The Super Bowl halftime show used to be a safe space. A place where a aging rock star could trot out the hits, a pop princess could sparkle, and families could watch together without reaching for the remote. Those days are dead. On Sunday night, Shakira and Jennifer Lopez turned the world’s biggest stage into a Latin dance club—and in doing so, they told millions of American parents exactly what the NFL thinks of them.
Let’s be clear: Shakira is a talented performer. Her hips, as we all know, don’t lie. But there is a difference between artistry and exhibitionism. From the moment she emerged on that pole—yes, a pole—the message was not empowerment. It was provocation. The outfit left little to the imagination. The choreography was less about music and more about gyration. And the camera angles? Let’s just say the director knew exactly what they were doing.
This isn’t about Shakira. It’s about a culture that keeps pushing the boundaries of what’s acceptable in public spaces, then acting shocked when families opt out. The Super Bowl is not a nightclub. It’s not a music video. It’s a sporting event watched by over 100 million Americans, including children who just wanted to see the game. Instead, they got a lesson in twerking and tongue-wagging that would make a sailor blush.
We’ve been here before. Remember the Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” in 2004? The nation clutched its pearls, the FCC fined CBS, and we were promised it would never happen again. But slowly, surely, the envelope got pushed. Now, a halftime show without suggestive dancing and barely-there costumes would be the real shock. We’ve normalized what used to be scandalous, and in doing so, we’ve lost something: the ability to share a cultural moment without cringing.
The defenders will say this is art. They’ll say Shakira and Lopez were celebrating their heritage, their power, their bodies. Fine. But there’s a time and a place. The Super Bowl halftime show is a family event, not a burlesque. If you want to celebrate your body, do it on your own time, on your own stage, for your own audience. Don’t hijack a national pastime to make a point about how liberated you are.
And what does this say about us as a society? We’ve become so addicted to shock and sensation that we can’t even enjoy a football game without a side of soft-core choreography. Our kids are watching. They’re learning that attention comes from exposure, that value comes from visibility, that the way to be seen is to strip down and shake. Is that really the lesson we want to teach?
This isn’t about being a prude. It’s about having standards. It’s about recognizing that some spaces should remain neutral, that not everything needs to be sexualized, that we can still have fun without descending into the gutter. Shakira and Lopez are talented enough to command a stage without resorting to the tactics of a music video. The fact that they chose otherwise says less about them and more about us.
Closing opinion: We can’t keep pretending that the erosion of public decency has no consequences. Every time we shrug and say “it’s just entertainment,” we move the line a little further. And one day, we’ll look up and realize there’s no line left at all.