Rihanna‘s Tremendous Bowl LVII halftime present made headlines for quite a lot of causes, not the least of which was the singer’s shock being pregnant reveal. However, in line with an extended checklist of feedback acquired by the Federal Communication Fee, it additionally resulted in additional than 100 complaints from throughout the nation about what some viewers deemed a very sexual efficiency.
“Inappropriate touching and dance strikes, very raunchy for a household to observe. Little youngsters don’t have to see this,” learn one notice from a complainant in Rockton, Illinois, at the same time as one other described it as “sick sick sick.” Numerous different notes referred to “sexualization, genital grabbing, sniffing of her fingers,” in addition to “gyrating… and rear finish… grabbing,” “filth,” “perpetual air humping… glorifying being a stripper” and an outline of dancers “holding their arms up the cracks of their butts and pumping,” in a notice from Plainwell, Michigan that misidentified the performer as Shakira; the latter shared the stage with Jennifer Lopez in 2020 in a efficiency that, not for nothing, derw greater than 1,000 FCC complaints.
One all caps screed from Depew, New York went deep, with the author lamenting, “FRIENDS AND FAMILY GATHER TO WATCH THE SUPERBOWL. WHY DO WE CONTINUE TO HAVE TO BLACK NOISE YEAR AFTER YEAR. THEY CAN’T SING OR WRITE ANY DESCENT MUSIC. ALL I HEARD WAS WORD WORD WORD WORD WORD WORD WORD WORDWORD WORD WORD WORDG. BLACK BLACK BLACK BLACK AND GO DOWN ON ME, GO DOWN ON ME GO DOWN ON ME OR GO DOWN ON YOU ETC. I DEFINATELY [sic] DON’T CONSIDER THIS MUSIC., AND I DON’T APPRECIATE SEEING HER AND HER DANCERS GRABBING THEIR CROTCHES ON NATIONAL TV!. THE NFL SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF WHAT THESE 1/2 TIME SHOWS HAVE BECOME.”
One other one from Brush Prairie, Washington pleaded, “Can we please have a half time present the place the artist doesn’t seize their crotch or attempt to dry hump the lead singer. I actually don’t need to see 30 again up dancers doing pelvic thrusts. Ew. Additionally, twerking ought to rank up there with the F bomb,” whereas a viewer from Colorado Springs, Colorado recommended, “If I have been to go to a spot the place youngsters have been current and did these similar motions, I might in all probability be arrested. Subsequently, I don’t see how it’s honest for it to occur on tv towards our will and with out warning. Fairly infuriated that issues like this proceed to be
permitted.”
Yet one more from Ellicott Metropolis, Maryland, stated they have been actually sickened by the present, writing, “The halftime present was disgusting. Scratching your crotch and anus and the sniffing your fingers makes me puke. The satan sequence was blatantly anti Christian and so inappropriate. Why is that this trash allowed on tv?”
And whereas a handful of complaints have been targeted on the commenters calling the sport and the ASL interpreter, almost all have been squarely targeted on RihRih’s efficiency and the writers’ beliefs that the content material was not household pleasant.
At press time a spokesperson for the NFL declined to remark for this story and a spokesperson for halftime present producer Roc Nation had not returned a request for remark.
The Tremendous Bowl halftime present isn’t any stranger to controversy and pearl-clutching complaints, from those that have been offended by Eminem taking a knee throughout the 2022 present to viewers overstimulated by the positioning of Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine’s nipples in 2019, and, after all, the various complaints following the 2004 present the place Justin Timberlake uncovered Janet Jackson’s nipple in an incident dubbed “Nipplegate.”
