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m.i.a.'s pregnant performance

Can I just say how much it rocked my world to see m.i.a. performing on the Grammys last night NINE MONTHS PREGNANT and due any minute? I don't know how other people felt about it, but I just effing loved seeing her bad-ass self on stage, in a sheer, tight mini-dress, shaking her big belly and holding her own with the likes of jay-z, t.i. and kanye. It was nice to see a very pregnant woman doing her thing in front of the world. She did lip-sync, but shit. If I was about to go into labor any day, I probably would have done exactly the same. awesome.

Posted by meganaut524 - February 09, 2009, at 03:49PM | in Bad-Ass Women
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28 Comments

YES! Let alone having a woman represented in the "rap pack," but being pregnant to boot! I thought she stole the show. Love me that M.I.A.

Her outfit on the red carpet was totally fun too: http://jezebel.com/photogallery/Grammys09Good/1006860054

[0+] Author Profile Page Eddie said:

I LOVE M.I.A.

I lovvveeddd it. Representing. Its like...to me, pregnancy is a serious ass example of feminity and to see her rapping with them just felt so...feminist. Like...yaaayyy! You rap with that pregnant belly girl! Represent. I was just tickled by it. And she looked like a lil black and white ladybug. lol.

And pregnant woman look so cute when they dance. haha

I'm jealous she can move like that pregnant. I can't move like that when I'm not pregnant!

Yeah, it was pretty hot. My favorite part of the show. I can't say that I loved the outfit, but I think it was totally true to who she is and completely fearless. Fierce!!!

[0+] Author Profile Page redsandals said:

As a woman who is six and a half months pregnant and working beyond full time on my dissertation (3000 miles away from my university and 800 miles away from my partner), I love seeing someone prove to the world that pregnant women are very capable. Many people treat me as if I have some sort of disease when they see that I am pregnant.

M.I.A. rocked and looked cute doing it!


[0+] Author Profile Page Kathryn said:

I love M.I.A. I was disappointed that it didn't look like she was actually singing, but she was still incredibly badass.

it was very cool to see a pregnant woman doing what she does, and not just being second fiddle to the fetus.

[0+] Author Profile Page llevinso said:

Not only was she nine months pregnant, the night of the Grammy's was her actual due date! Go M.I.A.!

And yeah, why do people always treat pregnant women like they have a disease?

Yeah, M.I.A. was totally awesome at the Grammys!!! I've seen her perform live (at the Siren Festival at Coney Island - 2 years ago, before the pregnancy) and this totally topped that performance.

Her costume was totally off the hook too - I think she made it herself (she designs most of her own clothes, and all of the graphics on her album covers and websites)!

Ha! I came to the site just to see if anyone had written about this because I feel the same way.

First Amy Poehler, then MIA. Word up.

[0+] Author Profile Page Klarrisse666 said:

Yeah...Ladi6 permormed 2 days before she was due about four years ago...but tbh...i doubt anyone even knows who she is...

[0+] Author Profile Page alltomorrowsparties said:

best dressed of the evening and kickass as ever. my friends and i were dancing & cheering for her the whole time - love her.

[0+] Author Profile Page ZacRfron said:

Uhh.... You do realize she's sharing a stage with a group of guys who abuse women as a lifestyle.
Or, for those of you who don't believe that they live the way they rap, they AT THE VERY LEAST perpetuate the objectification of women like few mainstream artists ever have.
But let's clap it up, ya know, cuz she's hanging out with the cool kids!

To me, it's more like, well, these guys are famous and powerful in music, but she is their equal that way. We can't really stop record labels from promoting or making misogynistic music without stepping on the First Amendment, but we can buy records and support artists like MIA who present a more feminist and humanist alternative.

[0+] Author Profile Page wiccaman replied to Heina :

Uh oh. Here we go again with the first amendment. Funny how something which is intended to promote equality is so often used to defend inequality.

[0+] Author Profile Page nimi replied to ZacRfron :

I always find it extremely hard to believe the naive and tired notion that rap artists (and rap as a whole) perpetuate the objectification of women like very few other mainstream artists, as if the rest of mainstream media was a feminist utopia (because that is the implicit message).

[0+] Author Profile Page Sandi replied to ZacRfron :

Basically any time a woman wants to accomplish anything, she will be accomplished alongside misogynists. Also, I'd like to hear why these artists in particular "perpetuate the objectification of women like few mainstream artists ever have." Perhaps you're coming at this from an informed and reflective place, but to me it sounds like the same, knee-jerk, racially-problematic "RAP IS THE MOST SEXIST EVAR" reaction.

I mean, I don't think your point is entirely without merit. Perhaps M.I.A. could have made a stronger statement by refusing to perform with any artists whose lyrics contain misogyny. But I do think there is a different kind of self-assertion in the dynamic that played out when she performed with them.

[0+] Author Profile Page anitasaber said:

I just watched The Colbert Report,and when talking about the Grammys he commented on her large waistline and stuff like that, not a word about how she was pregnant or her due date or anything...just that she wasn't stick thin. How sad.

[0+] Author Profile Page Kathryn replied to anitasaber :

the colbert report is satire. by saying something so clearly ignorant, he's mocking his character and the mindset that being thin/conventionally attractive is all important, but showing how narrow and unrealistic the ideal is.

it wasn't sad, it was a joke.

[0+] Author Profile Page anitasaber replied to Kathryn :

It may be clearly ignorant to some, but not to all who glorify the stick-thin ideal. Even if it was satire, I don't think it was appropriate to make a weight issue out of something so natural and important. Considering how many people on this site have commented about how they were treated differently, etc when pregnant, I think that any superficial classification of pregnancy into weight is one too many. This society is antinatalist enough, Colbert doesn't have to reinforce it.

[0+] Author Profile Page mona replied to anitasaber :

c'mon dude, give it a rest already! She said (kathryn) it was a satire. Satire's all about saying the opposite you believe! Besides, anybody who heard anyone commenting (seriously this time) on a pregnant woman's waistline would be unable to reprimand this person because they'd be too busy ROFL, snorting and pointing at the one who said it. lol

I don't know the colbert report specifically, but from what I've heard and what K. says, it sounds like it just found an opportunity to take a well-deserved swipe at the skinniness-to-the-point-of-weakness obsession, and at the same time give kudos to M.I.A. for her show. two birds, one stone :-)

[0+] Author Profile Page wiccaman replied to mona :

Actually, satire is meant to attack something which one disapproves of. I would say that Colbert shows his disapproval of having a pregnant woman on stage, while upholding the notion that women should always be skinny.

Also, on that episode, he had Michael Phelps as number five on the Threat Down. This is the the same Threat Down which featured Bears. Bears!

Also in the Threat Down, he said that "homosexuals trying to build a secure and nurturing home environment is tearing our country apart." The number one threat was a shadow god. Satire.

His exact quote was "In the last nine months, she has really let herself go." So, he was implying her due date is soon...and furthermore, that segment's entire point was for him to be able to shout "Goooooooore!"

There is no way to construe that Colbert was reinforcing anything negative about pregnancy or waistlines in that segment.

[0+] Author Profile Page Kathryn replied to anitasaber :

i wasn't just contending that that comment was intended as satire, i mean the whole show is. Stephen Colbert is a character, one that is basically meant to mock bill o'rilley and other (usually conservative) pundits that talk a lot of nonsense.

The whole thing is a big, big joke. If you're watching the colbert report for news, I feel sorry for you. what he said about M.I.A. was funny, and not antinatalist at all.

[0+] Author Profile Page Shannon said:

Love, love, love MIA. I am stoked to see a badass woman representing the fact that being pregnant is not about losing yourself, but doing what you do, just being pregnant while doing it. Kudos to her for rocking the stage at nine months!

[0+] Author Profile Page Kitten said:

Ladies(and men I might see hideing)! it's about M.I.A rocking on stage and showing the world you don't have to be treated like your handicapped if your preggers! and yes, watch Colbert it's a JOKE! Get off it and get back to the point.

And the point is MI.A rocks. Shake that baby belly Momma!

[0+] Author Profile Page PamelaVee said:

what a cool lady. I thought she looked great and I am glad she rocked it!


And as far as the Colbert Report..that's an obvious joke.

I often wondered just that when I was in my women's classes in University as a Canadian Spanish woman- I'm not a Latina, but I would have expected to hear more about Latina points of view and seen more actual Latinas in my class than I did. It's not like there aren't any Latinas in Montreal, in fact the Latin population in Montreal seems to be growing, I can literally hear it bedroom furniture when I go out. There is Gloria Anzaldua though.

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