Justice For Janet: 10 Years After the “Wardrobe Malfunction”

In the Beginning, There Was a Nipple: It’s been 10 years since Nipplegate. TEN YEARS. Marin Cogan wrote about it for ESPN The Magazine this week, and she dips into the… peculiar way in which the backlash seemed to focus on Janet more than Justin:

Some critics saw gender and race at play and thought Timberlake ducked the heat. In a 2004 remix of the Jadakiss song “Why?” rapper Common asks, “Why did Justin sell Janet out and go to the Grammys?” Timberlake himself said he believed Jackson had taken a disproportionate amount of the backlash. “I probably got 10 percent of the blame,” he told MTV. “I think America’s probably harsher on women, and I think America is, you know, unfairly harsh on ethnic people.” After initially apologizing for the incident, Jackson told Oprah in 2006 she regretted taking the blame for an unplanned accident. Informed of Timberlake’s comments, Jackson smiled uncomfortably and confirmed that she felt her co-star hadn’t done enough to defend her. “Certain things you just don’t do to friends,” she said.

A decade later, Timberlake still has no comment. [ESPN The Magazine]