Last night, millions of people all around the country watched what is deemed one of the biggest sporting events of the year: The Super Bowl. In all honesty, not as many people care about the teams playing as they do the commercials and the coveted entertainment slot known as the half time show. You’re only two, so you paid no attention either way. You were more interested in the Cheese Dip and Chicken Wings than the football game.

You love music and you love to dance so I was excited to watch the half-time show with you. I listened to some Shakira growing up. I mean, if you were a kid of the 90’s you knew all the words (and most of the dance moves) to My Hips Don’t Lie. Granted, when you’re a naive 17 year old like I was in 2005 when the song came out, you don’t pay a much attention to the words or the lyrics and just sing along and dance along because, that’s what teenagers do. I appreciated where Shakira came from, the fact that she has some learning disabilities and that she overcame the objections from the first ones who told her she couldn’t sing. She pressed on, the worked hard and she became a multi-platinum award winning artist.

Then, you’ve got J Lo with a secured spot. My first “big girl” perfume was her first scent Glow. The bottle reminded me of what I always pictured a Christina Aguilera scent would come in (you know, all “genie in a bottle-ish”). I loved her in Selena and then even more so in The Wedding Planner with Matt McConaughey. When Jenny From the Block came out, I had every word memorized and the notion of making it big but still being that small town girl really resonated with me. I had those big time dreams and I could just imagine coming back home to my small Alabama town and everyone not comprehending how I could still be the same person I used to be despite my big city living.

I was excited to hear that these two ladies were taking the stage for the Super Bowl Half time show. While I don’t consider myself a feminist by the millennial standards, I do consider myself to be very pro woman and pro women can do anything they set their minds to. These two women are powerhouse icons where women are concerned; chasing dreams, doing what they love, finding success and inspiring the generations after them

But the women on that stage last night? Those are not the women I want you to look up to. That is not the kind of powerhouse woman I want you to strive to become.

What I saw take place on that stage last night was a disgusting display of everything that “feminists” have been trying to get away from. Instead of these women using their voice—their God given talents—to provide entertainment? They flashed more skin than a Victoria Secret Fashion Show (complete with ample amounts of derrière flashing and crotch grabbing) and decided to call it entertainment. If there is one thing you mama has learned in her 30 something years, it’s that you are so much more than your looks. Hear me again my sweet, smart, not-even-big-enough-to-understand-this-yet-girl:

You are so much more than your physical looks and your body.

What was displayed on that stage tonight? Another sad and unfortunate display of all of the things that are wrong with the world we live in now. So many preach “equality” and “women’s rights” yet flaunt sex, nudity and raunchiness across the television screen and call it entertainment. Women use pole dancing and gyrating moves meant to insinuate sex and promiscuity to draw attention. They wear nothing but dental floss and a maxi pad on stage and then we can’t understand why pornography is such a problem.

Excuses are given like, “J Lo is 50! If I looked that good I would wear that, too!” and “Shakira has two kids and looks amazing! Look at how great she can still move…” without realizing that each of those statements diminishes the role and the beauty of women. Yes. J Lo looks absolutely amazing. But you know what? So could I with training and discipline (or money and plastic surgeons, but that’s not the point). Shakira does look phenomenal; but what message does her hip shaking and twerking send to her children? What messages are either of them sending to their children?

Sons, this is what women should look like and how they should act. This is what you’re going to want to find in a women. Someone who can shake and twerk and flaunt her body all over because she can.

Daughters, you need to fit the mold and lose the weight. Stay in shape. Don’t eat if you must; you need to look a certain way, wear a certain size, move, sway and dance your way to “worthy”. Forget your talents and your gifts: Your body and sex appeal? That’s what sells. That is what’s important.

Sweet girl, this is not who I want you to be. This is not the role of women I want you to strive to emulate. There are hundreds upon hundreds of women who are honorable, respectful and are both beautiful inside and out. Plenty of women who have taken a stand for things and made a difference. Women who have overcome tremendous hardship to reach the level of success that they have reached. Real success is been found by following the call upon their lives within their homes and in the mission field. There are thousands of women who are worth emulating…that aren’t performing halftime shows and dancing half naked on a stage.

You want to dance and take care of your body? Do it. You want to sing and entertain from a stage using the God-given talent you have? Follow your dreams. You want to run a business and find success in a male dominated field? Do it! You want to stay at home and raise your babies? Go for it. Don’t ever compromise your heart, your morals and your integrity because you think you are nothing more than a sex symbol meant whose body is meant for nothing more than eliciting fantasy and entertaining.

You’re better than that.
We are better than that.

It’s time women start to live like it and stop accepting anything less than what we are worth.