The conservative backlash to Beyoncé’s Super Bowl show: Objectification and slut-shaming go hand-in-hand

Although Beyonce’s Super Bowl performance was fueled with girl power—all woman band and dancers—I still couldn’t help but to critique the stripping, racy outfit and over sexualized performance that also brought everything together.

I saw two conflicting identities of Beyonce on display at the Super Bowl:

An independent woman working the stage
A performer submissively appealing to a hyper masculine culture

Go ahead and call me ambivalent, as it’s hard to say where I stand—but I do know that from a critical feminist theory perspective, I refuse to jump the gun by saying that she “nailed” it.

In relation to the identity and media representation class lecture, we know that our identities are constantly changing and we act and morph those identities to sometimes align with the situations we find ourselves in. For Beyonce, it is apparent that her identity has also changed over time. That is, as a member of Destiny’s Child, I remember the days of the “independent” Beyonce. The lyrics read: 

The shoe on my feet, I’ve bought it

The clothes I’m wearing, I’ve bought it

The rock I’m rockin’, I’ve bought it

‘Cause I depend on me

But I can’t say that this is what I saw/felt about her Super Bowl performance. That is, how can you be so “independent”, so on top—yet so submissive? And as a woman, is she a role-model or a setback for all of us? To be precise, I would say that I agree with the feministing.com article:

But flaunting her sex appeal automatically undermines Beyoncé’s talent and credibility as “role model” for these conservatives. (Just as it did for Freeman, too.) Since there seems to be some sort of superficial agreement between feminists and conservatives that “sexual objectification” is bad, let’s pause for a second to talk about exactly what it is and why it’s bad. For conservatives, it’s generally because of the sex. For feminists, it’s generally because of the objectification. And, importantly, objectification is not about presenting yourself as as sexual being–or even as an object of sexual desire. After all, that is a normal and fairly universal human urge–who doesn’t like to feel attractive sometimes? Objectification is about being dehumanized by being reduced solely to a sex object.

This, I feel is a more accurate representation of what I witnessed at the Super Bowl. That is, Beyonce’s performance became less about her talent and more about her dehumanization as a beautiful, black woman—which I found to be extremely unfortunate.

In reference to the Five Ways Rape Culture Exists Unnoticed and Goes Unchecked In Our Everyday Life class reading, I would also argue that there is a parallel between Beyonce’s performance and the perpetuation of rape culture through the objectification of her body (i.e. crawling on the floor, licking her thumb, stripping, etc.) at the Super Bowl, but also in other ads that she has appeared in, too (see photo above).

Every year I find it extremely difficult to watch the Super Bowl. Although I enjoy a good game once in a while, I cannot say that I enjoy the football culture. It bothers me that there is minimal representation of women, and when we are present, we appear as a piece of meat (a la the godaddy.com commercials), so I simply refuse to watch. How about you?