
Super Bowl LIX will be held in New Orleans on Sunday. But it's not just the upcoming action on the field that's getting attention.
A group of lawmakers in Louisiana, backed by a number of high profile faith leaders, just sent a letter to organizers asking them to tone down the upcoming Super Bowl halftime show and make it more family friendly.
As evidence, they cite stripper poles, suggestive lyrics, and skin-bearing singers of halftime shows past. The group says it’s time for the halftime show to ditch suggestive sexual themes and get back to entertaining all ages.
Is the Super Bowl halftime show too lewd for television?
Is Halftime Too Hot to Handle?
The letter was written by Louisiana State Sen. Valarie Hodges and addressed to Phillip Sherman, chairman of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation, and Robert Vosbein Jr., chairman of the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District. It outlined her “serious concerns” about offensive halftime content to the two Super Bowl overseers.
Pointing to prior halftime shows, Hodges sent a clear message: Louisianans reject this sort of lewd content.
Last year’s performance by Rihanna, for example, featured the singer “groping herself while she sang song lyrics that were so offensive that few Louisiana adults could read those lyrics before an audience without shame.”
Jennifer Lopez’s performance in 2020 was even worse according to Rep. Hodges, who said the singer “wore little clothing and was groped by male and female dancers on stage, while the performer made sexually suggestive gestures and performed on a stripper pole.”
And who could forget Janet Jackson’s infamous wardrobe malfunction at the 2004 Super Bowl?
“These past vulgar performances may have been acceptable to the residents of those states where those Super Bowls were held,” State Rep. Hodges says in the letter, “But, in Louisiana, these lewd acts are inappropriate for viewing by children, objectify women, and are simply NOT welcomed by the majority of Louisiana parents.”
The letter continues: "Had that 2004 performance taken place in Louisiana and been proven to be intentional, it would have violated Louisiana's obscenity law (R.S. 14:106) which prohibits such public exposure."
It was later co-signed by leaders of faith-based family organizations, including Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council.
Perkins commented on the matter, adding: "Hopefully, this year's Super Bowl halftime show will not be out of bounds for the hundreds of thousands of families that will be watching. But it is not only about protecting children, important as that is, but also upholding community standards. The Super Bowl organizers need to abide by the community standards that the citizens of Louisiana have adopted."
Throwing a Hail Mary
Are the days of sexually charged halftime performances over? Will this year’s performer, Kendrick Lamar, keep things rated PG?
Vosbein Jr. says that it's “unfortunate” that the letter was sent two weeks out from the Super Bowl, because they would have considered Hodges’ requests if they’d received the letter earlier.
But Jay Cicero, president and CEO of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation, says Hodges will be pleased with the performance. “This year’s halftime show will be a family-friendly event befitting New Orleans’ storied history hosting Super Bowls,” he stated.
What do you think? The Super Bowl halftime show on occasion features scantily clad dancers and questionable lyrics, but is it really in need of a cleaning up?
On the one hand, the Super Bowl bills itself as a family-friendly event. On the other hand… are Super Bowl halftime shows any more outrageous than anything else you’d see on prime-time television? And if critics don’t like it, couldn’t they just refresh their snacks and hit the bathroom while it’s taking place?
Is the Super Bowl halftime show too hot for TV?
46 comments
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Hope you meant dodo.
But seriously, I agree. Your TV has an on/off button. Use it.
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Najah Tamargo-USA
Don't we have more important things to worry about????? If halftime is not appropriate for the viewer.....CHANGE THE CHANNEL!!! Or put it on mute and go get a snack!!!!! People need to put their energies into REAL problems!!!
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As an aside, I find it interesting that Louisiana, home of the Big Easy, is having a conniption fit over a halftime show… is it irony, or hypocrisy?
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What do expect from a state that has drive-thru liquor stands? Talk about a contradiction.
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I'm from NOLA, and let me tell you this: the ones wailing the loudest about sin are the ones who are the biggest consumers.
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Let’s just hear it for the adults in the room who know enough to just turn the channel…
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Cannot say as I have not viewed a "Superbowl" for at least 2 decades. Sportsball entertainment of any sort is not on my A List.
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Isn't there something about the touching of the skin of a pig as being a sin. Come on people let's bring religion into the twenty-first century and quit being hypocrites by picking and choosing what we want to tag as a "sin".
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No Lawrence, touching a pig wasn't a sin. It did make the toucher unclean.
I've raised a few hogs, the Bible is spot on. The more you touch the beastie the more unclean you'll get.
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The only way that speciesists can justify the killing of an innocent animal is to make him/her a lesser being. The only unclean animal I know of is a human bigot.
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A raccoon eating a 7 days rotted opossum roadkill is unclean Lady Mutt Cat. A dog eating cat feces right off the press before it even hits the ground is unclean. Dogs will roll in putrid rotted flesh and eat their own vomit. A goat is a clean animal. A horse is a clean animal. Chickens are clean animals. Hogs will convert an area into a wallow to keep cool. The wallow is urine and feces which the lay in.
Indeed you're right about humans being unclean if we choose to be. We're the only creature that can choose to be clean or unclean.
When we humans slay and animal for food it's nothing to do with superiority or inferiority for humans get eaten too. Some humans do act like animals and kill for fun and entertainment though. We kill animals to remain amongst the living. It pains me to move one of my animals from the pasture to the freezer but not from the freezer to the plate. I thank God for it all nonetheless.
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Why are conservative Christians so anti-sex? I never understood why something so natural is held in such contempt by the Abrahamic religions. Thank the gods that I haven't been tainted with this particular form of bigotry.
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Interesting article. I love the half time shows & the commercials along only once did Jesus show up remember lol. I believe God is in the details of our music artist & performers & they are beautiful people. God would not be ashamed. More people need to let Jesus in the bedroom. They all had clothes on & spent hundreds & thousands for the perfect outfit. God loves you for who you are express yourself. I dont think gospel has a for front in a halftime show but maybe in the future. Blest be. Good luck kendric lamar be yourself God loves you just the way you are.
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The halftime shows have become more and more trashy over the years and worthless.
Do not watch that garbage.
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I watched that superbowl and must have blinked at the wrong time to have missed it. But reviewing the clip...Janet had on a "pastie" or nipple shield, so it wasn't a Wardrobe malfunction as they originally sold. So she was technically covered up. What I found interesting and a bit disturbing was when this was blowing up the news back then was the Baptist Preacher that said "I have rewatched that video over 30 times and each time I was more disgusted" Ummm, Dude....I don't think you were disgusted...
Anyhow...the puritan attitude in the US is what's driving this...if you go to Italy where the "center" of Chistian religion lays, their attitude about the human body is a lot more relaxed and accepted. Having the hypocrites in Louisiana try to dictate what is acceptable, as one commenter put it, when they have the "Big Easy" and Mardi-Gras every year which has turned into a basically a free moving sex show...(Think the "show me your tits for this string of beads" that goes on), I think they should start looking "closer to home" on what is considered pornography.
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I can't stand football, but I remember the times in the high school marching band when half time was the time the band went onto the field. We marched, played music, and formed various formations. That's my idea of half time because I grew up with it. A couple of pro football teams have bands. I'd like to see marching bands make a comeback and play at the superbowl. It's a long tradition at football games.
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Here's the thing; you have to go back about 22 years ago and before to when we as a people were much more civilized and at tried to have respect for one another. Now fast forward to today and look at it, it is literally turning into carnage out in the world.
Don't forget, the Scriptures talk about the end times as being more vial as when Noah went into the Ark. How close do think we are? So, although I am totally against all the sinful nature of mankind and we as Americans love our sports, as Christians while we watch this we need to turn to our inner man and look for guidance through these troubled times.
With that I shall say, enjoy your day with football but don't forget our Gracious Lord. AMEN
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I'm totally against this thing but I'll make an exception for sportsball?
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When has human kind respected another in the whole of history? Never. And do you remember the The War in Afghanistan in 2001? There was not much respect when the USA was invading their country to grab and control as much opiates as it could, while massacrating the civil population...
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While my religious interest leans more towards Healing and Wisdom, I can see why Sexual Aggression would be consistent with Football, and I'm sure many housewives watch the half-time show. Gamesmanship, People; get something started, and carry that baby down the field.
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"Are the days of sexually charged halftime performances over? Will this year’s performer, Kendrick Lamar, keep things rated PG?"
Lol, NO! It always gets worse and more demonic. Always.
I've not heard of the clown performing and don't need to, I know it'll be antichrist in nature. That might be nasty like accidentally on purpose seeing a silicone sideshow or actual satanic imagery.
I've never watched a televised football game and don't care about anything they do for their shows.
God will square up with them when he will.
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I've watched the last few half-time shows. Too sexually charged? Yes. That's what entertainment is these days. As long as performers like Taylor Swift or Jennifer Lopez are willing to go onstage in tight barely there outfits it will continue to get worse. I miss the days when a good voice was all that was needed and not all the spectacular effects and dance moves. Until then I will watch and enjoy the sound if not the visuals.
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I agree Coleen. I go to the highschool football game for the halftime show, my kids are in the marching band. I don't really like football at all and especially youth football. Don't like seeing kids get crunched up. Didn't pro football games ever just have marching bands once ago? I thought they did but I didn't ever watch the stuff. Same with TV shows right? Always slides a bit downhill. Culture says don't treat women as objects then puts them on display wearing clear plastic dresses.
It's all kinda sad. Jesus will fix it one day, I'll bet he's sad about it too.
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No-one "puts them on display wearing clear plastic dresses." At gunpoint? These women can chose to participate or not.
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Well said!
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well as bible states they got free will gods about tgo tzake away our free will are you all ready
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Nonsensical posts really don't help.
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First of all, at what age, in general, does a child realize what “lewd” even is, and how many children watch the Super Bowl, unless it’s the only thing that everyone else is watching — especially halftime extravaganzas? By the age a child is old enough, to know what lewd is, she/he’s old enought to watch it — and already probably has..
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I was looking for morel mushrooms in a state woods on a trail when I found a Chic porno mag someone set there open to the centerfold. I was 10 and knew it was lewd though I don't think I was old enough to look at it. I know I wasn't.
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The "Bishops" around here seem really ignorant of how all this works. Children are born and there's no such thing as "sex" in their heads. If that enters there heads it came from someone else.. someone older. As we grow we see / experience all manner of things. And we take our cues from the older ones. If they approve or like it, then it must be OK to like it. If they don't, then it must not be OK to like that. All of that "take our cues from" stuff mixes into every person, uniquely. A kid has a certain % chance of coming out OK.. or they have a % chance of coming out less than OK. And no one can really predict a specific person.. only that some sill be OK & others won't. And none of that was a choice the kids made. It was all the cues & experiences they went through that results in what they behave like, value, or don't value. Your comment about "lewdness" is nonsensical. Whatever you describe as the limit of where "Lewd" begins will never match mine, or anyone else's. It even matters who's doing it, what they are doing, where this is happening, and even more. There are things I love my spouse to do in private that would make me so weirded out if she did that in public.. even things I like to do with her in private that no one else is likely to ever know about. And yet we both love it together. Where's the Lewd part come in? Please either re-think your post or.. just give up commenting. It's as if a deeper thought is not ever going to come from your posts anyway. You can't even seem to understand where behaviors and values originate from. It is from what happens to us / around us / near us after we are born and who we listen to when we are young.. young people are the victims of older people who approve or laugh at things they should not approve or laugh at. And.. they were the victims of the 1000's of generations before. Not too many are actually guilty of creating all this. But you are certainly guilty of not thinking harder about how this all works. You & many, many others seem to choose to be ignorant. But you'll raise kids to be like you.. rinse, repeat.
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That’s what they get for holding it in some inbred hillbilly state instead of somewhere civilized.
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It's all about freedom of speech. Especially your freedom of speech, Right? If you like it it's OK, if you don't like it it's bad. Right? It's trash.
So try to get the NFL to get new producers for the halftime show if you don't like the show.
If you have trashy producers you will get a trashy show.
Or, you can have a bible study that day with tea and coffee, lemon-aid and finger cookies. Nothing wrong with that.
Or, you can just change the channel and/or watch reruns of Doby Gillis or just shut off the TV.
Point is, it's up to you to do what you want that day or do nothing at all.
And, everyone else in the USA has that same freedom.
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"Everyone else in the USA has that same freedom" - Nope
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Kendrick Lamar, an artist with a Pulitzer for his lyrics, a penchant for justice, and not hesitant at all to call out sex pests, is the halftime performer. I just also heard a certain dictator and his fanboys are planning to attend.
Were I a betting person, I'd take the odds that sparks will fly, and not necessarily of a sexually lewd nature.
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Is what you see on tv too lewd
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MORE!
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In some senses I agree. A show doesn’t have to be lewd to be good. Children watch the Super Bowl as well as adults. I do understand that somewhere in the promotional universe, PR is playing to the male gender. Why? Because it seems that is the target audience. However, as a female, I am not impressed with the thinking behind that idea. I watch football every Sunday. I have watched football every Sunday since I was a little girl. My son watched football his entire childhood as well. I don’t think a halftime show needs to be so lewd. I believe it should be more family oriented especially since sports in general is a time when family members get together to participate and/or watch. I don’t think I would want my great grandmother watching some guy grab his crotch or some woman showing her bits. To me, that isn’t entertainment. That’s what people do when they aren’t very good in their artistic ability
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I'm a guy but raised girls, married one as well. I think you are basically correct. It's mostly for guys and.. 12+ boys as well. Get the young boys trained to become the next men. It is sad that the women (and girls) on the stage are literally helping young boys to start having strange thoughts. Most boys do OK.. but a few actually are affected by these types of things. AND.. to make it worse, there is no way to tell which boys are going to start going down a weird thought. They will keep this absolutely private. They are shocked by their own thoughts and dare to tell no one. That's most tens lives except there's 10% of the boys having not good thoughts about what girls / women are and what they aren't. The super-bowl shows, awards shows, internet videos, whatever.. it's all short term entertainment & money that drives them. They can't see or don't care about the long term harm they all add up to. Young boys didn't ask for this. Young girls certainly didn't ask for this (but they get used to it and might even like the flashy, cool outfits). And the harm won't come until a few years later when the boys start expressing their new, bad thoughts on girls that did not really see this coming. Rinse, repeat.
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Watching the halftime of any football game is a waste of time. Super Bowl has its own importance list:
1) Bathroom break 2) Check the food 3) Bar refill 4) Call in sick for Monday
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If the chosen one of the christian right attends, doesn't that make it alright? I mean he is doing god's work on earth.. ...isn't he?
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Not religious in any way. Also.. pretty darned progressive ideologically. Am still aware that attractive people are, in fact, attractive. But I really would prefer if they toned it down a bit. Trying to see what the least amount of coverage can possibly be (on top of a nude colored body suit) is.. weird. Not needed. Whoever it is likely looks pretty good in an actual dress, pants, or shorts that I can't actually see through. I've seen some people capable of making a full coverage clown outfit look pretty good. All I can figure is this is about clicks on various media pages. Money is being made by showing pictures and stories that talk about this. These "I'm in power of my own body" people are actually not.. they are agreeing to wardrobes but the wardrobe was designed by or suggested by the people who stand to get the money. They are being used while thinking they are "showing what people can choose to be". If so.. where are the talented but far less attractive people wearing barely covered body suits on a stage getting clicks and photos and short vids for a super bowl half-time show? No where. Weird world just keeps getting weirder.
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Christo-Fascists gotta hate.
The gaul these people have saying they care about objectifying women. After who they just voted to put in off?! Give me a break, if the sport federation and the artist are ok with it then who cares. These are the same people that would tell you Elvis was to sexually provocative because he swayed his hips too much. If you don't wanna watch it then don't, if you don't want your kids to watch then don't let them. Southern purity culture and the lawmakers behind it need to go the way of the doodoo and fast.
Amen Brother, we must remind our fellow brothers and sisters the hypocricy is also a sin and not a pretty one.
If you are offended by something. Don’t watch it as simple as that. It seems like freedom of speech is a one-way street.
If I don't wait to see it.. how will I know how far it intends to go? It's live.. and promoted as if it's a great, family friendly few hours of football with a great, entertaining show for 15 minutes. Pretend I do watch.. see what's happening... and now I create the weird moment where I tell the kids we're turning off the TV for a few minutes.. When I was a kid.. want me to pay even more attention? All of a sudden act weird, do a quick change in course, and then say something weird about why we changed course. I will pay so much attention & I will have a million new guesses as to what's really happening. Have you ever been a kid? More importantly, a parent? That's exactly what all this is like.