Over 20 years ago, sports history was made in the weirdest possible way. In 2004, both Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson performed together at the Super Bowl halftime show. During the performance, Jackson’s nipple came out, triggering a shockwave of controversy that continues to this day.
Much of the shock surrounding this moment has stayed the same over the years. But one major thing has changed: whereas people once blamed Janet Jackson for the so-called “wardrobe malfunction,” people are increasingly blaming Justin Timberlake for what went down. What changed after all this time, and what are people now saying about these two controversial musicians? Keep reading to find out!
A major Super Bowl team-up
Every year, the Super Bowl delivers a performance from one of the hottest musicians in the country. For example, Bad Bunny will be performing at the next Super Bowl, and there’s already major buzz (not to mention major controversy) about his upcoming appearance. Back in 2004, though, the Super Bowl upped the ante by giving us not one but two major superstar performers: Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake.
Together, they sang Timberlake’s hit song “Rock Your Body,” and everything went fine for most of the tune. But things went south when Timberlake sang the lyrics “gonna have you naked by the end of this song.” Seemingly matching actions to words, he then grabbed Jackson’s breast, intending to pull her top down and show everyone her lacy bra.
Unfortunately, he managed to pull down both her corset and her bra. Just like that, Jackson’s nipple was exposed to millions of viewers, and her career was never the same.
Janet Jackson took all the blame
It didn’t take long for this Super Bowl surprise to get a cutesy nickname: “nipplegate.” The name was meant to remind everyone what a scandal this exposed nipple was. But what was surreal was that Janet Jackson effectively took all the blame. Even though it was Justin Timberlake who had exposed her breast, countless people blamed Jackson as if she had suddenly decided to flash the entire world.
‘It didn’t help that Jackson’s team had promised “surprises” during the halftime show, which made many think that this scandal was planned in advance between Jackson and Timberlake. And Jackson’s career paid the price: she was effectively blacklisted from public performances for a very long time, and she was pressured into withdrawing from appearing at the Grammys. This whole time, speculation that she was behind it all increased, with many claiming this was all a stunt to help promote the sales of her upcoming album.
At the time, it seemed like this scandal would haunt Jackson for the rest of her life. Eventually, though, something incredible happened: the public began to forgive Jackson for Nipplegate.
The public forgives Jackson for ‘nipplegate’
Many years after Nipplegate, almost everyone saw this bizarre scandal in a new light. Before that, the narrative was that Janet Jackson desired to expose herself for any number of reasons ranging from the desire to shock audiences to her need to increase future album sales. However, in the wake of #MeToo and other feminist-led discourse, the public largely forgave Jackson for this bizarre scandal.
There are many reasons for this, of course. Some felt like Justin Timberlake deserved all the blame, which is why he is now the one doing the apologizing (more on this soon). Others felt that even if Jackson was somehow at fault for what happened, she didn’t deserve to have her career nearly destroyed. Some even criticized the racial component of this scandal and how it boiled down to mostly white critics blaming a Black rock star for doing something they didn’t approve of.
In this way, Jackson is starting to get her career back on track after decades of taking the blame. And in a truly ironic twist, it’s now Timberlake who is apologizing for what he did over 20 years ago.
Justin Timberlake is now the one apologizing
Some fans were skeptical of Justin Timberlake from the very beginning of all this Super Bowl drama. That’s because he never really spoke up in Jackson’s defense at the height of this controversy. Far from it: whenever he did discuss the scandal during interviews, he’d make jokes about the whole thing. And if anyone ever pushed back against him, he would quickly try to shut down the discussion to focus on talking about his career. Considering his career didn’t really take off until after this scandal, some felt that Timberlake effectively threw Jackson under the bus in order to advance his career.
Later, however, Timberlake was the one asking for forgiveness. As reported by Us Weekly, he made a now-deleted Instagram post that read, “I am deeply sorry for the times in my life where my actions contributed to the problem, where I spoke out of turn, or did not speak up for what was right.” Continuing, he wrote, “I understand that I fell short in these moments and in many others and benefited from a system that condones misogyny and racism.”
Timberlake deleted the post, so maybe he changed his mind about what it said. But taken at face value, it looks like he is working on analyzing his actions and realizing the people he exploited on the way to success. If so, he may be one step closer to something we all want to see: him giving a full apology to Janet Jackson!