I am a huge fan of Rihanna. Her music and entrepreneurship are refreshing to see in the media. Thus, I was more than excited to see her Super Bowl Performance. However, I left feeling a little underwhelmed, but mostly questioning what I expected and wanted out of her performance. I felt a lack of luster throughout the performance, but when I realized she was pregnant, it all made sense to me. She still did a lot of work even though she was criticized for not giving what people wanted. She sang her heart out and danced with possibly hundreds of dancers, and we as a society still wished for more.
I think back to Adam Levine’s Super Bowl performance, where he pretty much did the same thing and people loved it. This brings us to the conversation: why are women expected to do so much more, and should they work while pregnant? In my opinion, I think the stigmatism towards female artists will never fade. They must perform 10 times what a male artist has to because if not, they seem lazy.
Rihanna has the comfort to work while pregnant and supporting herself if she chooses not to work. Many women do not have this luxury and have to work while pregnant, which can be extremely uncomfortable or painful. The system doesn’t support them outside of the terms of the legal time they are allowed off. I think that instead of worrying about how Rihanna handled her performance, we should take into consideration the many women who are forced to work because of money. To work while pregnant seems normal to us because in America it’s what is expected of parents. However, millions of women in 38 separate countries can be fired for being pregnant. It is deemed inconvenient for employers to let them work if they so choose to or even need to. Rihanna’s performance is much more than a pop culture moment, it helps us peer into the lives of women across the globe, just like Rihanna. They must work and if they don’t give all they can, they are deemed unworthy of praise.