By Hedgewolf
If you’re like me, you missed the Superbowl this year. Truth be told, if you’re like me you probably missed the Superbowl last year as well.
Whether or not you care, you know about the mishap that took place during the singing of the National Anthem. Christina Aguilera missed one of the lines to the Star Spangled Banner, while the camera registered the wincing faces of soldier and coach alike.
Since I don’t live in America, I can’t really tell what the reaction was from my immediate social circle. Because the song in question was highly patriotic in nature, my thoughts and feelings bear significantly less weight. Nevertheless, I admire the United States as both a neighbor, and cultural twin to my own Canada.
I couldn’t help but think; what would the reaction have been if it were a male vocalist who botched the anthem? Would they receive the same mercy and sympathy that Aguilera got?
Since Christina Aguilera agreed all those months before the show to sing, she must have invested some preparation before the big date. It’s a complicated ballad, and takes talent and work to get it right. Given her vast wealth and fame from a long singing career, she didn’t have much to lose or gain from agreeing to it though.
After the fact, I caught snippets here and there of various talking heads giving their 2 cents on what had happened. There was no shortage of consolation to the poor girl who everyone seemed to unanimously agree, was under great stress and deserved our collective pity. Sadly predictable was the statistics on how many Americans don’t know the lyrics. It would seem that any who expressed anger and disappointment were either heartless, or hypocrites who expected too much from her.
However, it’s not like Christina Aguilera isn’t used to performing for massive crowds. Nor is she simply “losing her groove” so to speak. It comes with the territory, and the Superbowl isn’t exactly something she can cancel and reschedule. (honestly, I don’t know if the organizers had a plan B).
Despite all this, still the question on my mind was: what would the reaction be if it were a male singer who messed up the lyrics? How would the American public respond? What repercussions (if any) would it have on his career?
To those reading this and saying that I should seek psychiatric help for obsessing over something this trivial and mundane, I say: wake up and smell the Astroturf. This society where I live in, I’m forced to see everything through the emerald of Marxist dialectics. (Why not more women doing this, being that etc.)
Those of us on this site see time and time again the shortsightedness of fathers in relation to their daughters’ capacity for folly. “Daddy’s little girl can do no wrong”. Seeing how lax and apathetic the reaction to Aguilera’s mistake was, leads me to believe that the problem has surfaced. It became visible to those who know that it is getting more and more costly to be a man in this day and age.
A part of me wants to blame it on the overall decline witnessed in America, the complacency, the lowered standards. I soon after realized that standards are lower. We’ve allowed those turncoats who we refer to as “Manginas” and “White-knights”, to get rid of the standards for our women altogether. Ironically, Aguilera knows this more than anyone. Years ago she propelled her career by choosing to make provocative performances, and sexually “empowering” songs.
Christina Aguilera made a mistake: messing up an American song, on an American event, and an American day. Where chastisement was due, pity and tears were given. Lets learn from all this while the memory is still fresh. What holds true in the courts, schools, workplaces, halls of government, is now true for the Superbowl halftime show: “Daddy’s little girl can do no wrong”.
