I thought Hirschberg's style was easy to read, entertaining and unbias as she detailed M.I.A's political, personal and family values.
The juxtaposition of the feminine, nurturing image of Maya being "nine months pregnant (to the day)" and her position on stage with " the male titans of rap" perfectly conveyed the idea that she has managed to make a place in a male dominated media. The device also introduced the fact that there are two sides to her personality, M.I.A the star and Maya the wife and mother, which is explored later in the text.
Hirschberg subtly exposes M.I.A's contradictory nature by quoting her statement of " you've gotta embrace the pain. Embrace the struggle," made before her son's birth, and then quickly reporting that " as it was, Maya gave birth in a private room in Cedar's-Sinai Hospital". While Hirschberg doesn't express her personal opinion of Maya, comparisons of the singer's political statements and her lavish reality.
I particularly liked the simile used to describe M.I.A's style and music "she’s surprisingly petite and ladylike, with beautiful almond-shaped dark brown eyes and full lips that she painted a deep red the day we met. Maya has a unique tomboy-meets-ghetto-fabulous-meets-exotic-princess look that, like her music, manages to combine sexy elements (lingerie peeks out from under her see-through tops) with individual flourishes (she designs elaborate patterns for her nails) and ethnic accents (the bright, rich prints of Africa are her wardrobe staple)." In one sentence, Hirschberg manages to convey to the reader M.I.A's beauty, her inability to be pigeonholed into one genre of music or fashion, her personal style and ethnicity.
Another highlight of the piece was Hirschberg's ability to listen to Maya for longer than the interview required. When Maya is speaking about how upsetting she finds it "when babies say ga-ga now. It used to be innocent. Now, they’re calling her name," instead of taking the quote and moving on, Hirschberg continues to observe the conversation. What comes next is pure gold- when Maya attempts to embarrass Gaga by showing a parody of 'Telephone' on Youtube but instead discovers "this clip has three million hits- that's more than I've ever had". By letting her continue, Hirschberg exposes the motive behind her statement about the babies- jealousy, while at the same time allowing Maya to show her true personality.
I enjoyed 'M.I.A's Agitprop Pop' as it did more than advertise Maya's latest album and instead presented her different personas within the political, celebrity and private spheres. The beautiful photography of Ryan McGinley added to the piece's attempt to showcase the nurturing and soft side of Maya as well as her determination and self-absorption.
