Rihanna, The Super Bowl, and How Black Women Will Never Be Enough For Y’all

Rihanna performed at the Super Bowl. From my understanding, the Super Bowl does not pay its entertainers. The benefit to performing has been exposure and simple “bragging rights”. Although I have not closely followed Rihanna over the last year as she has taken a well-deserved (and often not allowable for Black women) break due in part to pregnancy and the birth of her child, I knew that this was touted as her “return” to entertaining.

In her performance, Rihanna surrounded herself with dancers and high-flying platforms as she sang many of her greatest hits. Looking fierce in a red jumpsuit and what I assumed was flawless Fenty makeup, Rihanna also took to the flying platforms. I watched as my daughters sang along and enjoyed her performance.

My initial response was I was not impressed. I expected to see lots of dancing, multiple surprise guest performers, and for Rihanna to “leave it all on the field”. Even as I looked at her figure and thought either she was pregnant or that I needed to remember that she had given birth within the last year or so — -and how pregnancy wreaks havoc on the body….

I still expected MORE.

In stepping back, I realized that we always expect more from Black women. We require them to show up (paid or not)

We expect them to always “leave it all (emotional labor, intellectual labor, etc) on the field”

We demand that they demonstrate a level of perfection that no one else is made to exhibit

And damn anything that they are going through (or may be going through) that would impact them being able to “show up” fully

Even when they do “show us who they are”, we compare them to other Black women (in this case Beyonce), and decide that they need to “measure up” or embody the Black woman that we have decided meets our standard in that moment

Rihanna has never been Beyonce

Rihanna does not need to be Beyonce

She, and other Black women, are allowed to be themselves…without unfair comparisons

Black women deserve to have us acknowledge their talents

Their brilliance

But instead, we always expect

MORE

Now as I reflect on her performance again, I realize that Rihanna left on the field what she needed to

She left….

“I gave you what I wanted to give based upon what I was willing (and physically capable of giving at this time)”

“I displayed my talent — -you had to allow yourself to see it, and if you did not, I won’t own your failure”

“I allowed my supports to carry some of the load”

“And I did it all, boldly”

May we all show up the same in our own lives — without (or preferably with) our own Fenty makeup and amazing red jumpsuit

Dr. Tyffani is a licensed psychologist who centers the needs of Black Women and Girls in her work. She is going to spend the weekend listening to Rihanna’s greatest hits and trying to follow Rihanna’s example on how to show up.

#Rihanna #SuperBowl #BlackWomen #DrTyffani