On Saturday, February 8, 2020,  Jennifer Lopez defended the recent Super Bowl halftime performance with Shakira, which has been criticized for being sexually inappropriate.  Here is her defense: "a celebration of women and the Latino culture."

"The message of standing up for yourself, being a women — that's what I want to pass on to little girls — everything about you — be proud of it," she said.  "I'm very proud of the performance that night."

I would like to know what she was standing up for that night and what exactly she wants to pass on to little girls.  Does being a woman mean being a stripper, grabbing your crotch, and spreading your legs to an audience?  That is standing up for oneself as a woman?  Is the message to little girls that the essence of being female is their vagina?  Imagine the uproar if men had the same message about their intimate body part.

There has been some discussion about this issue on Facebook.  Americans have been called "stuffy" and "white centrist" for criticizing the show.  One person said we still have a long way to go in the acceptance of different cultures.  Lopez said it is a celebration of the Latino culture.

I don't buy the "Well, it is just their culture so we should accept it" argument.  That is multiculturalism, which holds that all cultures are equal.  I don't agree.  Some cultures are better than others; some are worse.  Some are wicked: some cultures kill homosexuals, some chop off heads, some treat women as less than human.  Are we to regard those cultures as equal to ours? 

I resent the idea that we, Americans, are to bend over backwards to understand other cultures that are coming into our country, but they don't have to understand us.  How about some understanding and sensitivity toward our culture?  Sex is a value in our culture (or it was).  Taking the sacred act of sex and dragging it through the muck is offensive to people who value sex, but those of us who find aberrant sexual behavior offensive are not supposed to complain and are accused of being white-centric and stuffy. 

Gyrating one's groin in public in order to imitate the sex act is not okay when done by anyone of either sex in any culture.  If you want a civilized society where men and women respect each other as humans with brains, instead of just groins, then it is time to re-evaluate those behaviors, no matter what the culture of the participants.

A culture doesn't deteriorate overnight; it happens step by step.  What was considered outrageous years ago is considered normal today because the people who objected didn't say anything.  As time goes on, things continue to spiral downwards until you have an immoral culture.  That is happening to us.  Multiculturalism has paved the way for Americans to back away from sticking up for Western culture.

Charlotte Cushman is a Montessori educator and authored Montessori: Why It Matters for Your Child's Success and Happiness and Your Life Belongs to You.  She has been involved in the study of Ayn Rand's philosophy since 1970.