Let Me Break It Down For You

The Superbowl Halftime Show created quite a stir.  Two days later it is still a buzz.  I recently read this bit via a facebook feed:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davidhenson/2013/02/a-prophetic-dance-of-power-not-sex-beyonce-the-super-bowl-and-durga/

After reading this, let me break it down for you:

The author writes and I paraphrase here, if while watching you saw immodesty, sex, skimpy clothes, hypersexuality, than that is on you and what you wanted to see, because that's not what it was about at all. 

So his implication is that my five year old, who doesn't know what sex is, wouldn't be able to define skimpy or hypersexual, commented that he could "practically see her privacy bottom" in reference to her vagina was definitely what my five year old lecherously wanted to see in this show. 

And for all of his talk about this performance being about power, is it his supposition that power cannot be demonstrated through her walk, being embraced by her own arms, power through her own body or the replication of the goddess Durga with more clothes on.  Because if that power can be demonstrated either way, then what would possess you to make the decision to wear less and do the performance.  Something surely must have tipped the balance scales there.  Shocking to think it may be something as simple as "sex sells". 

My favorite is when he comments "Beyoncé’s body is important — not because it is hypersexualized — but because it was a women’s body only, not a woman’s body sculpted for a man."  Really because at 5'7" and being 130 lbs - note her preferred weight it 128, that puts her in the small frame category of most health check systems.  It puts her in the ranks of model material {see my previous post}, and hardly what I would construe as a woman's body since in 2006 the average woman's weight was 164.7 lbs. 

When he finishes the article "It’s no wonder some people attempted to wrest back control over her and her body by marginalizing her performance by sexualizing it." I can't help but feel sad that he doesn't realize that she marginalized herself by making the decisions that she did.

I am a big fan of Beyonce, the girl can sing.  I mean really sing, incredible talent.  As for her Super Bowl performance, I found it entertaining, fun, and interesting.   But guess what I also found it to be very sexual and provocative.  And that was due to her decision to package what could have fundamentally been a breathtaking performance with tons of vocal chops by supercharging it with sex.  And more than anything I was embarrassed to have to explain to my kids what they unwittingly saw for themselves.

So Dear Author,
Please don't be so dense or purposely blind to the fact that this performance was intended to be sexual.  Because when you do it just lets me know that my five year old is a whole lot smarter than you.

And I'm done!  I'm not usually this serious. :)