FanHouse JanetJackson

There was plenty of hype coming into Bruce Springsteen's Super Bowl XLIII halftime show performance, as he said he wanted to have the "greatest Super Bowl halftime show ever." That's a little bit tough to achieve considering that both Prince and Tom Petty killed in recent years -- not to mention that we all saw one of Janet Jackson's unmentionables a few years back. (Not that that was "great", but it was still something.)

But all told, The Boss was still, well, The Boss.

I thought we as a nation had reached our low point with our public fear and loathing of nipples when we all freaked out about Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction. But it turns out we could get even lower.

Even if I can sort of, kind of, a little bit understand why people might have a problem with a woman's nipple on TV for a split second at halftime of the Super Bowl, I really can't imagine any objection to the exposure of male nipples. And yet the Orlando Sentinel reports that an objection to male nipples led to every nipple being airbrushed out of a banner to advertise the upcoming WrestleMania XXIV.

The banner, which is on the side of a building in downtown Orlando, shows boxer Floyd Mayweather and several male pro wrestlers shirtless, and all of them have had their nipples airbrushed out. Why? The Sentinel's Scott Maxwell writes:

Mayor Buddy Dyer claimed to have the, um, skinny.

"Apparently there's an ordinance that prohibits them from being displayed," he said.

"For men's nipples?" I replied, immediately becoming uncomfortable about discussing such a thing with Buddy.

He shrugged, saying, "It does seem a little overboard."

Yes, it does. Mayor Dyer was apparently wrong about the ordinance, but right that the nipples were airbrushed out because a city official asked the WWE not to be too "provocative." My feeling is the same as Jerry Seinfeld's: So what? It's a nipple. A little round circular protuberance. What's the big deal?