M.I.A: Aaah…aaah…well…aah…

http://www.mtv.com/music/video/index.jhtml?_lpvid=49538

btw i saw the GQ cover and MIA is the only one whose given such a pose. all the other artists, white dudes, are presented alot more normally (in my opinion)

interestingly on a page or two before, is a picture of Cameron Diaz, who is also treated as a sex object in the picture

i dislike men’s mags because its all about objectifying women and making guys look cool

Fair enough. Thanks.

“I met some from Nairobi who told me that I was number 1 in Nairobi”.

“Don’t believe everything that you read about me. I don’t want to be a leader, just an agitator”.

Honestly, I think the photographer just thought it looked good, interesting and “sexy.” But, as Siddhartha points out, the aesthetic is common, generational and grounded in racial imagery and it’s not something limited just to “white” magazines or media, (although it sounds weird, the Sir Mixalot example works quite well here; Hype Williams/Kanye West “Golddigger” video uses similar lighting-effects).

Whatever the case, even if the picture is just a picture and a spade is just a spade, I thought the whole spread was tacky. The Gucci dress didn’t seem to have any connection to her, it was weird…

On a sidenote, my unkle looked at this picture of MIA, listened to my rant about her legs and then, without missing a beat, said “She spends too much time in the sun,” as though MIA’s legs went tanning while her head was in the clouds.

Anyhow, I’m nearing hysteria, so, I’ll let it go…

this thread is getting weirder and weirder ) thanks ang – very funny

Yeah, I had a problem with the writing too, but now I’m curious about the photograph.

“being committed to seeing it’s there” and “deciding you’e way to serious it’s just x” are two sides of the same coin, and I don’t want to be on either side. I can’t just decide to be committed to see it, and I won’t say you’re being too serious, either. Both are too stubborn. If this is a problem, I want to know about it.

I mean, sure the Beatles were genius. The Stones were sexy. They were inspirational to so many, blah blah…but MOVE ON, you know? There’s a wider world out there, with a zillion other groups. And I’m gonna love MIA forever for shoving that world into people’s faces and getting them to dance to it, yet.

So my gripe with GQ isn’t so much the photo- it’s a fashion spread, they’re supposed to be clothes-horses for designers, whatever. My problem is that clueless, dismissive write-up. To describe SL’s problems and MIA’s difficult childhood as a ‘glorious complication’ is such a case of slumming it that I’ve half a mind to throw a brick through Conde Naste’s windows with a little message on it about “minor ironies”.