The Jennifer Lopez phenomenon has often seemed to me to be a bit above what she could inspire. She’s not a great actress, but she’s good. She’s not a good singer, but she has hits. And she came out ahead as a Latin superstar when she had no competition. There are many versions of J-Lo (as she is better known) in Hollywood, singer-actress-influencers who are average, but still stars. However, of them all, only she deals with constant questioning. It seems unfair to me.

Her career is one of respect, even without award nominations. It has remained active and in demand for almost four decades, and for much less, others have already retired. J-Lo’s status is unique in many ways and one of the things that sets her apart is precisely her honesty and transparency. Her personal life is quite public. Her dedication to giving her best, is transparent. So why is everyone “happy” with yet another stumble from the diva?

The aggression against J-Lo’s happiness, which she turned into a film/documentary/fantasy with This Is Me… Now: A Love Story seems to have been the last straw, but even Variety questions what they call the effect of “society’s distorted pleasure in seeing strong women fail.” And they are right when resuming her romance with Ben Affleck 19 years later and marrying who she declared to be “the love of her life” repeated the same drama of an extremely public and humiliating breakup for her. Again: it seems unfair to me.

For weeks now, the world of entertainment has been following what they guarantee will be the definitive separation of what came to be nicknamed Benniffer. The wedding with Affleck, this time, took place (20 years ago they broke up days before the party) but it didn’t last two years of living together. For those who saw the first season, there is no twist for the second. He’s in This Is Me… Now: A Love Story so it’s a bit of a paradox to claim that what’s getting in the way is what they call “J-Lo’s habit of exposing her personal life.” She ALWAYS did this and it was a success, it’s not like he, of all people in the world, didn’t know what she was like. If there are problems between them, I suspect there are others.

But going back to other people’s evil, in addition to the film and the album, the singer had been working for months on what would be a grand tour, where she would sing hits and not just focus on the last album, but although tickets were selling well in some markets, they were not it was encouraging. And with all of this going on, the tour was canceled so Jennifer “could spend more time with family and friends.” Her every step has been monitored to prove that her husband is not in that circle.

As Variety points out, the wave of cancellations of shows in large venues has been constant, but when they are female artists the articles are more personal, and when they are men it is either because of the market or it is not even questioned. I’ll go further: in J-Lo’s case it’s even more cruel, people seem to be celebrating the double failure.

The crisis of live shows in large stadiums reveals that once again the music industry is in crisis. When sales fell, it was the shows that “saved” the artists and apparently even that has been problematic. In Brazil, there is the same impasse, so it is not something that is provoked or directed at Jennifer Lopez. What we can see is that it is going through an extremely difficult phase.

Whether Benniffer will prove the world wrong, it looks like we’ll soon know. Unfortunately, uniting Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez does not seem to be profitable. After the disastrous failure of Gigli, a 2003 film that is a reference to other people’s embarrassment, This Is Me… Now can also be cited as a “miscalculation”. Nothing that justifies rooting for the artist’s unhappiness.

Can we root for her? I think it’s worth it, don’t you?

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