What Have We Become in the USA?

Picture credit Black and Missing Foundation, Inc. http://www.blackandmissinginc.com/

I’ll admit I don’t know as much about the issue as I probably should. But in pondering a few things after the Super Bowl last night, I thought something rather bothersome:

In a society that seems to want, on the surface, to change the image of women away from being objects of desire and sex, it seems counter productive to fill a stadium full to capacity, pump them with adrenaline from a sporting event that even drives their testosterone levels to high ends, fuel them with alcohol to lower their inhibitions, and then flaunt Beyoncé around in front of them in what amounts to, essentially, “family friendly” lingerie.

At the time of the half-time show, I didn’t really think about it.  But in the light of the morning, with a little reflection, something just doesn’t seem right.  What we saw last night at the Super Bowl half-time seems to be the standard in our culture any more.

But beyond that, I had a friend on Facebook this morning remind me of another disturbing fact.  The Super Bowl is probably the most lucrative event for human sex trafficking in the entire calendar year.  As she said,

I ponder the fact that for tens of thousands, the Super Bowl means sex trafficking, enslavement, and rape.  Those victims are still out there, recovering today from the aftermath of yesterday.  And yet we as a free society can applaud and enjoy Beyoncé and her backup dancers flaunting themselves on stage–safely at a distance from the very same men who went out last night revved up and abused women and little children.

At times, I’m ashamed of being a man and of being an American.

There is no other purpose to this blog post than to make these observations and thoughts public.  I’m not sure, at this time, what I’m going to do about these thoughts, but I feel, in my core, that something needs to change, both for myself and how I deal with society as well as in society in general.

Kyrie Eleison