So. Miley Cyrus. *cue rant*
First and most importantly? She's FIFTEEN. If anyone should be taking heat for this, it's her parents. Maybe some folks are savvy enough at fifteen to make better choices, but I'm not going to judge the kid. Seriously. FIFTEEN.
As for the "oh my GOD, think of the CHILDREN" brigade: My daughter is the tweeniest tween you'll ever meet. LOVES Miley like crazy. She hasn't yet seen these pictures, and she probably won't until and unless some little douchebag...pardon me, I meant to say "badly behaved fifth-grader who lacks supervision"...chooses to show them to her.
Because how many ten-year-olds do you know who read Vanity Fair? This is yet another example of the media creating the story...at least in terms of "how will this affect her fanbase?" Now the pics are all over, and I'm having to send my spawn from the room when the fucking TODAY show runs the story at seven-fifteen in the morning. (I counted the minutes they spent on it, btw. Several more than they spent on the tornadoes in Virginia or the explosions in Afghanistan.)
~Edward R. Murrow, please pick up the nearest white courtesy phone in heaven. We're in serious shit down here.~
As for the whole "she had it coming because she said she liked the pictures" thing - I suspect Miley DID like those pics. Thought they were way cool. Because she's a fifteen-year-old girl in America, the land of the free and the home of the "good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere, but whatever you do, DON'T GET CAUGHT" ethos. And I suspect that after the shit hit the fan and Disney called her on the carpet, she was embarrassed. Because, in addition to being human? She's FIFTEEN.
I remember fifteen. I remember some of the choices I made, and the very bad consequences of those choices. The regret and shame I felt as a result. I remember having no one in my life to tell me how to make better choices, and literally no healthy examples around me, so I had to learn by trial and error. And trial and error? Sucks. Hard.
Fifteen-year-old girls are supposed to have someone to examine their MySpace and FaceBook pages, supervise their slumber parties, grill their dates, set curfew, double-check their homework, and not let them out of the house in indecent outfits. Because they are FIFTEEN, and often not capable of taking care of themselves - at least in this culture. Over in the FLDS compounds in Texas, Arizona and Utah, a fifteen-year-old girl is often taking care of herself, a forty-year-old husband and three kids. But I digress. Although not really, because is this REALLY that different? Isn't it all exploitation of one kind or another?
So where the hell is Billy Ray, besides posing with his daughter in one of the creepiest shots I've seen in a while? Busy being no better than a pimp, that's where he is.
And I'll say it one more time: FIFTEEN.
SelahMarch.com - Romance of Dubious Virtue
9Comments:
Well, it wasn't racy enough to interest my 15 yo son so ...
And yeah, the parents need a talk'n to.
Well, I'm just Captain Hardass, I suppose since my initial response is Suck it up, Buttercup. Frankly, I don't think she's anywhere near as sheltered and disingenuous as her people would like to have us believe. I will say this, however—I think Annie Leibovitz made a bad call in how she chose to pose those photos. I know that many fifteen year-olds today can and even try to pull off that Lolita sexual plaything look, but it doesn't mean that it should be done, artistically or not. Especially when the fifteen year-old in question still has extremely youthful looking facial features. Empirically speaking, the photos are actually rather jarring to my eye.
First off, the one with Billy Ray and Miley? ICK. Second, the bedsheet one? There would've been a way to do the sheet and not make it so blatantly sexual, but they chose not to do it. And this "Oh, she was fully clothed the whole time" doesn't fly because the implication given by the photo is that she wasn't and ultimately, that's what people will remember.
However, there were plenty of opportunities for there to have been a hold put on the pictures if there was any kind of question about them and they chose not to—from Miley herself, to, as you said, her parents and handlers and even Disney.
And this is where I stay hardass. She liked the photos. She went with them. I know our circumstances were rather different pet, but when I was fifteen and my mother was watching my like the hawk that Miley's parents purport to be, she also said, "You're old enough to make choices, you're also old enough to accept the consequences."
I guess it's all a matter of context.
has anyone seen the pix? I haven't so I don't know from squat.
But honestly, they do have bodies at 15. If it's not all about teh sexxx come hithering ooooooo boff me pouty lips and just about having a body, why can't they?
The whole trend of pretending that people under 18 aren't allowed to be physical or sexual creatures is a bad idea because they know they are.
Doesn't mean that I think she should be posed like a vixxxxxen sex god, but if it's her natural state (and Annie whatsherface is good at catching that) and it's pretty....well. My panties aren't going to get all bunchy.
Kate, the major shot in question is a typical come hither sort of shot: sheet up to the chest, bare back and the coy look over the shoulder. She's wearing a great deal of really smoky eye makeup to play up the come hither look yet because she has such chipmunk cheeks, the pose actually looks sort of ridiculous. Truth be told, the one with Billy Ray squicks me even more because she's practically fucking the camera with her eyes.
It's unnerving and more than a little creepy.
oh THAT one? I've seen that one all over the internet.
Eh. Teens and sexuality.
I'm watching a daily show rerun and am thinking that abstinence education and the example some student gave in testimony has far more obscene consequences. ("he pulls an embarrassed girl on stage, holds up a nasty toothbrush that looks like it's been used on a toilet. 'if you have sex before marriage you are a dirty toothbrush'")
heh. now they're talking about god stick and shame cave. . . and then... dry humping! heh.
Miley isn't going to be able to pull of come hither for another fifteen years.
Wsan't thins around the time Spears started to implode with the, "Whoops I did it again" nubile tease? I feel sorry for these girls having to grow up in the public eye and trying these experiments in sexuality in everyone's faces.
And I have to say, the videos on the shoot squicked me more than the picts.
"You're old enough to make choices, you're also old enough to accept the consequences."
I think this begs the question, "Is she old enough to make THIS choice?"
My answer would be a resounding, "HELL no."
I wouldn't let a fifteen-year-old choose her own car without supervision and long discussions about safety and gas mileage and cost analysis. I wouldn't let a fifteen-year-old choose her own clothes without supervision and long discussions about what's appropriate for different occasions and how first impressions can make or break you. And I sure as hell wouldn't let a fifteen-year-old choose to pose in the semi-nude for a national magazine, much less pose with her.
I've given this a lot of thought over the past couple of days, and I still think Miley's not to blame for this one. She was thrown to the wolves by people she should've been able to trust. I only hope she's smarter than Brit-Brit and Lohan, and can overcome the fucktardery of her nearest and dearest.
Fair enough, pet. *g* And I'm just gettin' the smack down all over the place. The Hub thinks I'm being too hard on Sherman Alexie too.
okay, here's where I buy into sexuality/image crap is a bad life choice for girls: when I think of all those runway models who peak at 18 and end up with eating disorders.
I join you in wagging a Mom's admonishing finger at Miley's family but, still, it could be worse.... at least it doesn't look like she hates food and it isn't JUST her appearance that she's judged by.
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