Three things I noticed during the Inauguration ceremony

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Some of the things that shocked me were the fact that Beyonce was able to get away with lip-syncing the national anthem, the first lady and her children appeared to be ill mannered during the ceremony and the amount of safety and security for citizens who attended the event in the crowd.

Having the privilege to sing the national anthem at an inaugural ceremony for our commander and chief would be a once in a lifetime opportunity for many performers. I know that today many well-known performers lip-sync to pre-recorded tracks at live events but for a ceremony of this magnitude I think it is important that someone actually preforms. I think feminist wouldn’t speak very highly of the decision Beyonce chose to fake the national anthem in front of a national audience.

Another thing about this Inauguration that I believe feminists would shed light on was the temperament of the Obama’s on the stage. When the choir was singing a song I noticed the camera focusing on the first lady and her children and both kids were laughing hysterically. This is one of the first times I recall seeing such a loose attitude on a family presenting themselves in a professional manner on national television. I think that some will look over the fact that the children misbehaved, but to me this strikes me as a lack of discipline in the parenting. I also recall Barak looking over his shoulder while this was happening and chose to ignore it and look forward. This family is seen as a role-model family for many Americans and I think the lack of discipline was unfortunate. I see this a lot in this day and age where parents are not as strict with their children as far as social behavior.

Finally I want to highlight something I believe western woman take for granted. The crowd during the ceremony was an extremely well mannered and obedient mass of people. In other countries around the world this amount of people gathered in a public space would almost always spark some type of conflict. With snipers posted up on rooftops and the high amounts of security and cultural norms in American society I did not hear of any issues that occurred in the crowd and made it to the news. In other parts of the world; Egypt, a gathering of this magnitude would more than likely have a sexual abuse case linked to it. These are just some of the things I thought of when examining this ceremony with a feminist standpoint.