When a nude Nicollette Sheridan leapt into Terrell Owens's arms, the resulting fallout included shock, outrage and, above all … moral indifference.
Well, the latter stance was adopted largely by the media. Most writers and broadcasters chuckled at ABC's neutral zone violation. Sure, they chastised the network for the ill timing of its Monday Night Football pre-game skit, which showed the Desperate Housewives actress propositioning and then jumping on Owens, the Eagles's attention-hungry receiver. Kids were up watching, you know. Mostly, though, the morally deficient pundits took no offense at the actual content of ABC's shameless self-promotion. In fact, the Kansas City Star's Jason Whitlock, Fox Sports Radio's C.J. Silas (a woman), and several of their colleagues said they were not at all offended by the skit itself.
This presents a problem, of course. That problem is: how can you condemn something you find nothing wrong with? Apparently, there are different moral standards for adults and children. Such charades are useless and potentially dangerous in the long term. Kids who are told by their parents and other authority figures that casual sex isn't OK — or are rather shielded from the reality of it or any healthy discussion about it — will soon become disillusioned upon reaching adulthood when they realize they'd been raised by hypocrites.
Adults, especially those running the networks, often think morality is an age-appropriate concept. The older you get, the lower your standards.
As I've pointed out before, sex and sports are certainly not strangers, but the Sheridan-Owens thing took it to another level. First of all, a football game is being used as a tool to promote a smutty TV show that feels a need to rely solely on sex and family discord instead of good writing and acting. It's another low watermark in the sickening trend of programming plugs during sporting events. Secondly, it reinforces tired stereotypes of athletes as sex-crazed Neanderthals and suburbanite women as, well, desperate housewives.
Colts coach Tony Dungy, an outspoken Christian, took great exception with the message that was sent. Not only did he (correctly) think it was mindless drivel, he also took issue with its racial undertones.
“I think it's stereotypical in looking at the players, and on the heels of the Kobe Bryant incident I think it's very insensitive,” Dungy said. “That athletes are sexual predators and that that stuff is more important than what's going on on the field. That a guy was more concerned with that than the game, that's a terrible message to send.
“I'm particularly sensitive to that. It could have been any player and I would have been outraged, but being an African-American, it particularly hurt me.”
That's quite a contrast to those whom I've heard claim that the only reason people may have been offended was because a black man and white woman were the parties involved. A radio listener tried to say, with little eloquence, that the public's outcry over the skit was a sign of racism's continued pervasiveness in society (eloquence is the convergence of expression and insight, and it's something radio callers and radio hosts rarely possess).
And it should be noted that any feminist defense of ABC's actions would, as with all feminist arguments, be self-defeating. Feminists want both sexual freedom (read: selective whoredom) and the respect of men. A paradox, indeed.
ABC has since called the skit “inappropriate,” which makes me wonder what they thought of it before it hit the airwaves. I'd really rather they not apologize at all. They should have said, “We stand behind that segment, because it elicited the desired reaction and should greatly improve the ratings of Desperate Housewives. And we actually hope your kids saw it so that they too may become desensitized to our kind of programming.” I'd prefer such honesty over bumbling, insincere apologies.
T.O. finally apologized for his role, but I'm sure he thinks it's somehow Jeff Garcia's fault.
I would mostly like to hear an apology from the media members who softly “condemned” ABC. If you didn't find it offensive, if you laughed at it, if you were unashamedly titillated by it, then just say so and don't wag your finger at the Disney-owned network. Don't try to claim the moral high ground when you're sinking — to borrow a phrase from Chuck Colson — in a convictionless swamp.
(This article courtesy of Agape Press).
