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It has been one month since the Super Bowl Halftime Show raised a stink as large as the 2007 “wardrobe malfunction". The controversy is an excellent reason to discuss the intersectionality of race, culture, and gender in our society.

As a middle-class white woman raised in a religious household but who wears her open-mindedness on her sleeve, I watched this year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show with delight at the choreography and Shakira’s many instruments. Who is this pop star I’ve never heard of? And, was that particular camera angle necessary? Anyway, what a great show!

And then I saw the flood of social media posts about how tasteless the show was. How it wasn’t “family friendly”. I imagined that the camera angle was the entire issue, but it wasn’t. I read the posts from religiously conservative friends, and having been raised that way, I understood their perspective, even if I disagreed. But what about the others – mostly middle-aged, white moms like me? They were outraged by the outfits, the use of a rope (did it represent sexual bondage?), and the “stripper” pole dancing.

I wondered; did they see the same show I saw? I saw typical dance and cheerleading outfits. I saw a rope and wondered if there was a political significance like so much of the show. I saw an acrobat show like those Cirque de Soleil people who use poles and trapezes. I also thought friend of mine – a suburban breast cancer survivor with two small children – who used pole aerobics to get back into shape after her treatment.

What is behind this different point of view? Could it be some form of implicit bias against Latin or African culture?

Wanting a more informed perspective, I spoke with Teresa Lopez, a music teacher for 7 years in the in the Rochester City school district who has a mixed heritage of African American on her father's side, and Puerto Rican on her mother's side. Lopez hadn’t watched the Halftime show live, but had heard from a colleague that a lot of people were not happy with it. She watched it before speaking with me, and said of the show “It was amazing!”.

Lopez wasn’t surprised by the negative press the show received – it was two Latin women representing their culture. Teresa said of Latin women “Many of us consider these things normal, appropriate, and part everyday life.”

Speaking about awareness of other cultures, Teresa said she believes the outrage isn’t simply due to outright racism. Many people a lack information, sometimes out of lack of interest and sometimes because many people don’t want to know a culture outside of their own.

But the anger over the show is also a result of “pervasive, systemic, racial issues”. Shakira and J.Lo demonstrated various cultures of their ancestors who were spread across the world through diaspora. They exhibited aspects of African dance, Afro-modern dance, and hip hop.

Why did so many see sexual undertones while others saw strong, athletic, and extremely talented women?

“It’s easy to apply the sexual tone because of the preconceived notion of what it means to be Latina”, said Lopez. For centuries, African and Latin women had been seen as objects and intended to reproduce, and this view remains in undertones in our society today.