Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Bone of Contention

Let's start this way. Before Monday morning, I didn't know who M.I.A. was.
Now I do.
M.I.A. is Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam. She is a 36-year old British rapper who decided to twist the arm of fate in an effort to get more than her allotted fifteen minutes of fame.
Yes America M.I.A. is the artist (really?) who flipped America the bird during the televised halftime show of Super Bowl  XLVI.
(Yes Roger Goodell, I said, "Super Bowl." Come arrest me.)
That's what got me thinking.
If you use the phrase, Super Bowl while advertising your business without the expressed written consent of the NFL, a flock of angry lawyers will descend upon you like white on rice.
Expect litigation.
But if an "artist" uses the longest of digits to substitute for the two most heinous words in American culture, expect feigned shock and awe. "why, how could she do this?"
After all M.I.A. was just expressing her right of free speech; her creative energy.
We just cannot interfere with that.
As Colonel Potter used to say, "mule fritters!"
This wasn't the first time this has happened.
Remember Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction?"
It is not the last time it has happened because I'm pretty sure that Clint Eastwood's commercial for Chrysler was a big old middle finger at someone.