Super Bowl Slutfest

I watched part of the performance by Jennifer Lopez and Shakira at the 2020 Super Bowl halftime a day or two after it took place. As a woman, a person descended from Hispanics, a mother, and an appreciator of dance, I was appalled.

At one point, Shakira stuck her tongue and flicked it in and out rapidly over and over, obviously in imitation of a sexual act. At another point, Lopez and Shakira faced each other and did some vertically twerking, miming having sex with one another. At another point, there was a pole dance. At yet another point, one of them (Lopez, if I recall correctly) was wearing a costume that ran in narrow bands down the front and back of her leg while leaving the outside of her leg and the inside of her thighs bare. Decades ago, of course, it became common to see dancers baring their entire legs, so it would not have been shocking had she done that. But the design of the costume, emphasizing the inner thigh, struck me as more revealing and as more suggestive of sexual invitation than baring the entire leg would have been.

One reviewer claimed that because Shakira is from Colombia and Lopez is Hispanic, the performance was a show of Latin pride. I blinked when I read that. Two middle-aged women (43 and 50 respectively) doing a show that belonged in a men’s club is exhibiting Latin pride? I had a Hispanic grandmother and a Hispanic aunt and I grew up in Southern Arizona. I love all things Latin, especially the music and dancing, and I don’t object to some suggestive dancing (e.g., the tango). But this went far beyond that. Personally, I was ashamed of these women’s use of Latin musical tropes and of their presenting themselves as Latin icons.

Lots of kids, especially teenage boys, were watching the Super Bowl. Probably some teen girls were too; perhaps they tuned in at halftime just to see their idol J Lo. Also on the stage with Lopez and Shakira was a troupe of child dancers, most of whom seemed to be in the middle school range. I am not sure how much of the older women’s performance those kids saw, but I find it hard to believe that their parents (unless they were far-gone stage parents) would want their children to be associated with it. Lopez and Shakira might even have violated some law about children working in the environment of a sex club.

Now, Lopez has a twin son and daughter, age 11, and two stepdaughters, ages 15 and 11; Shakira has two sons, ages 7 and 5. How could anybody say that these women are setting a good example for their kids? Unless the lesson is “Use your body to get ahead”, it is hard to figure out what the kids were supposed to have thought as they watched Mommy gyrate like that.

My first grandchild, a girl, was born the day after the Super Bowl; her mother was actually in labor while the Super Bowl was taking place. So naturally when I saw the show later I thought of her future. My first reaction was “Oh, hell no.”

I have read that in the past some Super Bowl performances were pretty lame, with high school marching bands and poor singers. Obviously, in terms of production this one hit the heights. But do great production values justify abdication of moral values, in terms of a show that people of all ages would see, people who thought they were tuning in to a sports event and not a porno event?

There were some very talented dancers that we could see in the background. The whole show could have been an exhibit of the spirit of Latin contemporary dance, with featured dancers performing as individuals or in smaller groups. The kids dancing could have joined in at one point the same way kids join an adult Latin party and could have showed off their stuff. But in the massed dancing, which seemed to serve only to showcase Shakira and Lopez (to be fair, terrific dancers in their own right), the group view mostly swallowed up the view of the strong individual non-star dancers.

To me, this performance was a giant paean to sex, a total slutfest. It was not appropriate for general audiences. It shows to what depths the promoters of the Super Bowl will stoop for ratings. Maybe someday football – which is declining in popularity as a sport in schools – will fade away and we won’t have any more Super Bowls. But until then we will surely see more of these appeals to men’s baser natures, with no attention paid to the women and children watching.