Were Shakira and JLO too Sexy During the Super Bowl Halftime Show?

Since 2004 and the Nipplegate incident of that halftime show, people ask if the Super Bowl halftime show is too sexy. Well, the Super Bowl was on Sunday. I have a toddler and so I didn’t really care to watch, but my Facebook timeline made me curious about the Super Bowl Halftime Show.

Watch the show before you form your own opinion. White, middle-class audiences seemed to have missed the political and social messages throughout the show. My Facebook was filled with people complaining about mothers complaining about the show being #superbowltoosexy.

Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, besides being beautiful Latino women are dancers. The dancing was top notch. I question if the outrage over the show is mostly because Lopez used a stripper pole throughout the majority of her parts.

I looked back on Super Bowl halftime shows between 2015 and 2020. Were Shakira and Lopez were dressed more provocatively than other performers over the last five years?

If we discount Justin Timberlake’s costume, (he had to be on his best behaviour after the 2004 Super Bowl incident) Shakira and Jennifer Lopez’s costumes were not any more provocative than the other artists, heck Adam Levine literally stripped off his clothes on stage, and nobody made a big deal about it. So is it how they dance?

Shakira and Lopez have both been major superstars since the early 2000s. Their dance style is no secret. Other than having a stripper pole on stage these artists’ performances were completely on brand.

So are they more provocative because of the sexualization of non-white bodies? People on social media praised Lady Gaga for showing off a not flat stomach in booty shorts. What is the line for “too sexy?”

Sometimes one hears that the Women’s March is just filled with white women who go to an event to look woke and political but doesn’t care about the cause. I was there last month and it felt like all my friend and I were doing was jumping out of the way of selfies and Instagram stories. Are these the same women who are policing these two women’s bodies because they find them too sexually alluring. You don’t want the government or society controlling your body, but then judge another woman’s culture and body? I see way too much hypocrisy here.