The XX Factor: What women really think.

Swagger, She Had. Sexy, She Wasn't.

I admit that I was unaware of her "whimsical" style before I saw her onstage. But if M.I.A's performance was really about her music and not about craving attention she could have worn any number of great outfits, including the unique one she wore on the red carpet that night that neither hid her pregnancy nor shouted: Look at me. Look at me. I'm pregnant, I'm cool, and I'm still sexy.

As for the performance harkening back to the Rat Pack days, I don't remember any scenes from the old Rat Pack movies that included anything close to a pregnant woman wearing a silly and revealing bumble-bee outfit. And if M.I.A. was supposed to be part of the pack that night, she could have taken a cue from the suited men on stage and wore something more in keeping with the Rat Pack's formal/cool sensibility.

And Nayeli, my point was not that she committed an ethical lapse, my concern was about the imagery of a fashion lapse. I don't think dressing in clothing—pregnant or not—that leaves little to the imagination is empowering or radically feminist, as you and Jessica imply. It's not M.I.A.'s outfit that is "debunking notions of feminine delicateness," it's her ability to make it to the top of the hip-hop hierarchy. She would have been just as effective performing with those men while wearing a suit—albeit a suit that proudly accommodates the protruding stomach—and even more so a dress.

My larger point is that young, female rock/rap/R&B/country music/whatever stars, much like the female dancers in music videos, are wearing less and less and revealing more and more of their bodies for the entertainment of whom? Other women? Themselves? I don't think so. They've brought into the notion that equates being sexy with revealing all. I would argue that's not a feminist notion but a creation of the male-dominated fashion and music industries. It makes me sad for female artists who bare more than they should, and for the young girl fans who emulate them and put a premium not on being smart, kind, independent-minded, or socially conscious, but on being sexy and famous, even famous for doing nothing like Paris Hilton.

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?