SHE'S OUR BABY MAMA: From Canada's National Post

...Conversely, but with similar reasoning, the winner of American Idol's third instalment is trying to establish herself as her own woman -- a true individual who will not yield to the pop-star machinery that created her. So the 20-year-old diva-in-training Fantasia Barrino speaks seemingly freely, records with innovators like Missy Elliott and, most importantly, loudly proclaims her single-motherhood of a two-year-old daughter. She does so most notably with a song from her debut album Free Yourself, entitled Baby Mama -- an anthem that declares unwed mothers "the backbone of the 'hood." ...

Twelve years ago, Murphy Brown set the terms of the baby mama debate. Well, actually, it was Dan Quayle -- his family values crusade just happened to make a hero out of the television character's choice to raise her child without the support of a father. ...

Her success is credited for bringing new worshippers to a church in her hometown that opened its doors for Idol parties. And, in a gesture that surely befuddles those who would question Baby Mama's anthemic intentions, she credits God as the father her daughter, Zion, lacked. ...

Conservatives who might demonize her find a young woman seeking forgiveness -- forgiveness for a sin they'd rather she not endorse, but forgiveness all the same. Liberals who might rally to her side as they did to Murphy Brown's, are equally tied -- drawn by her defiance, but unable to accept her terming baby mamahood a sin.

No one, in this case, can have it both ways. No one except her.

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posted by Eve at 6:28 PM VOTE

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