So some of my friends are writing about yesterday's Super Bowl, and not in kind ways either. Some are talking about Beyonce's "performance" as the latest foray into the objectification of women; some are talking about it as a betrayal of women by the NFL. Some are disgusted at this so-obvious display of sexuality in the middle of a sporting event that so many families are watching. And President Obama used his pre-SB interview as a bully pulpit to push his opinion that the Boy Scouts should admit gays into leadership positions.
Me? I didn't watch. I never have. I don't care about football at all (although I have now become a fan of my grandson's elementary / middle school teams). I don't even care about the commercials. Don't get me wrong - perhaps the Super Bowl is an exciting thing to watch, and I have lots of friends who enjoy Super Bowl parties. But the Super Bowl is kind of like a picnic, if you ask me - everyone gets excited about planning a picnic, but doesn't seem to want to take into account the possibilities that ants will show up, that bees will hover over the soda and hornets over the meat, that people will get sunburned or past-their-glory football dads will sprain ankles and wrists in the pickup game. Are these reasons not to have a picnic? Not really, but they are realities that need to be anticipated and addressed.
So one of the realities of the Super Bowl (and indeed of the entire NFL) is that it is not just about sports but also about sex. Was Beyonce's outfit too scanty? I don't know - have you seen the outfits that NFL cheerleaders wear Sunday after Sunday? Someone wrote that Beyonce's performance was "over the top with estrogen" - but doesn't that fit right in with an event that's basically three hours of flooding testosterone? Should we be surprised that advertisers are willing to shell out almost $8 million a minute without blinking so that we'll notice them, during a game in a city where no doubt even one of those $8 million checks would go a long way toward helping some of those poor or homeless or in-shelter folks who never get noticed, even by the locals? Should we be surprised that all kinds of cons flock to the game for the weekend, eager to make a quick buck - from T-shirt hucksters to human traffickers?
Surprised, no. This is the way the world is. Whoever thought we live in a Christian country hasn't taken a good look around lately. We live in a pagan country in a pagan world, where the worship of money and sex and the celebration of everything related to both is celebrated always and everywhere. This is the way the world is. It's more like the Babylon of Revelation than we want to admit. We should not be surprised that this is the way the world is, even our own country, even our own communities.
But we should be horrified. We should be horrified that the Super Bowl objectifies women like Beyonce or the cheerleaders, and that it objectifies men like the NFL players. We should be horrified that people are taken advantage of by all kinds of thieves and scoundrels at what should be a fun event - and that many who are taken advantage of are enslaved by cruel and hardhearted masters who sell them for profit - and that many of those sold are children. We should be horrified that grown men (and women, presumably) actually pay money to have sex with these children, and think that this is fine. We should be horrified that corporations are willing to spend millions upon millions of dollars on commercials that will benefit themselves or the NFL or the broadcast network, and yet none of that money will make its way to the homeless shelters or the soup kitchens or the free clinics of New Orleans or any other city.
There's a lot we should be horrified about. To rail against the NFL or Beyonce isn't going to do much, though. To refuse to watch football games or to boycott her records won't do much. But to do nothing isn't an option for the horrified, either. Much better to do something like -
- put in a shift at the local soup kitchen
- bring in some food to the local food pantry
- look online for some charity to join
- join A21 or some other group to work to abolish slavery of all kinds
- join the pro-Life movement
- volunteer at your local library to help children read
PS Click this link to see a PSA from the Archdiocese of New Orleans on Human Trafficking on Super Bowl weekend:
