Super Bowl half time shows are famous for being hip jutting, pelvic thrusting, booty shakin’ concerts. For as long as I’ve been actually paying attention to the Super Bowl (probably about 7 years now) I’ve always known them as overly sexual. Beyoncé is one of the first ones I remember, and as a young woman I averted my eyes in shock. Now as an adult it’s really a game, how sexual is this show gonna get?
Now this year I had high hopes. Shakira I knew was gonna be funky, but JLo. JLo is my girl. From what I’ve seen on Instagram, she’s been classy and sophisticated. Yeah she was in a movie about strippers recently, sure. But she was a great example of what women at that age can accomplish with fitness. Really, I was making excuses.
So there I was, sitting with my boyfriend and his family. His mother right next to me, his brother cheering Shakira on (because let's be real who wouldn't she's talented and gorgeous). And I said softly, JLo is gonna make it classy. She’s gonna tone it down. She’s got kids and she’s an older role model. Boy did I regret that statement within 5 seconds of her on screen. Immediately she’s got her legs spread wide, her hand in an odd position. Yes she’s got more clothes on than her younger counterpart. Somehow it’s still way more sexual. And then oh my…. she’s wearing almost nothing. Diamonds covering just enough of her body for it to not be censored. Pole dancing for the whole world to see.
Now I know what you’re thinking. “It’s JLo. She was just in a movie about strippers and pole dancers. She has a song about how big her butt is. She’s a strong independent woman she can do what she wants with her body.”
I hear ya! I was saying the same thing as I sat there. But then something shocking happened. Something that made the room go silent at the party I was attending. Like a record screeching to a halt. A young girl singing, backed by other young girls singing. No older than 12. And then young teenage dancers backing them up. My mind spun up and raced. No, Shakira would never. JLo would never. They would never ever get all the men watching them sexually aroused and then put little girls on television with them. They would never get all those men thirsty for them and then put JLo’s daughter front and center. But they did. And that’s the problem.
Here’s the thing, this blog is meant for reporting news and giving insight on the entertainment industry. Children’s entertainment is a big part of that. Yes I know, the half time show isn’t for children. It’s for the adults watching the Super Bowl. The issue is you didn’t keep it strictly for grown ups. You put children on a sexually charged stage in front of a sexually charged audience. And you expect us to applaud. You advertised sexual exploitation of women and then threw children in the mix, in a city battling sex trafficking. A city fighting against a slave trade that thrives off of events like the Super Bowl.
We as a people will sit and complain about YouTube not being “child friendly”, despite them never promising to be that. Yet we will cheer, applaud, and sign our children up to be part of a show intended to turn men on. We will talk on and on about Epstein and how he didn’t kill himself, but does anyone ever talk about why he was a disgusting person in the first place? That slight of hand, that mental game they just played, that’s something Epstein would have LOVED. You got men (and women) across the country fired up and sexually charged, and then at the climax of the show put children front and center. Tricking the brain. Sexualizing children. I guarantee anybody watching that show will later see Jlo’s daughter and associate her with sexual fantasies now. Not to mention how satisfied the pedophile rings of Hollywood must be after this.
It’s gross JLo. It’s disgusting Shakira. It’s Shameful Pepsi. Way to protect the next generation. Way to empower those young girls by making them sexual meat for millions. We have got to stop making excuses for this behavior. If you were gonna make it a sexual pole dancing show, then you never should’ve brought children in the mix. If you wanted children, then you should’ve kept the clothes on and kept it tame. You can’t have both, because the moment you do you mix a deadly cocktail for anybody watching. Where is the self righteous anger we had towards YouTube? Towards Epstein? Did it evaporate into thin air because “OMG JLO! OMG SHAKIRA!!”
I keep hearing that they were celebrating Latina Culture. I’m sorry, I know I’m the little white girl. But I was raised in Latina Culture. I was raised surrounded by strong Latina women. It’s insulting to suggest that THAT celebrates Latina women and their culture. It doesn't. It only promoted JLo’s new film and used children to do it in the process.
Do better America. If we keep claiming to put women first, then we must start with the youngest of those. Instead of protecting them, we fed them to the wolves and set the feminist movement back 20 years. Change begins with you, and it’s time as a society to push back against this behavior.
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