Le Boob Tube

I hear tell that something exciting happened during the Super Bowl a few days ago. I didn't get to see the game myself because we've got a 6 hour time difference from the East Coast, and the game would have ended around 4am. As I had class the next day and am generally still a responsible student, I opted out. But let's see, what was all that hubbub about? Was it the exciting, hard-hitting game, that came down to the final 4 seconds? Was it a bumper crop of outrageously expensive ads? No, it was a flash of flesh, or a "wardrobe malfunction", or something to that effect. A woman's bare breast was exposed, along with it's decorative nipple-piercing (Yes, it's quite clear from the close-up photos that I got via email --Thanks, Dad!-- that it's a piercing, there is a metal rod straight thru Janet's nipple. Ouch!) According to Lycos (and I imagine every other search engine), it has now become the most searched for subject in search engine history, surpassing "September 11". Tivo reports that it was the most replayed bit of TV since they starting keeping track of these things several years ago. And all on public television.

And the French all... yawn. And shake their heads at those Americans getting all worked up about a little bare skin on TV. Actually, the vast majority of Fronchy folk probably don't know about the Flash Seen Around The World, because believe it or not, it wouldn't make the news. Or if it did, it wouldn't be about the incident but all of the American reaction to it. Nudity and sexuality are just viewed differently here. Right now there is an ad in practically every Metro (subway) station in Paris by Au Printemps, one of the Grand department stores (think the NYC Bloomingdales or Saks). The ad features a ivory-skinned young woman sitting on a washing machine wearing nothing but a gauzy, short bridal veil. Viewed from the back, her bare bottom is in full view, as the already-transparent veil doesn't even go down that far. This is not out of the ordinary. Actually the most nudity I've seen is in the display window of practically every corner pharmacy, where the products being hawked are for creams and toners and other goop that will eradicate cellulite, enhance busoms, and generally take years off. But the French penchant for all these beauty products are for another post.

But for a more apropos comparison to the Super Bowl incident, take as an example the movie that Cathy and I watched on TV this past fall. It's called "1900", and is a French film by Bernardo Bertolucci that came out in 1976. I won't bore you with the details, but there was some nudity, including the full-frontal nudity of two men in the same bed. And before your naughty minds jump to conclusions, there was an equally naked woman between them in the bed. And again, before your naughty minds stray into taboo territory (am I too late?) nothing was happening. They were all just lying there, talking. The weird thing was that we recognized both of the men (and no, not because they were naked). Gerard Depardieu was one, but no surprise there, he's been in every French film ever made in the past 30 years, right? But the other one was more of a shock. Robert DeNiro. Did we know DeNiro was ever in a French film, ever fully-naked in a French film? Did we know DeNiro could speak French? Did we know that according to the IMDb, that DeNiro and Depardieu have made FOUR films together? Burt Lancaster was also in the film, as was Donald Sutherland. But back to my point. I do not raise this example because there was nudity in a French film. No, nothing unusual about that. (And no, it's not required. There are plenty of French films with no nudity whatsoever). The point is that the film was being shown, unedited, on a public television station, during prime time. From 8-10pm, which I'm guessing falls within the time that Janet and Justin were doing their thing.

And you would think that all of this exposure to nudity would make the French (and Europeans in general) all hypersexual. Isn't the case. In fact, they are much more laid back about sexuality and sex than Americans. In an unexpected twist, the French think that Americans are the ones who are sex-crazed...