Brown Finger’s Pointing at You

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I think it’s safe to say that today’s #MusicMonday is brought to you by the letters M, I, and A. She might have had only 18 seconds of screen time as a Madonna backup hook girl out of the 13 minute halftime Superbowl show, but M.I.A. made every one of those seconds count.

…a member of M.I.A.’s camp, speaking Sunday night from the Super Bowl host city of Indianapolis, said M.I.A. was struck with “a case of adrenaline.” “She wasn’t thinking,” said the source, who requested anonymity but was with the artist at Lucas Oil Stadium. “It wasn’t any kind of statement. She was caught in the moment and she’s incredibly sorry.” [link]

 

So, it wasn’t a political statement – she was caught in the moment. She has yet to issue an actual apology. The song itself, as I mentioned before, is pretty lame and a brown middle finger was the highlight of that tune. The full SuperBowl halftime show was, on the other hand, pretty awe inducing.

As for M.I.A. and her brown finger. Well, everyone is stumbling to point the blame finger at someone else.

NBC has apologized for airing footage of M.I.A. flipping off the cameras while delivering the line “I don’t give a shit” during Madonna‘s Super Bowl halftime show. “The NFL hired the talent and produced the halftime show,” NBC said in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter. “Our system was late to obscure the inappropriate gesture and we apologize to our viewers.”

 

The NFL have also issued an apology for the incident, but placed the blame on NBC’s censors. “There was a failure in NBC’s delay system,” spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a statement. “The obscene gesture in the performance was completely inappropriate, very disappointing, and we apologize to our fans.” [link]

How bad was it? Compared to Janet Jackson’s flash or the controversial kiss between Madonna and Brittany Spears, I’d say pretty insignificant. And compared to the misogynistic SuperBowl commercials, I’d say it was refreshing to have M.I.A.’s rebellious voice (finger?) heard (seen?). I like what Sasha had to say about it:

Fine, it may not be legal to flip the bird on television, but that’s simply a remnant of the fifties we haven’t shaken. Unless somebody was handing out Xanax with the foam fingers, Lucas Oil Stadium was ringing with the music of profanities last night. More to the point, television viewers were submitted to ad after ad that likened women—negatively—to sofas, cars, and candy. Mr. Winter didn’t have anything to say about that, so I’d like to raise both of my middle fingers to him and anyone who thinks profanity is somehow more harmful to our children than images of violence and misogyny. [link]
And since images work better for some people than words. How about this?(H/T Bennett)

M.I.A. Flipping the Camera and Back Up Dancers with Their Crotches Up

2 thoughts on “Brown Finger’s Pointing at You”

  1. Just like the Janet Jackson thing, it was something most viewers did not even notice at the time. If these so called family council idiots did not highlight them , the very tiny incident would have been forgotten. Now by highlighting it, they sensationalized a trivial gesture like this.NFL and NBC should have just ignored those idiots instead of apologizing that much.

    As much as I prefer classic rock to Madonna, this year’s show was better than most of the half time shows. There was a good mix of old and young among the performers. It did not seem like a rushed jumble like the Steven Tyler, Britney Spears , Justin act from years ago. Very nicely done even if there was a lot of lipsynching. This was what I was hoping the Black Eyed Peass show would have been like last year instead of the mess it ended up being.

  2. She’s just an over paid pop star. Let’s not lose perspective here. She profits from an event that is the pinnacle (nadir ?) of all the commercial and consumer excesses of the USA. “Rebellious voice” meh… I think not.