[WikiEN-l] Equating very different things

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(a)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 Buy it at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1403314063/