Editor’s Note: Last year many fans sat in disbelief as Shakira and J. Lo performed a sex-filled performance for Super Bowl 2020. This week that show was ranked 2nd of all-time. Here is what the list editor wrote about it:
There was dancing, light bondage, a pole routine, a horn section that was probably not playing their horns, and Bad Bunny. The 2020 show was such a fun party, it immediately became a classic, even though some people got upset and called the show “too sexual,” as if the year before a man hadn’t taken the majority of his clothes off on stage. The show ended with Shakira and J-Lo shaking their hips triumphantly and joyously, unaware that a virus was rampaging around the world and would soon change almost every detail of life as we know it. Oh, to go back to a time when our biggest worry was if J-Lo and Shakira were too sexy for national television.
My friend Kayla Burkholder wrote what I considered one of the more personal and powerful responses to the show. She addressed both the 2020 show and the previous one mentioned above from 2019 as well. Let’s not forget her response or minimize it with just a simple, “some people called it ‘too sexual.'” Don’t be confused as to what it really was. Kayla’s response:
As a women who holds tightly to modesty, who has been sexually abused, and who has went through hell and back trying to escape the pain and torment from the after effects of abuse, this is why the halftime show sucked and why I believe it is demonic and not something I want my daughter (or myself) to watch. This is incredibly hard for me to share but it needs to be shared.
When we sit and accept a woman half dressed dancing with a rope around her body, that tells them that ropes in sex are normal…. I will tell you they are not. They are scary, hurtful, and incredibly shameful. We want to act like we care about sex-trafficked women and want women’s rights, but at the same time want to represent women as bound in ropes or chains and say it’s “beautiful” and “awesome.” That is not freedom and power, that is slavery and bondage. And women were not design to be anyone’s slave or created to be bound.
When we accept poles coming out and women getting on them it shouts “all you’re worth is in your body and all men (and women) want is to use you for their pleasure.” Again demonic. I have been in a strip club and have had to do things to another girl while money was being placed on the table. To say I was mortified was an understatement. AGAIN, HUMILIATION, EMBARRASSMENT, SHAME, SHOCK and really BONDAGE. This is how women are used in sex trafficking. No women, no matter how hard she tries to mask it, thinks it’s okay. They leave hating themselves. Feeling worse about themselves and suffer another night of defeat. That’s not love, freedom, or power, that’s slavery and bondage.
Girls of all ages were watching “role models” of powerful and beautiful women get on the biggest stage of the year while they shake their butts and be sexual for entertainment. Meanwhile all these girls that God created, loves, and adores are at home with their husbands, dads and boyfriends, many who have pornography problems, and that girl just felt what it feels like to not be good enough…AGAIN. She asks why can’t she move like that, and told that is what is sexy and desirable. Little girls are hearing that is what is desirable. Wives are being told that is what is desirable to their husbands. All while in the background, millions of women felt defeated, not worthy enough or good enough. We assume all men must think this about girls.
We teach our children what is acceptable because one day they will believe in what we accepted. And if bondage is something we accepted today, they will soon be bound tomorrow.
Dads, what you accept is what your little girl will believe about herself from that moment forward. It is a rough life carrying that kind of weight. SAY SOMETHING AND DO SOMETHING!
Let me tell you the truth:
God created you to be adorned. Loved. AND Cherished. Sex is a gift from Him that should make BOTH people feel loved, honored, accepted, whole, valuable, seen, heard, felt, cared for, and safe. It screams “YOU ARE ENOUGH FOR ME!” It doesn’t bind or hurt. It doesn’t make someone sitting next to you wonder if they are pretty enough, good enough, or “sexy” enough. It doesn’t tell someone they have to be sexy to be wanted. TRUE CHRISTLIKE LOVE NEVER MAKES ONE SINGLE PERSON FEEL BAD ABOUT THEMSELVES. God designed sex to be shared in the privacy of a marriage so that we aren’t comparing ourselves, hurting ourselves, or using each other to get what we want.
To the men I saw posting on Facebook saying how wrong that show was… THANK YOU for standing up for someone like me, for reminding me I am worth so much more than my body, and that there are men who fully value who God really created women to be. You empowered me and so many others and your stance was kingdom work!
To my husband, thank you for grabbing the remote quickly and leading our home and halftime into something more pleasing to God. Thank you for making me feel valued, cherished, and safe in our home while reminding me that this is a place I am wanted, accepted, adorned, and chosen. You showed up huge for me, and I can’t thank you enough! You are such an honorable man who has really stepped up to the plate, and I am blessed to have you as mine!
To the women who were hurt by the show, you weren’t alone. What was expressed on stage was ugly and a lie from hell. You ARE worth more than that.
And just so the people know who’s rubbing it into hurt people’s faces, Adam Levine’s half nakedness in last year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show wasn’t okay or acceptable either. God created men to be more too. And that’s not a man standing up for what was right. I would imagine most the people who were okay with that are the same ones that were okay with last night’s performance. Please don’t force your untruths on someone like me!
Image credit: Screen Capture
Kayla is married to Nathan and has two children. She loves the Lord and strives to raise her children to love Him as well.
Kayla’s original post here.
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