The Blog

Written by: Emma Thorp

In the musical entertainment industry, few entertainment opportunities top the coveted slot of the Super Bowl Halftime Show. Artists from Prince to Katy Perry to Janet and Michael Jackson have all dominated massive football stadiums for what was likely the most highly anticipated fifteen minutes of their musical careers. The Super Bowl is an event watched by a very large, and more notably, very diverse portion of America. One of the negative sides to performing at the Super Bowl compared to a special ticketed concert is that it’s truly impossible for any musician to please the entire audience. This year, the Halftime slot was filled by Shakira and Jennifer Lopez, who chose to direct their performance towards empowering women and increasing visibility for Latin America. The high energy performance featured traditional Latin American dance moves, children in light up cages, a large feather cape with Puerto Rico’s flag on one side and America’s on the other, and Shakira playing the drums (that had not a lot to do with representation I just thought it was awesome). 

Shakira opened the show with her hits “She Wolf” and “Hips Dont Lie”, she played the electric guitar, she wore the same outfit as her character from Zootopia, and included many subtle nods to her Lebanese heritage and her Latin American roots. During the latter half of the setlist, JLo performed on a pole exhibiting wild (and I mean WILD) abdominal strength in what she later deemed was a nod to her film “Hustler’s” where she played a stripper alongside Cardi B, and Keke Palmer. Tenderly, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony’s daughter made an appearance in the performance leading a group of children singing “Born in the USA” by Bruce Springsteen. Every performer on the stage appeared empowered and proud of the work they did as they wrapped up what could have been a successful and fun filled entertainment segment featuring two powerful Latina women who look stunningly good for their age. But, because it’s 2020 America and we can’t have nice things, lonely old white men felt the need to weigh in.  

The backlash from the LIV Halftime show was somewhat unprecedented in terms of the sheer quantity of negative comments. Some claimed that the show should have come with a “parental warning”, that the dancing was “NSFW” or not “family-friendly”. Others chose to remind the NFL that children watch the Super Bowl and no one should be so indecently exposed to nudity and sexuality on broadcast television. One man is even threatening to sue the NFL for trillions of dollars because he believes Shakira and JLo have forbidden him from getting into heaven. Ignoring the fact that this is literally the entire plot line to The Hunchback of Notre Dame, it’s important to note that no such legal threat was posed when Adam Levine was half naked during his halftime show, or when Justin Timberlake opened his set with the lyric “Put your filthy hands all over me/you know this ain’t the clean version”. Neither of those shows seemed to generate a huge response from “family oriented” Americans concerned with protecting their children from offensive and over sexualized content. So why is it necessary to shield our children from sexually empowered women, but not men?

The last woman to perform on the Super Bowl stage was Lady Gaga in 2017. Gaga iconically started her show on top of the Texas stadium singing “This Land is Your Land” as a herd of drones formed the American flag in the sky above her. She jumped down to the stage from on top of the stadium, played the piano live, brought on no extra guests during her entire set, and at the end dropped her microphone, jumped off a platform, and caught a football mid air. Still, a large take away from her incredible and powerful performance for many on the internet was the fact that she was “chubby”. Not even taking a breath to discuss her live vocals or technically impressive dancing, America took to Twitter to tell the wildly successful recording artist to either cover up her stomach, or lose a few pounds. 

Once again, ignoring the fact that calling Lady Gaga overweight is ridiculous, female recording artists are always chastised for embracing their sexualities on large scale stages. The Video Music Awards have featured Madonna rolling on the floor in a wedding dress, Lady Gaga hanging herself half naked from the ceiling bleeding from her stomach, and Miley Cyrus provocatively dancing with a large foam finger in what would cause national outrage among the parents of former Hannah Montana fans. What bothers me is not necessarily the conversation surrounding sexuality and empowerment, that conversation has always existed and will exist for much longer, but it’s that the conversation overpowers any comment on the fact that Shakira and JLo were just amazing performers. Even though it bothers me that Adam Levine could dance seductively without a shirt on and not cause an outrage, it bothers me even more that Shakira danced so much better than he did and we are still talking about how it was “inappropriate”. The bottom line is that two minority women dominated the largest stage in the world, they spoke in spanish, they highlighted the problems in border security right now and they left the stage feeling empowered. It’s honestly sexist to keep asking the question of whether or not the Halftime Show was okay to show to our children. There were literal children on stage and people wanted to cry that it wasn’t “family friendly”. When women are in control of their sexuality and take charge of their bodies before large audiences, it is not objectification, it is actually the most basic form of empowerment.