Janet Jackson
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Ok, going from left to right, top to bottom, we have Janet Jackson in a modern, techno brank (with the gag removed), Hillary Dwyer in a more primitive version of the brank in the Avengers TV show episode "Murdersville" (with the gag included), Janet in a catsuit with her collared, sex harnessed female dancers, a shot of Janet showing what a very nice body she has, Janet portrayed in a skintight PVC kink suit, Janet with her slave dancers who are wearing sex harnesses and head harnesses (sans gags), and Janet wearing a skintight dress in a shiny metal cage for "Black Box Magazine." Janet Jackson is one artist who is not afraid of to use controversy to her own advantage. She of Super Bowl nip slip fame, destroying the minds of millions of adolescents with the sight of her nippular jewelry, would of course not be afraid to use bondage imagery to her advantage, and of course she has. In a promo photo, Jackson wears a brank secured by a metal cage that attaches to a collar, basically caging her head. It's a fricking brank! It's actually a fairly neat trick visually speaking. The gag element of the brank has been removed, and the straight-on view of the camera takes you straight into Jackson's wide-open mouth. In an image for the cover of "Black Box" magazine, Jackson is seen caged, and in other images she is seen wearing vaguely kinky gear while her female dancers wear what are clearly head harnesses (sans gags, sadly enough) and strapply leather sex suits. And upcoming album called "Discipline" has cover art that shows her dressed in a skintight PVC kink suit. Clearly, Jackson is following in Rihanna's steps and embracing the bondage. Considering the history of real, actual slavery in the U.S., I'm kind of surprised that black female vocalists are adopting bondage imagery. Perhaps it is a way of saying that the bondage gear that was once used to oppress their distant relatives in actual slavery no longer has the power it once did ... it has become the same sort of sexual play toy that is is for people whose relatives were not so oppressed. Or perhaps the bondage imagery has additional power and sexiness because of its (now safely distant) history. I don't know, but hell, I'm always glad to speculate. |
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