's not just a little boy chanting "I see 
London, I see France, I see Janet's underpants," either.

--
Daniel P. B. Smith, dpbsmith at verizon.net
"Elinor Goulding Smith's Great Big Messy Book" is now back in print!
Sample chapter at http://world.std.com/~dpbsmith/messy.html
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