Super Bowl halftime show panned as 'softcore porn,' 'horrible embarrassment'
The Super Bowl halftime show is being panned for its explicit content.
Super Bowl LIV, which was held in Miami this year, featured Latin pop artists Shakira and Jennifer Lopez. Featuring several of their most well-known songs from over the years, the artists danced with lots of hip-shaking and were at points barely clothed around stripper poles.
Commenting on his Facebook page Sunday, evangelist Franklin Graham noted that he did not expect the world to act like the church, but the nation nevertheless should have the decency to protect children during prime time television.
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"We see that disappearing before our eyes. It was demonstrated tonight in the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show — with millions of children watching. This exhibition was Pepsi showing young girls that sexual exploitation of women is okay. With the exploitation of women on the rise worldwide, instead of lowering the standard, we as a society should be raising it. I’m disappointed in Pepsi and the NFL," Graham said.
March for Life President Jeanne F. Mancini tweeted: "Ugh. We can’t have something that little kids can watch? Embarrassing for everyone I’m with — looking away, etc. Friends son got distracted by smart dad so he wouldn’t see it. We can do better!"
Some connected the performance to widespread social scourges and the grim reality of sex trafficking that frequently occurs at major sporting events.
"We wonder why the Super Bowl is a hotbed of sex trafficking...meanwhile we applaud for literal pole dancing during the halftime show. Degrading women has tragic cultural consequences," commented One American News Network host Liz Wheeler.
Kristen Ruby, a commentator and president of Ruby Media Group, concurred.
"You call it dancing and entertainment. I call it what it is: softcore porn. Our society is really crumbling," she tweeted Sunday night.
Writing in the Washington Examiner Monday, Madeline Fry noted that children have likely viewed things on social media that are much worse than the halftime show.
"But in a day and age when child sexual abuse is ravaging public schools, the Catholic Church, Hollywood, and every institution in between, that’s no reason to normalize hypersexualization of content aimed at children," she said.
"It's even worse that this is being passed off as a form of mainstream entertainment that promotes female empowerment. It is the opposite of feminism to teach young girls to look up to icons who act like strippers. That's not empowerment. It's self-objectification."
Christian author Rebekah Lyons tweeted: "For all the cultural strides in recent years to respect women for their strength, dignity, brains; halftime shows continue to be a setback for our daughters (and sons) to comprehend. #NFLdoBetter."
Known worship leader and songwriter Paul Baloche weighed in too: "We watched the wonderful Super Bowl game with my teenager nieces and nephews. Half-time was a horrible embarrassment."
Not everyone was critical of the performance.
"Best Super Bowl half time show ever," tweeted Jeb Bush, a former Florida governor and the brother of former president George W. Bush.
After the halftime show, the score was tied up 10-10. In a dramatic finish, the Kansas City Chiefs came back in the fourth quarter, putting up three touchdowns to win the game, beating the San Francisco 49ers with a final score of 31-20.
