Time for a halftime shake-up
Silence from #MeToo movement over Shakira, J.Lo’s shameless show deafening
It was a belt-high fastball, a foolproof opportunity to gain the voters’ admiration, but Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar chose to play it safe and not swing at all.
In doing so they squandered such a timely moment.
Just one night earlier the NFL, continuing its lurid halftime tradition of featuring nearly butt-naked performers, had J.Lo and Shakira provocatively prancing at Super Bowl LIV.
Forget the rightness of what they did; what mattered most was the context in which they did it.
This wasn’t a bachelor party or an adult entertainment venue where caveat emptor would apply.
No, this was America’s biggest TV event of the year, not only a nonpareil drawing card at bars and social get-togethers, but the reason for family gatherings in living rooms across the nation.
As a sporting event it’s “must” viewing, playing to a captive audience that includes mothers, sisters, wives, daughters and granddaughters.
It used to be good stuff.
Then someone decided to spice it up with raunchiness, making it lewd and crude, lowering the bar from season to season while daring anyone to complain.
How could anyone question the good-heartedness of the NFL?
Those who did were dismissed as prudes, which is known as killing the messenger.
It worked. Regrettably, it still does. Where’s the “#MeToo” movement? Where are women columnists, women TV personalities, women office-holders, most of whom think of themselves as modern-day suffragettes?
Their silence is deafening. A month ago, in celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, one of his most riveting quotes appeared here: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.”
Roger Goodell’s passive acceptance of this prurience is beneath contempt. If he were the NFL’s commissioner, Harvey Weinstein couldn’t be more insensitive to the objectification of women.
Even the crowd that runs the Miss America pageant realized the harmful dynamics of its swimsuit competition, ending that tradition two years ago.
It’s not political correctness to acknowledge there are times when change is warranted by common sense, which is why sons, husbands, dads and granddads can be resentful of the NFL’s halftime show, too.
But it’s women who have the strongest platform, though many choose not to use it.
Take Monday night. As the candidates — having no idea of who finished where in the Iowa caucus fiasco — scrambled to offer closing remarks, it was Pete Buttigieg, not Warren or Klobuchar, who zeroed in on women voters, telling them, “Women must control their bodies, not politicians!”
OK, it was pandering, but it earned him a stirring ovation.
If only someone with similar prominence would take on the NFL, too.
Common decency is not a partisan issue.
It’s an American quality we once had and, boy, we sure could use more of it today.