Miley Cyrus and a Whole Lot of Wrong
I have what I am going to term Miley fever. It started when I began watching the VMA replays and there she was, in her horrible glory, an emblem of America’s worst social ills. Then, what followed, an obsessive reading and re-reading of the articles meant to illuminate what we had just witnessed. And one by one I realized the writers were themselves exhibiting subtle sexism and racism of their own. Is Miley the social ill, or is she the catalyst to revealing our deepest issues?
It wasn’t just the sideways tongue, or the bad costumes, or the wannabe Katy Perry set. It wasn’t the poor allusions to Britney, or the fact that there was little to no actual dancing happening on that stage. It was the basic fact that first and foremost, not even naked and alone, not even on the most intimate of beds would anyone want to see or experience those lewd moves. They weren’t sexy, they weren’t strip club worthy, they weren’t elegant, they weren’t really anything. There was a kid on stage with a lot of stuffed animals dressed as black women, or black women dressed as stuffed animals, and she was acting out everything she learned and didn’t learn on TV.
2 comments on “Miley Cyrus and a Whole Lot of Wrong”
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Best article I’ve read on the subject; there are a lot of social ills and issues at play here. Miley herself just makes me sad. The direction-less performance was painful to watch. We need more serious conversation about how the media and the entertainment industry are creating ideas that impact our young people. I find it especially interesting to note the black/African American back-up dancers; it’s a shame that they’re willing to be “used” and displayed that way. And, here we are on the eve of MLK’s I Have a Dream Speech. How, oh how, do we make progress?
If this had been satire, maybe it would have worked on some level. However, it was simply crude–bad “dancing” and no elegant edge.