Had your share of reading about Miley Cyrus? Well, that’s too f*cking bad (as the wholesome singer might say).
Catharine Cody waxes poetic about the toxic twerker in today’s guest post. FYI, Ms. Cyrus is currently appearing (in the nude, of course) on the cover of Rolling Stone….
I’ll be the first to admit that I really liked Miley Cyrus back in the day (“the day” being sophomore year of college.) We JAMMED to her songs in the car, getting ready for class and at the bars. She was our Karaoke go-to, along with Lady Gaga, Britney Spears & the Spice Girls of course. One of my little cousins even told me once that I looked like Hannah Montana! #Winning!
One of her first songs after dropping her Disney Hannah Montana persona is “See You Again,” where Miley talks about the crazy things she does to get boys to notice her. Throughout the song she says, “My best friend Leslie says, ‘Oh she’s just being Miley.” But the second she shaved her head and forced the word “twerk” into our vocabulary, she stopped “just being Miley” and transformed into something or someone else.
I didn’t watch the VMAs live because Breaking Bad was on. Enough said. But, I did receive live text updates from my friends. I thought they were just messing around until my CNN push alerts started to come through. When I watched the YouTube video the next day, I was literally agog AND aghast. My sweet little Miley! What hath thou done???
“OK, OK,” I reasoned to myself, “it’s just Miley being Miley.” But then she released the “Wrecking Ball” music video where she’s licking a sledgehammer and gyrating on a wrecking ball- naked. Then she performed at the iHeartRadio Music Festival wearing a white mesh dress and little else. Then she posed nude on the cover of the most recent issue of Rolling Stone.
No matter how good Miley’s new “Wrecking Ball” song sounds, I think of her stupid tongue and her general sleaziness every time I listen to it. Watching her transformation from Hannah Montana to the train wreck she is today is akin to Walter White’s transformation from a meek chemistry teacher to a psychopathic meth dealer. The only difference is I still root for Walt. Miley’s off my list now.
There may be hope left for Miley, though. As she says in “See You Again,” hopefully the next time we hang out, she will redeem herself. Only time will tell.
People give you what you ask for via transmission of energy or what you broadcast out.
Let’s not make it acceptable for black people
to call one another the N word while it’s unacceptable
for anyone else to. And the Black females (mostly the younger generation of Black
females), are they not generally looked upon as and called “hoes.
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You raise a great point, Kim. But the thing is, we don’t see her going home & wearing sweatpants and eating chicken fingers. We see her twerking and gyrating. I’d love to see the down to earth Miley you speak of!
Miley’s character of “Hannah Montana” was a young girl who lived two separate lives. On the weekdays, she was the typical girl next door, going to school and hanging with her best friend. Then when Friday night rolled around, she transformed into a blonde-haired pop star who was praised by thousands of fans for prancing on stage and dressing up in costumes. I’m thinking that Miley might have learned a little something from that silly show and is much smarter than we are giving her credit for. The public doesn’t care about the girl next door, they want to see a star who’s wild and puts on a show.
I bet Miley goes home at night, throws on some sweatpants, puts that over used tongue to rest, and snacks on chicken fingers and popcorn just like the rest of us. She knows what the public wants to see: and homegirl is ‘twerking’ us.
All valid points wrecking ball Miley is not a good role model for youngsters. I am not a parent but I did have a parent who pointed out the absurdity of celebrities and their antics when I was younger. For me personally their ridiculousness is just a source of entertainment, a guilty pleasure if you will.
I agree. She tries entirely too hard and is not pulling it off. If she wants to act like a 21 year old college party girl and experiment with her friends then do it behind closed doors. Glorifying drugs is ridiculous especially when your fan base is mostly 12 year old girls. She doesn’t seem to understand that no one thinks this image makes her look mature and it will not attract older fans. It makes adults laugh at her and parents want to block her from any remaining fan base she has.
Interesting comment, Nick Deuce. I respect your opinion, but I believe you’d feel differently if you had 11-year-old, highly impressionable ND’s running around who think such sleazy behavior is not only acceptable, but something to which one should aspire. And, that my friend, would lead to an even more precipitous decline in our society’s standards..
Thanks for the comment, ND. I understand where you are coming from and that you think she is “just being Miley,” but I’m also scared that my little cousins who still adore her will think that twerking and licking metal sledgehammers is now acceptable. For the tweens who still love Miley as Hannah Montana, it’s not appropriate to gyrate on other people or get naked in public!!
I have to say although many are criticizing Miley’s new image I have personally become a bigger fan of her now than I ever was when she was Hannah. Admittedly her image is teeming with too much tongue and twerking, but I can think of a dozen celebrities (especially 20-somethings) that have made similar overtly sexual statements. Unfortunately I believe Miley does not think of the implications of her actions especially on the scale of appropriation of black culture that many are accusing her of. Now I’m not saying she shouldn’t be held responsible for any negative backlash that she’s receiving but I think realistically she is “just being Miley” or a 20-year old who is trying EXTREMELY hard to detach herself adult self from her disney self. Finding/defining yourself is hard enough when your peers and your family are the ones judging you. I can only imagine that difficulty increases when your peers are celebrities and all of America is watching.
In short great post but I am still #TeamMiley .