You Can't Make This Shiz Up!

As some of you may know, my projected thesis project is going to be looking at M.I.A. My initial (I'm still in the initial phase of conjuring up this project) impulse for wanting to write about her stem from a number of reasons: 1) she is rad, 2) I love her music, and 3) discursively-speaking (and more than just saying how I like her different colored leggings, bc this is true, too), she is presented as a culturally hybrid subject, and as I argued in my midterm paper (a textual analysis of "Paper Planes"), she is very much so framed as an organic intellectual who speaks about immigration, assimilation into mainstream, capitalistic culture, and a number of other interesting things. I can go on for there are many other reasons, but I don't feel like rewriting the abstract for my practice proposal.

My point really of this post is to share a short example of this goodness that is M.I.A. During a short interview by Pitchfork, M.I.A. comments on the ways in which U.S. media portray her. She says, "...And I just find it a bit upsetting and kind of insulting that I can't have any ideas on my own because I'm a female or that people from undeveloped countries can't have ideas of their own unless it's backed up by someone who's blond-haired and blue-eyed."

Go here to read the rest of the article.

Thanks to Jacqueline for finding and sending this to me!

And just for some "salt and pepper my mango" fun: