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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
As opposed to feeling happy that Miley Cyrus might be confident in herself, and comfortable in her sexuality.
Out of all people, T C-F, I thought you would be the last to push a sexist canard.
It's the straightforwardness of the sexual imagery in the Elle photos that trips our cultural inappropriateness alarm. Instead of sexualizing her childlike innocence and naivete, it pictures her as a sexually-motivated and experienced teenager (similar to the apparently outrageous bed sheet photo). Miley has crossed that fine cultural line between sexy purity and sexiness that is actually sexual.
The boots don't bother me. I don't know how affluent teenagers dress in San Francisco, but those boots or variations on a thigh-high boot theme are a fairly common sight across a vast spectrum of fashionable women in New York City, including rich teenagers in my neck of the woods. (Think less "mid-life crisis," more "fashion victim.") I saw a variation on those boots in Delia's, the catalog for teenage girls. My nieces keep me current on what's stylish. What I don't like is the "Come hither" stare combined with the "Fuck me" positioning on the table. Billy Bobby is definitely upping the game in pimping out celebrity offspring.
I only clicked on this to see her in the hooker boots! Thanks for nothing!
Is that some sex thing that I haven't heard of?
How is this different from any other celeber-teen out there? These photos aren't any different than photo shoots from just about every other famous 16 year old for the past decade (or maybe longer).
Bent back over a table. Submissive. Yet aggressively, erotically dressed. And underage.
Ick.
The uproar is likely due to the fact that her fan base is generally younger than she is. All the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus fans in my circle of family and friends are between the ages of 6 and 11. She must have older fans, but I think it's the preteens that make up the bulk. Therefore, whatever outrage these photos are generating is probably coming from the parents of young children.
As for Ms. Cyrus declaring she's not a kid, good luck with that. Hopefully she's taken a page from Mandy Moore and not Britney Spears.
Her family and especially her father should probably stop pretending she's an entirely unthreatening cookies and cream picture of homespun Americana if they don't want to spark controversy when she takes explicitly sexualized photos.
She gets shit over it for the same reason Britney Spears did in her early years. It's fucking absurd to pretend these girls are whitewashed scions of mostly purity to comfort Red State parents and hawk them as sex symbols at the same time.
Miley Cyrus doesn't really have the PR, the fanbase, nor the features of a fashion model. In fact, that cover looks like some weird amalgam of Elle and Teen People. What were the editors thinking?
Anymore pics? Much ado about nothing. These, like everything else is fodder to gawk at, and then forgotten. Sigh think - it's Vanity Fair/Elle/Cosmo! It's what they do. Moving on to the next thing.
Is the outrage just over the POWER that the female wields in this matriarchal society?
In that case, I'm pissed too. Miley can do what she wants, but I will use her f'ing $$$$ behavior against feminist sexists who want everything: every single power that any male enjoys, PLUS the power to control access to sex, the power to control reproduction, the power to leverage sexist HR policies written into corporate reference materials, the power to abuse and humiliate men at will in the courtroom with no material evidence whatsoever...
I will tell my (currently 3YO) son when he's in his 20's, "look, son, it's a woman's world, but here's how to make your way in it anyway..."
I just hope in 20 years, American society will find a little balance and give men an equal shake.
Paris Jackson! Calling Paris Jackson!
We have a vacancy in the presexual youth pop market.
Luckily she isn't related to Sarah Palin , otherwise you would have used "trailer park trash" to describe her.
Daddy traded daughter for a celebrity pop star. Who cares about her childhood, she is rich, dammit, RICH!
That worked out great for the Olsen twins.
Wanna bet MJ's manger has already talked to Paris about doing an album to follow up the the MJ Tribute convert.
....let's encourage these children to have sex by creating a sexually charged society for them to live in and emulate, while simultaneously not teaching them about contraception or family planning and then go completely ape-shit when they get pregnant and consider having an abortion. It's ok - we'll 'get even' by assassinating the doctor who performed the abortion.
Welcome to the world of the Republican, Right-Wing, "Christian", lunatic fringe.
Ok, not to be overly critical of this article, but I think that you've exposed a double standard. Sixteen year-old models have been photographed in sexualized poses, lingerie, and swimsuits for years. I'm not condoning that practice, but what makes Miley so news worthy? Aren't the other nameless teen models too young also? Is the criticism of her photographs related to her Disney Channel show and her influence on young children? If that is the case, then shouldn't we be more concerned about all the unrealistic, sexualized images of women in the media all together? It is just as dangerous, if not more so in some cases, than the image of Miley. she's just one in a parade of overly exposed teens in print. Big deal.
... Salon pretends to decry the cheap sexualization of a young woman that Elle magazine is using to sell magazines, while... wait for it... using the very same image in the prime shot of their own online magazine!
Salon is doing the exact same thing for the exact same reason: to make money.
Paying any money to Elle for using that image commercially? If not, why shouldn't they sue?
What's silly is the idea that a well-past-puberty 16-year-old is a child. That she's a child is an artificial legal and social construct -- biologically she's a woman. In other cultures women that age are married mothers. In the United States only 50 years ago the average age for marriage for women was 17. Furthmore, she's over the age of consent for more than half the states in the U.S., so even by our laws she's legally entitled to be sexy.
The forces in our society that rail against the sexualization of young women are just as much liberal as they are conservative, and both sides of the political spectrum are equally guilty of sending girls in their mid-teens mixed messages about whether they're supposed to look and act more like children four years younger or like women four years older.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
