Say Anything Blog

Alanis Morissette, making a statement against what she's calling U.S. "censorship" stripped down to a fake body suit complete with nipples and pubic hair at a Canadian music award show.

From the Drudge Report:

Alanis Morissette poked fun at Janet Jackson's notorious breast-baring episode by stripping on stage to reveal cartoonish fake nipples and pubic hair.

Morissette, hosting Canada's annual music awards, said the stunt, in which she appeared in a provocative skin-hugging body-suit was intended to expose US "censorship."

The singer, renowned for her angst-ridden lyrics, told the audience at the Juno Awards in Edmonton "we live in a land where we still think the human body is beautiful and we're not afraid of the female breast."

Morissette let a dressing gown fall to the floor to reveal her "nudity" after an announcer warned : "we can't show nipples on national TV," in an obvious dig at US outrage fanned by Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" at the Superbowl.

"I am proud to be able to stand here and do this," Morissette said, to wild cheers from the audience at Sunday night's show.

I think these people are missing the boat.

I can't speak for everybody, but my problem with Janet's breast exposure at the Super Bowl was that I didn't have any advance notice. If I had seen a warning or something else that would clue me into the fact that there was going to be a bared breast during the broadcast I wouldn't have had a problem with it. Such a warning would have let me make certain decisions, such as whether or not to let the young children in the room watch the performance and whether or not I even wanted to watch it.

I don't want nudity to be censored from movies and shows, I just want to know when its going to occur so I can effectively monitor my child's and my own intake of content. Its my right to do so and further, I feel that this right is more important than any artist's right to be naked on television.

Anti-censorship advocates often tell us that if we don't like what's on television than we should just switch the channel. Unfortunately, its hard to do that when we don't know what's going to be on next.

Update:

Michael Williams had this to say:

It may be hard to believe, but we're not afraid of you, we just don't like you. We find your nakedness and superfluous cursing to be aesthetically unpleasing. We don't want our kids to grow up to be like you, because absent the publicity machine of the fading music industry you're a pathetic, angst-ridden loser. You've written some music some people like, and that's a nice accomplishment, but it gives you about as much moral authority to pontificate on war, censorship, and politics as Humpty (pronounced with an "umpty").

Get off your high-horse and get some perspective on life.

That about sums it up.