Analysis: Can the SuperBowl make you gay?
Can the SuperBowl make you gay?
Sounds stupid, but just when you thought you could get a week or two off from the SuperBowl, which ended over a month ago, now there are new allegations about the “gayness” of the sporting event.
The US Federal Communications Commission received about 150 complaints regarding the SuperBowl broadcast on CBS last month.
Most of the complaints revolved around the idea that the broadcast was promoting homosexuality.
The popular website The Smoking Gun, has put together a few of the absurd complaints from viewers who are concerned about everything from the half-time show to the commercials.
The site lists that one of the offended viewers thought that the half-time show would have a lasting effect on his son, who “hoped to be a quarterback and now he will turn out gay…Thanks CBS for turning my son GAY.”
Apparently the fact that Prince was performing was considered much more “gay” than the fact that the game involves sweaty guys ramming and tackling each other.
Following SuperBowl 38 CBS had been fined by the FCC for what was seen as crude behaviour by two of its half-time performers.
MTV, who produced the show, set up Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake to provide the entertainment that year.
The two singers were performing a flirtatious duet to end the half-time show, with Timberlake singing, “Rock Your Body.”
The song ends with the lyrics “I’m gonna have you naked by the end of this song, ” and with that, Timberlake reached across Jackson’s leather gladiator outfit and pulled off the covering to her right breast, which was partially obscured by a sun-shaped, metal nipple decoration.
After the supposed wardrobe malfunction where Ms. Jackson showed just why she is “Nasty”, the show toned down the next year by inviting seasoned and “safe” veterans like Sir Paul Macartney.
But CBS is now being criticised for Prince’s half-time performance. Many of the complainants were upset because they believed that the rock star was manipulating his guitar as if it were a penis and that his silhouette was phallic.
Maybe they are just upset that the image was misleading or more of a product of wishful thinking, but either way its not cool to false advertise.
Speaking of advertisement, the now infamous Snicker’s commercial, which had gay rights activists up in arms about its antigay message, in which two mechanics accidentally kiss as they jointly eat a candy bar apparently also offended some antigay football fans as well.
The Smoking Gun posted an email where one such fan wrote that she felt “violated” by the ad. “God knows, I didn’t turn on the SuperBowl expecting to be tricked into watching gay sex!”
One woman reported that her son exclaimed, “What the?!” when he saw the Snickers commercial.
“My husband rushed in to see the men kissing. This violates our religious beliefs and exposes our children to obscene and disgusting material they are taught are wrong. I want something done about this!”
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, a gay rights group, had filed a complaint against Master Foods USA, the company that makes Snickers.
The ad was eventually pulled because it was stated that the ad provoked “violence against gays”.
Most people no doubt saw a stupid commercial, but for those sensitive few who saw it as politically motivated coup on both sides have brought more publicity to the Snickers brand than they could have even dreamed about.
The FCC has not responded to any allegations and no doubt will dismiss the complaints, but after fining CBS for the Jackson incident there is really no telling what they will do.
With all of the injustices in the world it is amazing that there are people out there who actually think that watching the SuperBowl could affect their lives either way.
I for one have yet to meet anyone who has turned gay from watching television, but I am sure if watching Andy Roddick play tennis won’t do it then nothing will.
Perhaps next year the game will be played without contact between the players, so that two men will not be forced to touch each other.
And maybe they should throw squares instead of balls, which would spare everyone from another homosexual controversy.
© Dylan Vox 2006 GaySports.com; All Rights Reserved.
