Honestly, I didn’t think it could get worse than last year.There was no possible way the NFL could do worse than hiring “Maroon 5” to headline last year’s Super Bowl show.
I was wrong.
At first, the decision didn’t seem problematic. Columbian pop star Shakira, and superstar Jennifer Lopez had the makings of an incredible night of music. Both have some of the biggest hits of the 2000s, Shakira with “Hips Don’t Lie” and “Wherever, Whenever” and J-LO with “Let’s Get Loud” and “On the Floor.”
Both are also talented dancers and vocalists— and that talent was on display Sunday night.
Upon watching her performance, there can be no doubt that J-LO was born to perform. Her stage-presence was spectacular, her vocals superb. She owned every bit of that stage.
The talent, however, was not the focal point. Instead of capitalizing on their talents, J-LO and Shakira exploited their sex appeal. To Shakira’s credit, her costumes were not nearly as bad as her counterparts. But her choice of dance moves negate any points she gets for costume choice.
Simply put, J-LO and Shakira’s performance crossed a line.
Fans of Sunday’s show could argue that most other Super Bowl halftime performances headlined by women involved less than modest clothing. And they would not be wrong.There is, however, a distinct difference between those performances and J-LO; those artists were not dancing on a stripper pole or suggestively writhing around on the stage. The smaller costumes merely allowed for easier movement and quicker costume changes. Those previous halftime shows focused on vocal talent and entertainment prowess. When Madonna performed in 2012, her show had all the trappings of a Super Bowl halftime show, sexy costuming and provocative dancing included. But, there’s a major difference between a few standard Madonna dance moves and J-LO hanging off a stripper pole wearing a small rhinestone diaper.
As soon as the show ended, the internet blew up with claims of “empowerment” and “female beauty.” Those claims, however, miss the mark entirely. The performance was not empowering nor was it beautiful. It instead showcased the degradation of women by the modern feminist movement.
J-LO and Shakira were not a celebration of women as human beings. They did not celebrate talent. They did not celebrate authentic beauty. They instead sold women the idea that their raw, authentic selves are not enough. That their talent, their musical prowess, their accomplishments, their brains cannot stand alone.
In the modern feminist world, those incredible achievements must be masked by a woman’s sexual allure, and she is not only free to capitalize on it but also must in order to stay relevant.
