[Is this also a 'sick' or 'sexual' photo? I suppose it's what we make of it. You could see a loving father/daughter or incest. I, personally, see a picture of two beautiful people who happen to be related.]
The backlash against Miley’s pictures in Vanity Fair should have been timed with a stopwatch. The reaction would have been fast, maybe even a world-reactionary record (where the ‘world’ is mostly confined to the United States, natch). The problem? People seem to be outraged that a 15-year-old girl is draped in a sheet, looking all ‘post-coital’.
Um. Yeah.
It is definitely disturbing, but hasn’t anyone been paying attention for the past 30 years or so? Fashion models are often naked, and barely 18. Other models, under 18, are scantily clad ALL THE TIME in fashion ads. But, maybe ‘fashion’ gets a pass. I’ve always been a little suspicious of the barely legal girls, looking dead sexy, trying to sell me a bra, or jeans, or whatever. You rarely see, however, any real backlash against them. Perhaps because they aren’t on the Disney channel, hardly anyone thinks of them as ‘role models’, and none of them are easily recognized except a few big names. And anyway, can you imagine your daughter worshiping Kate Moss as a role model? What would the Kate Moss merchandise look like? A small pile of cocaine, a meth-ed out boyfriend, and a fashionable bag and hat to match?
These photos are beautiful, no matter what you think they mean. Meaning is applied by the viewer. You’d have to ask Leibovitz about the intent. And who knows? Better yet, who cares?
Why is this ad any less disturbing? To some - especially in fashion - it was a direct strike at what the media and marketing/PR companies promote to us as ‘beauty’. This women is naked, but she isn’t half as sexualized as Miley.
How young do you think the girl in the middle of this ad is? Does it matter if she is actually 23, but looks 16? Isn’t it the looking 16 that the advertisers are really after?
Now, I know that most people who have been calling Miley a whore will also think these girls are whores, too. And, because of my own picture above, I’m probably in the same bag. But before we cast stones at Miley, shouldn’t we analyze the culture in which she exists? Shouldn’t we look at what we take to be normal in 2008 and ask some questions? Shouldn’t we ask ourselves some hard truths?
Sex sells. Until it doesn’t, this is just going to be ‘business as usual’. As a feminist, I waffle about my own sexuality, wearing bikinis, and trying to look good all the time. But, then I think, why not? Why can’t a woman be beautiful, celebrate it, and also be savvy or smart about how she uses it? Certainly, women in Rome wouldn’t have blinked at this picture, if they had had pictures back then. And, Greeks and Romans did provide the model for all the freedoms we so passionately support.
Maybe this is just all to do with our Puritan ancestry. We just can’t escape from our own prudery. And the irony is that prudery leads to more underground perversion. The more you make sex into a big deal, the bigger problem you will have. Which is great for the advertisers and anyone selling us anything. It’s a vicious cycle, and I can’t see it disappearing anytime soon.
These are my two cents. But, then again, what do I know? I’m just a cultural anthropologist trying to make sense of how we see China. And that’s a-whole-nother can of worms.
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who cares that miley took that pix its just her back its not like vanessa hudgens there she was all naked not miley so give her a bracke
I agree with everything you just said… We as society need to take a look at how the world actually works before prescribing our notions about how it should work. I think this got majorily blown out of proportion. People are more concerned about miley posing in an artistic photograph, than the situation in Darfur. What is wrong with this world??
I couldn’t agree more. Seriously… Why are Miley’s photos even news worthy??? We have so many other much more important things going on in the world.
We’re a society that uses sex to sell stuff, yet we hide our sexuality in the closet and then we tear apart others who aren’t prude.
i hate miley cyrus when she dresses all sexy
omg
MIley’s contraversial photo is just that. Thats hollywood for you though. She is a celeberty and its big news to see these photos. Half of the world doesn’t even care that the mistakes we make today (Such as our global warming cisis) will affect future generations. The press eat this stuff up. But you know what they say….. Any publicity is good publicity. Could have been her motive… IDK.
I go back and think of the Janet Jackson Breast thing back at the Superbowl. My European friends were laughing about how much an issue this was over here. If that happen in a soccer game over there, they wouldn’t thought anything of it.
I also point out the flap over the Starbuck’s logo about a month ago.
There seems to be a lot of Americans afraid of the human body. Any reference about sex they freak out.
Bill Maher once on his show discussed about how this one man was arrested for writing in his personal journal a sexual fantasy about an under-aged teen in his neighborhood. Then Maher posted a fashion model picture of a girl dressed in a mini skirt, that she was hiking up over her thigh, and a button up shirt that was unbutton to the navel. Maher pointed out the model was only 15.
So on one hand, we condemn this man for having a fantasy for an under-aged girl, but at the same time, throw sexy pictures of 15 year olds in his face.
I always felt Europeans seem to have better views about sex and violence than we do here in America.
So, is she actually naked in the photos? Any nudity? If not, why is there a scandel & what’s the big problem? From the photos I’ve seen, Miley is not completely naked.
so many bla bla bla, about such bullshit…
why don’t they gonna worry about things that REALLY matter…
this world is crazy…
Miley is a whore.
&& her dad shouldn’t be letting her do stuff like this.
It’s called RESPONSIBILITY!!!!
durrrr.
love you Billy.
I WANNA SEE MILEY CYRUS COMPLETELY NAKED! NO BLACK-OUTS!!!
Miley is in a section of showbiz that caters to young girls. This type of “exposer” isn’t the type that she is being paid for. She’s not a whore, she’s just a young girl making imature young girl decisions. As for the models, they’re paid to look as tempting and desirable as possible in order to sell there products (e.g. lingerie, clothes, makeup, etc.) On the other hand, Miley was hired to sell kid-friendly products in a kid-friendly manner. Her “breakout” seems to be focusing on speeding up the “growing up and moving on to the next step” process.
Most of the comments (as well as the original article) in this blog have been comparing the two realms of the showbusiness. You certainly don’t use a supermodel to sell to children and you don’t use young girls to sell adult products.
i dont see what the big problem is. Miley is a beautiful girl and its not like shes doing playboy or making a sex tape like some big stars we know. i guess the world needs to make things up to bid the time. not matter the truth. miley is a good girl and her father would had said something if he disproved of the picture right?!! to all the people who think shes a whore grow up and act your age. shes not naked. she covered and omg its her back you can see i guess girls shouldnt wear tank tops or tub tops or backless shirts, dresses, bath suits right??? honestly you ppl are pathedic. think about it?
Fashion modeling generally is anonymous and to be seen by unknown strangers, who will represent 99.9% of viewers. So I think our cultural understanding of it is as anonymous and affecting nobody’s reputation, except for the lewd gawker’s. Maybe it’s an understanding that evolved from that we have of artists’ models. In posing for a biographical article about her Cyrus, on the other hand, literally staked her reputation, and since she ought to know that she is “a role model,” she is in the act recommending that millions of her fans risk their own reputations in a similar way. Exactly similar is no problem–every teen should be so lucky as to make the cover of Vanity Fair. But a girl might construe posing that way for her best friend’s 17 year old brother as similar enough–is the fear.
The big thing is that Miley has a lot of dead-set Hannah Montana fans, one of them is my sister who happens to be an 8-year-old. The young kids want to be just like her, and mimic what she does, it’s natural for them to do that. When Miley goes on to pose in a magazine topless her image goes from Disney Channel teen star to just another teenage whore. You can’t act like the younger kids aren’t going to find out about it either. Even 8-year-olds are smart enough to understand what an adult means when they say that Miley Cyrus posed half-naked for a magazine whether they’re being told directly or more likely overhearing. Then you have the slightly older generation of viewers around 12 years old who love Miley and own all her CD’s. Both the 8-year-old and the 12-year-old want to be just like her but who’s more likely to be taking sexy topless pictures of themself: a little girl who can’t even do basic math or the preteen who’s already gone through a few boyfriends and has to ask if these pants make her butt look big? Miley’s only 15, soon enough we’ll have magazines featuring naked 6th graders playing in a fountain of feathers on the front page. I mean America was already headed this way, but Miley is pushing it over the top. She does get the best of both worlds, teen popstar sensation AND sexy topless magazine covergirl. You go Miley!
Who the fuck reads Vanity Fair and is also a Miley fan anyway. And it was a fuckin sheet. All you could see was her back. People grow up.
the girl in the middle does not look 16…go to a high school and look around, they are all still developing and hardly any are attractive (compared to college age women)