The Super Bowl was different this year. The long wait of the thirsty fans ended when Rihanna, who since 2016 has not released records or held concerts, descended from the skies on a platform to enliven the intermission of the event. The final game of the National Football League championship (American football in the United States) is followed by millions of people from all over the world. First-class singers usually perform in their intermission, mainly from the country.
Even for those who don’t like this sport, the night of the last game of the tournament can be attractive. Especially, due to the media significance of the event. And Rihanna managed to gather the largest audience at the Super Bowl since Katy Perry’s presentation in 2015. An estimated 118.7 million people tuned in to the event on television and also online. The NFL’s YouTube channel recorded a total of nearly 39 million views that day, making it the number one spot for trending videos on the platform.
The long wait for the presentation of the Barbadian was felt on digital platforms days before. Between February 5 and 12 (the day of the event) the reproductions of her music on Spotify increased more than 640% in the United States. After seven years without stepping on a stage and after giving birth to her first child, an unbeatable show was predicted by Rihanna, who had been preceded in that role by figures such as Michael Jackson, Madonna and Beyoncé (to name just a few). .
Last Sunday, February 12, the also designer and businesswoman, founder of Fenty Beauty, finally took center stage at the most important sporting event of the year in the United States. Descended on the floating trackdressed in a brand new vermilion red and intoning the first notes of Bitch better have my money.
The hall was filled with applause and flashes. The choreography was deployed with male and female dancers who simulated a spatial aesthetic to the rhythm of the best and famous hits Of the singer.
Despite of Show artistic and dazzling scenery, Rihanna continued to be the focus of attention. This time she was also pregnant because of the scrutiny that her silhouette was subjected to: she acted pregnant. Before the confirmation of the singer, social networks had been filled with doubtful comments due to the volume of her belly; in addition to the sexists and misogynists, who also existed.
Once again, the artist was in the eye of the storm for her physical appearance. She’s happened before, like a few years ago, when she posted a photo of herself doing toplessor in the fashion week in Paris in 2022, when, also pregnant, she appeared dressed in transparency showing her underwear.
Criticism has been upon him. What if she didn’t dance, if she moved little on stage, if something else was expected of her (histrionics, physical display), if she looked fat, if she dubbed and didn’t sing live, if her clothes were inappropriate for an event of that category. In addition, a wide variety of Internet users compared it with the interventions of Madonna, Shakira and Jennifer López (these last two together) in the same event.
In effect, other singers have moved more on stage, and their —sexualized— bodies have been part of the show. The display of the body is something that is expected more from female artists than from male artists.
Rihanna, in addition to not hiding her belly and showing it off, acted “below” the (hyper)sexualized expectations of an important group of the public: she wore a single suit that covered a good part of her body and moved “little” to the rhythm of her hits.
This author is not interested in delving into the moralistic correction of what women have to do and how they should look on stage; rather to point out that, certainly, a sexualized projection of us is expected; not only in the world of music and the arts, but also in everyday life.
However, beyond the disquisition of adorers and detractors, Rihanna, still pregnant, acted and the organizers of the event either respected the contract in her condition, or already arranged it in knowledge. It is not the first time it has happened (remember Beyoncé’s performance at the 2017 Grammys with her pregnancy of twins); but it is not usually recurring, despite the fact that 30% of the music industry is made up of women according to Women In Music (WIM).
Of pregnancies and labor gaps
Generally, non-hegemonic bodies —among which are pregnant women— are excluded from events with a media impact, such as the Super Bowl.
Pregnant women and other pregnant people often encounter obstacles or discrimination due to their status in the world of work. In U.S.A., the claims for pregnancy-related discrimination increased by 35% in the past decade. Likewise, from 2001 to 2012 the courts of that country paid 150 million dollars in damages in discrimination cases related to pregnancy. In Canada, the Human Rights Commission reported that one in ten discrimination claims is related to pregnancy.
In Mexico, a 2016 survey reflection that, of the women surveyed who were employed, 17.3% had suffered some form of employment discrimination related to pregnancy. 11.5% had been asked for a pregnancy test to access a job and 3.6% to continue in it.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) itself has detected that there are dismissals as a result of pregnancy or forms of harassment so intense that the person is forced to resign. It is common for them to be required to sign guarantees that they will not become pregnant; others are forced to take a pregnancy test before hiring and are often denied maternity leave.
I lived this experience firsthand in Mexico. Being pregnant and working without having all employment benefits, I informed my superiors of the pregnancy. My contract was terminated a few months after my announcement.
Hence, more than looking at the movements that Rihanna did or did not do in the Super Bowl, or the clothes she wore or did not take off. The exemplary thing that we should recover from the event is that a pregnant woman has managed to act on stage, her rights are respected and her pregnancy is asserted in front of the eyes of the world.
We are not talking about anyone; Rihanna is a millionaire artist whose contract could be very expensive to stomp on. However, she symbolically, she poses the possible and desired scenario for employers and employees and, without a doubt, a novelty in the world of entertainment.
Pregnant bodies do not want?
Due to her pregnancy, according to some reactions in the networks, Rihanna automatically became a subject that does not arouse desire. And this has been claimed as an “achievement” in the face of the phenomenon of the hypersexualization of women on the screen and in the media. A kind of “pregnant Rihanna vs. the sexualizing patriarchy”.
However, I wonder if we are really interested in de-eroticizing/desexualizing pregnant people. Because? In what way could it be revolutionary or transgressive? Why assume that a pregnant woman is equivalent to a de-erotized subject?
Hegemonic religions and Judeo-Christian morality have influenced the construction of the pregnant woman as an object of purity and chastity, free of desire. The image gains strength and is reproduced through various narrative forms; the media and even medicine. It opposes the desiring and desired woman, whose fetishization excludes the ideal of the pregnant body, and is modeled by hegemonic beauty patterns subordinated —many times— to the sex-erotic designs of masculinity.
Faced with this dichotomy, some aspects of feminism, in their desire to avoid hypersexualization of women’s bodies, have produced as a side effect that, for example, a pregnant woman is seen as an unwanted subject. The “Rihanna effect” at the Super Bowl proves it.
I remember the movie Her (2013), directed by Spike Jonze and starring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlet Johansson (always in off). On the tape there is a scene, very beautiful and erotic, in which the protagonist sexually fantasizes about the image of a naked pregnant woman. It draws attention as pregnant people are often de-sexualized under the justification of various myths: the fragility and purity of pregnant women vs. the “sinful” sex.
Misconceptions persist about the discussion: that sexual intercourse during pregnancy can harm the fetus; that can cause premature labor; that libido and lubrication are lost due to hormonal changes. It is also a myth that orgasm is abortive or that the fetus will remember intercourse. However, one of the main taboos of sex during pregnancy is usually related to the fact that a pregnant person’s body would not be attractive.
Of course, there are cases in which, during pregnancy, sexual rest is clinically indicated for some medical reason. However, the fabrications built for centuries around the state of pregnancy and the sexuality of pregnant women are very distant from science.
During my pregnancy I felt far —physically and emotionally— from the de-eroticization to which we are apparently “destined” while we are pregnant. My desire in that phase remained intact and I experienced sexuality from other dimensions. In this process I learned that there can be an erotic and sexual power in pregnancy. For me it was a spontaneous process, but halfway, because I also consciously submitted to a self-scrutiny, a review and questioning of my own experience and an intentional debunking of these myths. I was certain—even more so—of the poverty of our sexual education. It becomes very old.
Rihanna displayed power on stage, moments of dance and erotic and suggestively sexual gestures. But, above all, she lavished her acting talent and stage projection, understanding her condition, the height of the floating slopes and the challenge of the event itself.
I loved watching it and thoroughly enjoyed the show. The mere presence of her as a pregnant woman, accompanied by the beats of we found love, umbrella, rude boy and work while she danced—of course she did—she made her shine like a diamond.
