Big Time Sexuality

I wasn't going to talk about this. I was waiting for the whole VMA's thing to blow over, because, honestly, dozens of people have already expressed well reasoned, impassioned opinions on this topic by now, and what else could I have to say that hasn't already been said? And there were other, really important things going on rather than worrying about a celebrity's PR problems. Of course, as ridiculous as all of the public outcry was - as misguided and self-absorbed I found all of the attention given to the public displays of an entertainer who is paid to entertain - I still have some strong feelings about some of the underlying issues at play. Especially since watching the video for Wrecking Ball.

Full disclosure: I am not a Miley Cyrus fan...I think she uses auto tune like a crutch, and has pitch problems. But I actually LIKE this song. I do. I just think the video taking a metaphor and turning it into a literal representation was a cop-out. It was easy, and worse, it feels lazy. I think everything in the video except the parts where it's just Miley Cyrus takes away from the song itself; unlike We Can't Stop, which is a horrible song and really needed something to distract you from that fact. The twerk-filled spectacle of that video was a smokescreen to hide the sub-par lyrics and over-produced vocals/backing tracks. Oh, and the cultural appropriation that might be skirting the line of really unpleasant stereotyping at the very least.

What I think is going on here is a young performer trying to define a point in her career by embracing "sexuality as sensuality." The reason I am using quotes is because often what a young person thinks is sensual and how they are expected to project themselves sexually are so over the top, it is a parody of those things, amplified by a factor of a million. Because go big or go home and YOLO and OMG and...er. That stuff. Look. Young adulthood is confusing. Imagine how much worse it is to be navigating that in public, and to be told it's part of not only your individual identity but also primary to how you make your living. How do you separate those two identities? You don't. You the person becomes you the performer, which, inadvertently, overlaps to become part of you the person. You stop being able to see where one stops and the other begins. I am not an expert on that phenomena, but I've watched enough child stars self-immolate that it's probably pretty close to true.

So, here we have maybe a young woman in an adult relationship and growing up a bit and rebelling against certain conventions a bit, which are all pretty normal things for young women to go through, but compound all of that by also being told by people around her that "sex sells" and she needs to push boundaries for her art. She's young, and happy with her body, which she should be, because it's only a temporary vessel and our bodies betray us all eventually. Revel in your youth, I say. It's awkward as hell to watch it play out, and it looks like it's being awkwardly experienced (read: girl, you're trying too hard, less is more, okay?). But we've all been there. Just because our personal sexual emergence wasn't been blasted across the globe and critiqued by millions of strangers on the internet doesn't mean any one of us were any less confused or emotional wrecked or that we didn't struggle through similar personal-identity missteps. Money doesn't insulate you from being a big 'ol mess and being forced to figure it all out the hard way, is what I'm saying.

The truth is, such exhibitionism gets press. Good or bad, it doesn't much matter, because it might sell albums, which makes the executives at the label that owns her happy. And, as she stated, she's only doing what other female singers before her have done. But because it's her, this is different and wrong? Once a twelve-year-old, always a twelve-year-old?

Oh, America. So conflicted. We are sex-obsessed, and at the same time prurient and prudish, conservatives in the streets and exhibitionists in the sheets. We, the consumers, probably just need to grow up. Just as artists/singers probably should work on being singers/artists. And if this isn't your thing, don't watch. Go watch a Taylor Swift video. Because, you know, she's so wholesome and less morally objectionable, and all of that. Because...clothes.

Do you guys remember the days when she was being made fun of on SNL and The Soup for a whole different set of issues? I do!