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After international recording artist M.I.A. flipped the middle finger during her 2012 appearance at ht Super Bowl Halftime Show, the NFL is demanding $1.5 million for allegedly "breaching her performance contract and tarnishing the league's good will and reputation." Needless to say, the rapper considers this lawsuit to be "completely ridiculous" and "a massive waste of time...[and] money."
"She is going to go public with an explanation of how ridiculous it was for the NFL and its fans to devote such furor to this incident, while ignoring the genocide occurring in her home country and several other countries, topics she frequently speaks to," her lawyer Howard King explained, adding that the artist hopes to settle things privately.
King continued: "We encourage people to submit their examples of how the actions of the NFL, its stars, coaches, advertisers, broadcasters, team doctors and owners have damaged or destroyed any vestiges of any reputation for wholesomeness ever enjoyed by the NFL."
In a new YouTube video posted this week, she responds more in depth to the suit.
"It's been making me laugh for a while but now it's so boring, I don't even laugh anymore," she said.
The rapper then draws the attention of her message onto the handful of young cheerleaders, all under the age of 15, dancing provocatively around Madonna during the same Super Bowl Halftime Show.
"If you look at them, they're wearing cheerleader outfits, hips thrusted in the air, legs wide open, in this very sexually provocative position," M.I.A. explains. "So, now they've scapegoated me into figuring out the goalposts on what is offensive in America, like is my finger offensive? Or is an underage black girl, with her legs wide open, more offensive to the family audience?"
M.I.A. also called her middle finger a "punk rock gesture."
She added: "They want me on my knees and [to] say, 'Sorry,' so they can slap me on my wrist and basically say it's ok for me to promote being sexually exploited as a female than to display female empowerment through being punk rock."
