Jordin Sparks at the 2008 MTV VMA red carpet.
As I was watching the 2008 Video Music Awards on MTV last night, I couldn’t help but notice the controversy that erupted on stage after British comedian and host Russell Brand (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) made several cracks about the Jonas Brothers and their promise rings. Jordin Sparks defended the concept of promise rings in an impromptu remark while introducing T.I. with John Legend, saying,”I just have one thing to say about promise rings. It’s not bad to wear a promise ring, because not everybody, guy or girl, wants to be a slut.”
Brand later made an apology during the show, but I thought the exchange made the evening more entertaining. I didn’t plan on blogging about the awards until I read the comments that AOL users had made about the ordeal. Here are some of the completely ignorant, disgusting, and concerning comments:
“Is she jealous? Why do singers and celebrities shove their sex (or lack of) lives down our throats? When she looses 100pds. or so, she too can have a chance at a sex life!!!”
“Jordin Sparks seems to be sexually frustrated that no one is tapping her fat a**. This whole thing about promise rings….. that s*** is GAY!! Ok? but I would expect no less from those f***, the Jonas Brothers.”
There are many more obscene sentiments than these. I’m a born and raised atheist, and I certainly don’t wear a promise ring, but I support others who wear them because it is a sign of possessing morals. The Jonas Brothers wearing promise rings is a good thing because males often don’t, and because their fanbase is young girls who need a better idol than Miley Cyrus. Then again, I think Russell Brand had a right to joke about them because it was the MTV Awards, not the Nickledeon Awards. The jokes are going to be more adult and off-color, and you have to accept that when you decide to attend or watch the show.
Jordin Sparks certainly did not need to get up there and defend promise rings because it was merely a joke, though a rather humorless one. Yet I admire her courage for speaking up, for being brave enough to admonish the evening’s host. She doesn’t need the offensive, grammatically incorrect bashings of uneducated, hypocritical, chauvinistic commentators. Do you really not have a better response? Must you attack a role model for young girls for being “jealous” and a “fat a**”? Plus, didn’t she make the show more exciting? Russell Brand was pathetically unfunny.
