Stepping Up On My Soapbox

Last night, in that strange twilight hour, where you're not quite awake, but not yet asleep, I had a great I idea for a blog post. I was tempted to break out the laptop, but I could only imagine the grammitical errors I would have commited at 1 am. So, that anecdote aside, here goes that idea.

Miley Cyrus photo controversies. Quite a few of them, actually. Ranging from "private" photos being posted on the net, to magazine spreads in Vanity Fair. Everytime a new controversy crops up, talk of Miley's star fading, comparisions to Britney Spears (who somehow still performs and sells records, to her credit or her manager's), and Vegas odds to who will Disney choose to replace her (1:1000 that Disney will pull out of left field and reinstate Lindsay Lohan.)

But what do these controversies really boil down to? Why are they given such publicity? The way I see it, Miley (intentionally or not) is revealing a dark id of our society. A crooked lust that wants to tear away at something, and strip it down to its' most base. The younger, the more innocent, the more we as a culture want to watch that person devolve.

I am reminded of Yoko Ono's "Cut Piece." In it, Yoko sits on the floor, in a dress, and people come and cut pieces of it away. The point is that they would keep cutting and tearing away until all that was left was a stone, and then they would want to know what is going on inside that stone. It is us who wants to see another private photo. It is not Miley's fault for that. Her actions simply show our true character. My favorite example is when you type "Miley Cyrus" into google images. Many of the pictures are from some "scandalous" set. That means that these images of her are among the ones most sought after.

What is worse is that she is worshipped for this. Miley recieves tons of popularity boosts and the like from these scandals. Truth be told, it was hearing her name on E! every other night about the Vanity Fair issue that first got me into Miley (which led to reading about her via iTunes and wikipedia, then watching her live on FNMTV, and finally watching Hannah Montana, the last step of my initiation into fandom.)

What I'm trying to say is that we should not blame Miley for these scandals. After all, in a very subverted way, we just keep asking for more. That is, until she grows up, and then there will need to be a new star to exploit.

Although Miley is not completely off the hook. Given all the history with her and other celebs, she should have some pause before posting a picture. Still, the last picture I recall of her that was overtly sexual was her showing her bra, and some poses in her underwear, which by now date back well over a year. Since then, all the photos have been unfairly attributed some sort of sexual connotation, when in fact they are as innocent as wearing a bikini at the beach. (One of the worst was when she was jogging, and her bikini was showing, and it was so overblown that Miley publicly aired her complaints to how the situation was treated.)

Well, let me try and wrap this up. Basically, Miley is a reflection of ourselves, in two ways. One, Nobody's Perfect (that was too good not to use). We make mistakes, we post pictures we might regret ever taking. That is a great lesson, because I'm sure we have all done something we are now embarrassed by and regret. Got caught cheating in school? Hurt someone's feelings? They all end the same way. Apologize, and walk away having learned not to do such things again. The other reflection is not Miley, persay, but her public image, as described by the media. That is a negative point, that she is all about sex, and slutiness, and other things, because that just shows that someone who is those things is who we want to hear about. (Like I said, that is how Miley is portrayed, and is an unfortunate perversion of who she really is.)

Well, I'm done preaching for today. So, now I recommend you look up "Miley Cyrus Tybee Island" on youtube (or other flash video site) and watch a clip of her performing a brand new song (she pretty much wrote/finished that night) in a small resturaunt. It is a cool clip, and quite rare, as Miley is not a fan of small crowds. Being able to see everybody's face makes her more nervous than just playing for an unspecified ocean of fans. But I'm sure the people there that night apreciated it.