In defense of Miley Cyrus:
So here’s my two cents. I’m not a Miley Cyrus fan. I watched the whole VMAs AFTER they were already over and I knew there was an internet shitstorm brewing about how offensive she was. So maybe I was expecting a lot worse. But honestly, she wasn’t that offensive. She was just bad (http://www.mtv.com/videos/misc/942064/we-cant-stop-blurred-lines-give-it-2-u-medley.jhtml). Actually she was beyond bad, she was horrible. I actually didn’t mind her performance with Robin Thicke. At least she was on key there. Everything she was doing was just an attempt to mimic his video, so if anything, he’s the one to be offended at not her. Of course, it would have been better if he had his regular performers, she just wasn’t as good as the models in the video (including the “clean” version) or his regular backup singers he’s been touring with lately. But I wasn’t offended by him either. I’m never offended by objectification.
At the end of the day, Miley is a grown woman. A young one, but an adult nonetheless. She’s also a pop star. Nothing she did was anything more offensive than anything Madonna(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4okAer1HvU) or Britney (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJoaQ3PnATs) has done on the same show in years past. It just wasn’t good either. Hell, Lady Gaga danced around in a thong and seashell bikini on the same stage less than an hour earlier (http://www.mtv.com/videos/misc/942062/applause-live.jhtml).
Of course, Britney has had a horrible VMA performance too (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcwzuzWMb2I). And when Madonna first did Lika A Virgin at the VMAs in 1984 it was hugely scandalous (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXPMLTmpPpY). 29 years later, it’s ridiculously tame.
Miley’s real crimes are threefold.
1) she’s a woman… At the end of the day, all she was doing was dancing #aintgonhurtnobodywejustdancin in the same way that you’d see a million 20-something girls in any pop club in America. She also had a 36 year old man behind her getting his cock rubbed by her ass while he was singing. He didn’t offend me either. I don’t even like Miley, but if i was the #oldguyintheclub and a 20 year old girl in hot pants decided to shove her ass into my cock, I wouldn’t stop her. That’s just the kinda thing you go with. But she’s female, so we blame her. I mean, she’s asking for it. Look at how she’s dressed, right?
2) She was a child star. Really, if she weren’t Hannah Montanna, no one would have cared. Everyone keeps making a big deal about her being so young. She’s 7 years younger than Gaga. And Gaga has been doing this shit at the VMAs for 5 years. (and unfamously for three before that). The reason people think it’s inappropriate for Miley, is that they see her as a child. She’s not. She hasn’t been Hannah Montana in over three years. And she’s clearly tried to distance herself from that since then. Britney was a child star too. And she did take shit for being too sexy. But it was never this bad because i) she was never as famous as Miley was at that age. ii) she was such a train wreck in other ways that people forgot about it.
3) She sucked. I know I mentioned this before. But I just can’t hit on it enough. She was really really really bad. If she had done a great performance, then she’d be complained about by the prudes but the raves from her fans would have drowned it out (Again, see Madonna and Britney). When you try to be shocking you get people talking and complaining. That’s the point. Unfortunately, when you don’t get anyone to like it, it kind of falls apart.
But really, I say good on her for trying to shake things up. Seriously. I like that she’s trying to be innovative. i like that she’s trying to be current. I like that she was trying to be entertaining.
Too bad she sucked.