The XX Factor: What women really think.

Fashion Senseless

I'm not a fashion connoisseur or a hip-hop etiquette expert, or even a mother, but I don't think this disqualifies me from being able to ask the following question: What the heck was the very-pregnant rap artist M.I.A thinking when she went on stage during the Grammy Awards show on Sunday wearing this utterly ridiculous outfit?

The imagery of a scantily-clad, or should I say scandalously-clad, pregnant young women dancing on stage with a bunch of male rappers whose rhymes sometimes debase women, was just too much for me. And don't even get me started on what this cringe-worthy antic might say to impressionable teenage girl fans.

I know I sound like a scolding, prudish Ms. Crabtree, but I don't care. I grew up with hip-hop and still like a lot of it, and despite the sometimes potty-mouthed and offensive rhymes of Jay-Z, Kanye West, and T.I., there's no denying their talent. But the men were beside the point on Sunday night; M.I.A. was the point. She made Brittany Spears' 2007 MTV Video Awards fashion faux pas seem tame.  

I don't care if she's unconventional, uber cool, young and reckless, or supremely confident; someone, anyone, should have pulled her aside before she went on stage and simply said NO! You can't wear that outfit. Please don't wear that outfit. If she has a fashion consultant that person should be promptly fired and run out of town. The British designer who came up with the polka-dotted creation should be fired too. Given the recent discussions on XX Factor about children being exploited by their parents in embarrassing YouTube videos and the discomfort those children might feel watching the videos as adults, I'd still rather see myself on YouTube looking behaving like a funny little dork during a captured moment of youthful indiscretion than see my half-dressed mother dancing onstage before a television audience of millions, while carrying me in her womb no less, acting like she has no sense.

Tell me, Slate women, do I need to lighten up and just let M.I.A. be? Should I accept that maybe she just has a whimsical sense of humor?