By Calleigh Hoffman
On February 4th, 1986, Janet Jackson released her third studio album “Control”. Being her first hit album, it kick-started a boundary breaking career that would set the blueprint for female artists like Britany Spears, Rhianna, and Miley Cyrus. Janet Jackson, for twenty years, made steady progress in normalizing feminine, black sexuality. This isn’t to downplay the legacy of her female peers in the industry- that of Madonna, who openly expressed her sensuality, or Whitney Houstan, who rose to popularity as a black singer in a white-dominated pop industry. But no one can or could deny that there’s just something about Janet that draws you and makes you interested in her story. She was unique in that she would be promiscuous and unabashed in her music videos, most of the time artsy and containing a deeper narrative- but at the same time appear shy and humble in interviews. The consumers of her music and media were perplexed that someone so unashamedly intune with her sexuality could at the same time be an intelligent, respectable woman. But as you’ll see, some were not so enthusiastic about an intelligent black woman expressing her sexuality for other intelligent black women.
On sunday, february 1st, 2004, while performing on stage with justin timberlake during the super bowl, Janet Jackson was exposed on live television for half a second. This half second alone would serve as enough cannon fodder for the music industry to strip her of her progress and blacklist her career, something she is just recently recovering from. I won't waste your time and tell you stories about a woman just out of her prime, clawing for relevance- because I can't think of a single reason why the Janet Jackson would ever need to grasp for attention.
The real scandal here was not the wardrobe malfunction, but the reaction to this performance. Janet was immediately blacklisted. Albums and singles removed from platforms, contract cancellations- all because Janet didn’t apologize to the network (like her counterpart in this controversy, Timberlake did) for an incident she deserved no blame for. This reaction is exactly what it looks like; an industry run by white men, finally getting the chance to stick it to a successful black woman who achieved success without diluting or mocking her identity. After the incident, Janet released an apology to the public, something she would later admit to regret. This apology was seen as the equivalent to an admission of guilt. The world had been waiting for her to give them a reason to backlash- to punish her for not letting whiteness or masculinity be a part of her art- and they had finally found it. Janet would continue to release music, to stand up for what she’s always fought for in her industry, but we will most likely never see her with that same amount of fame and adoration she held before that performance.
Janet, almost twenty years later, is finally having her narrative believed. A late arrival, but a step nonetheless. She has kept a humble attitude about her effect on the music industry, and continues to be open and unashamed. We can only hope that she and artists like and inspired by her continue to perpetuate her messages.
Source: getty images https://www.vogue.com/article/super-bowl-2018-halftime-show-janet-jackson-justin-timberlake
Comments