Saturday, February 4, 2012

Bad Girls from M.I.A.


On the one hand, I love the commentary on anti-woman driving laws.  I'm relieved that no more redheads are getting exploded.   I'm relieved that I don't have to revisit my conflicted feelings about Straight to Hell's inevitable downgrade from song to sample. But I am so confused. 

Oh, great.  The liberation of Kuwait has begun. 


What on Earth are you wearing?  Also—note Arab-attired men in background standing with arms crossed.


Ladies stand (and "dance") with arms crossed.


Back to the men. Same stance, new location.  What are they standing on?  Are these pipeline segments?


This would be a great place for some log-driver type fancy footwork.



Or guinea pigs!




Ladies!  Just one in the car... I think?  Or is that a car full of festively hijabed and niqabed ladies?  Or just very strange upholstery?




Ladies!  I guess?  I think we're seeing ladies in the driver's and passenger's seats.  Except they kind of look like a Scandinavian death metal band.


Ladies!  In lamé potato sacks?  Looking a bit like Doctor Who extras?


Men! Doing something debke-ish that vaguely resembles traditional dance from the Gulf.




Back to the ladies.  Wielding guns!


This moment comes and goes and then it's gone. Guns are the new swords, but choreographic possibilities totally passed by.





(NB: Afghans in the video below, not Arabs.)



Ladies uncross their arms.


I think there was a missed opportunity here, to put a lady astride this stallion.  What's going on in that dust cloud on the right?


Ladies continue to dance with arms uncrossed!


Really?  Everyone around you, male and female alike, is hijabbed to the nines, and you're comfortable doing that with your crotch?  I admire your self-assuredness.


WHAT are you wearing?


You're being chauffeured by Claude Rains?  Because women in oppressive cultures are invisible? Brilliant!



More sort-of cultural dancing from the fellows.


An interlude of Oriental-ish dancing.  Albeit in what appears to be masculine garb.


Is this look fashionable again?  Karma Chameleon!  You come and go.