Hear No Evil

M.I.A. - Bucky Done Gun

I didn’t watch the Superbowl. I’m not against it, but American football isn’t something I grew up with so generally I have no interest in it. Before I went to bed last night, I caught a little news-clip about how MIA tossed up the middle finger at a camera during the Superbowl half-time and how outrageous the act was. Whatever. I went to bed, got up, ate a quick breakfast and took off for work, came home, read the news, watched it on the TV and there is a whole fury over what MIA did. All I can say is, good for her!

I’ve made it a personal goal with what I toss up on Hear, to not be negative or critical. There is enough of that online and off, and this place is a celebration of music, why be pissy about what makes one happy, I think! If I don’t like something, a band or musician, I don’t listen to them. Simple enough justification to me I feel. Sometimes though, the good gets dragged in with the bad and the ugly. M.I.A. is getting the backlash and fury right now and all I can do is think of how utterly hypocritical it all really is.

I was reading that the FCC is going to fine her. An undisclosed amount that could total into the millions. The reason is offense/obscene behavior that is insulting to the general public. A middle finger at a performance, where grown men play a sport that is one of the most hard-hitting, physical contact games out there. A game whose championship finale has the highest advertising prices for time slots. Time slots to air adds that feature products that usually hinder ones ability to play sports. Adds that almost always featuring girls who are shilling whatever beer or car or salt-incrusted nacho chip products, where the girls are dressed like they are going to a soft-core or quasi-bondage erotica video shoot.

But hey, the blatant misogyny is fine, the fact that some players can develop concussions and fractures and life-long problems as a result is fine, companies trying to sell us products with hyper-drive sexual innuendos is fine, as long as an add or two features animals or babies, its all good. One finger and it’s WW3 on a lady. It’s such a farce, that I can only laugh! Trust me, your new Mazda or choice in lite beer isn’t going to get you laid. I find that shit more insulting to everyone’s intelligence than a gesture we see and do ourselves multiple times a day.

All and all, I remember back in the year of 2003 or maybe the beginning of 2004 when I first heard MIA. Her EP was creating quite a buzz, for good reason. I remember that girl, who had heavy political lyrics to pretty much everything she did, and her family connection that prevented her at that time from crossing boarders into the nation where she would go on to appear at a Superbowl halftime show. A girl who has been talking about her people’s struggle for years and years, a struggle that ended with extremely brutally less than three years ago. An end that lead to the death of tens of thousands in a very short period of time. A girl whose culture refers to themselves as tigers, but she became more of a global lioness herself and there are those out there who are surprised she bites? Seriously, what were the committees who put the show on expecting? There are times I just don’t know what to even say anymore! This is fucking one of them! All I can say and finish with, is right on MIA! Right on!

posted by timtothed