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Defend ABC and Nicolette Sheridan while
You Still Can
Sometimes a story comes along that is more than
news, more than a soundbyte to be considered
briefly before moving on. The recent uproar over a
Monday Night Football commercial with a semi-nude
Nicolette Sheridan is just such a story.
In case you haven't heard already, the
commercial was a cross promotion for ABC's new
series Desperate Housewives and Monday Night
Football. In it, Nicolette Sheridan playfully
attempts to get the attention of Philadelphia
Eagles star Terrell Owens by dropping the towel
she's wearing and jumping into his arms. Sheridan
was shown only from the back, and was never nude
anyway. But this, according to the flood of
protests received by the FCC, is "pornographic",
"offensive" and will possibly earn ABC a $32,500
fine for "obscenity".
ABC backpedalled instantly, apologizing for the
spot and saying that it was "inappropriate and
unsuitable for our 'Monday Night Football'
audience." They were just one of a chorus of voices
adding their opinion to the skit, including Michael
Powell, chairman of the FCC, who alluded to the
fact that Disney owns ABC by saying "I wonder if
Walt Disney would be proud."
Indianopolis Colts coach Tony Dungy expressed
his disdain for the spot, even going as far as to
say it was also racist because Owens is black and
Sheridan white. He was most concerned about his
teenage sons, however, saying "When we turn on
'Monday Night Football,' you're expecting to see
football. I want my boys to watch that. I don't
want them to see what they saw."
This is just the latest in a series of sobering
events involving censorship, political correctness
gone mad, and the mass moralizing hysteria that
seems to be gripping the United States. Just last
week, 66 television stations were too afraid to air
the compelling war drama Saving Private Ryan uncut
because of its use of foul language. And no one
will soon forget the outrage and $550 000 fine
aimed at CBS for their accidental exposure of Janet
Jackson's nipple. But this latest incident is
perhaps the most frightening of them all.
If we now live in a culture where the mere
glimpse of a woman's unclothed back is offensive,
where the mere suggestion that a football player
might want to spend time with a woman rather than
throw a pigskin around a field with other men is
considered indecent - we're all in serious trouble.
When a man wants his sons to watch the inanity of a
bunch of grown men spending their lives playing a
game but doesn't 'want them to see what they saw',
as though it were footage from a crime scene - as a
woman, I feel myself growing angrier and more than
a little afraid.
How long will it be before women themselves are
branded 'offensive'? Certainly we have the
puritanical Right making every assault they can
against even the most innocent and joyful sexuality
- how long can it be before even the sight of a
woman is called obscene and damaging to
children?
Does anyone care how Nicolette Sheridan must be
feeling right about now? After all, she's
responsible for all this 'indecency', right? She
let people see her spine, after all. She let people
think, even for a moment, even within the confines
of a commercial, that a grown man might appreciate
her feminity. She served as a reminder to all the
so-called red blooded men watching a sport built on
testoterone that there are other, more enjoyable
uses for that hormone. And she did it all freely,
happily, with a good sense of humor. What an
outrage.
What lesson are women to take from this latest
attack on female beauty, sexuality - on femaleness
itself? Should we be getting fitted out for burquas
now, in preparation for the time when fanatical
religious groups of all faiths decide that the only
good woman is an invisible one? Should we all cower
away from public attention of any kind - conceal
our bodies, refrain from appearing on television or
the radio (goodness knows our voices can be sexy,
what about all the poor children listening?), lock
ourselves away so that kids aren't scarred for life
by the sight of us?
This isn't an issue of decency, or virtue, or
morality. This isn't the kind of thing that can be
dismissed by a cavalier "it isn't women we hate,
it's indecency." Hating the sight of a nude,
semi-nude or fully clothed woman is hating the
sight of a woman, period. Believing that children
will be harmed by the sight of a nude woman -
forgetting that it was a nude woman who conceived
them and a nude woman who bore them - is tantamount
to believing that children will be harmed by the
sight of a woman, period. Labelling the flirtatious
interplay between a grown man and woman (of
whatever race, it should go without saying) 'filth'
is nothing more than an attempt to label all
romantic and sexual chemistry between the sexes
'filth'. And it is these medieval, hysterical ideas
that fuelled the flames of the witchhunts and
inquisitions and which will reduce us to the Dark
Ages again.
There is an object lesson here for anyone who
cares to see it. Women are only truly free in
societies in which they are not restricted,
loathed, distrusted and abused because of their
very womanhood. And in societies which view women
this way - the ones that cloak their women in
suffocating bags, render them rightless, murder
them for the slightest violation of a barbaric
moral code - it all began with a zealous
condemnation of women's beauty. Now it is beginning
to happen here.
I, for one, applaud Nicolette Sheridan for being
brave and beautiful, fearless and feminine. I would
encourage my children to see her commercial. I
would gladly take on my parental responsibilty of
answering any questions they might have about it,
instead of leaving it up to the religious right to
decide for them how evil it is. And I will defend
with my dying breath the right of any woman to
revel in her feminity, and live in peace because of
it.
Recommended Action
Send an e-mail to the FCC:
Michael K. Powell, Chairman
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, S.W.
Washington, DC 20554
Dear Chairman Powell,
I applaud ABC's recent airing of the playful
commercial featuring Nicolette Sheridan and Terrell
Owens. I found it an enjoyable example and
re-affirmation of our great country's willingness
to allow women complete personhood in every way,
including sexually and romantically. And I support
everyone involved. The FCC's power to impose
financial sanction in this case amount to nothing
less than censorship of women's rights and
freedoms.I ask that you not find that ABC violated
any indecency codes, and that you not punish them
with fines for merely celebrating what makes men
and women attracted to each other. Stop the
onslaught of overzealous censorship, religious
fundamentalism, and moral imperialism, and make a
stand for those of us who value women, their
beauty, and the life-affirming interplay between
the sexes.
(Feel free to modify and sign it.)
Primary Phone: 888.225.5322
Fax: 202.418.0710
E-Mail: Michael K.
Powell
Additional coverage:
indystar.com
washingtonpost.com
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Related Topics: The
FCC
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