>Mileygate: Much Ado About Nothing
>Miley, Miley, Miley. That’s all I’ve heard about on all the talk shows the last few days- Miley and her “embarrassing,” “provocative” pose for the June issue of Vanity Fair.
Hearing all The Experts weigh in on the Disney star’s devastating mistake, I was prepared for some sort of slutty photo spread complete with stiletto heels, red lipstick, and a bustier. Then I saw the picture that made a thousand harpies harp:
And I wondered, Am I missing something?
Miley’s back is exposed and we’re gnashing our teeth and ripping our sackcloths? Go to any public swimming pool or water park in America and you’ll see plenty of 15-year-olds looking and behaving far more provocatively. Check out any shopping website for young teen girls and you’ll find photos that make Miley’s portrait look tame.
And we’re mad at Miley?
In Miley’s Vanity Fair photo, she’s clutching a fabric that looks more like evening gown material than the stuff sheets are made of. She doesn’t appear to be in a bed. There is no fuzzy, half naked man in the background. Sure there’s a hint of sexuality in the photo. But show me a 15-year-old who isn’t flirting even just a wee bit with her sexuality in her walk, her talk and her Facebook photos and I’ll show you… well, a girl people are probably worried about.
But she’s a role model, the other moms are wailing into the Today Show microphones. I don’t want my eight-year-old daughter to be exposed to those kinds of photos!
Well, I know Vanity Fair is really hot with the tweenage set. You’re going to have a lot of trouble keeping those eight-year-olds away from the Vanity Fair rack, let me tell you. It’s so bad that I heard Christopher Hitchens is the new spokesperson for Limited Too. Miley really should have done a music video in, like, a sexed-up Catholic schoolgirl uniform for MTV instead. Then no preteens would have seen it. They wouldn’t be caught dead watching MTV.
I have a young daughter who now is taking the vaguest interest in Hannah Montana when the show pops up on television. Personally, I don’t appreciate any role model for young girls who spawns shops encouraging them to wear midriff-baring tops and lots of sparkly makeup, but when it comes to what’s out there, give me Miley Cyrus over the other celebriteens out there any day. She’s flanked by her family at all times and if anything, seems far more naive than the average 15-year-old.
I know this because I also have teenage stepdaughters who are good girls. Good girls who get offered drugs in the school library. Who go to parties where the teen hostess is charging $5 a person for people who want to drink alcohol, while her grandmother charges $5 a car for parking outside. Good girls who hear about their female schoolmates making out with each other in front of boys, to show off. Good girls who know kids whose parents smoke pot with them. That’s what’s going on in your average public school in the heart of one of the most well-to-do neighborhoods in town. That’s the kind of thing I get to worry about every night before I go to sleep.
But we’re all mad at Miley.
Puh-leeze.
>A-freakin’-men.And if Annie Lebowitz asked to photograph ME, in any sort of number of comprimising positions, I would be naked and bathed in peanut butter before she got to the question mark of her request.Why is no one commenting on how emo she looks, anyway?
>Seriously, the grandmother charged for the parking? That’s just wrong.My issue with the cover is that when Miley was asked to disrobe her parents didn’t haul her out of there. That’s my problem.
>I had the very same thought yesterday. I was expecting to see her all nekkie or something. I thought the poses of her and Billy Ray were a little, ummmm, close but otherwise I saw no reason to flinch.
>My 9 and 7 year olds LOVE Hannah/Miley. I think she’s a cute girl and like the show as well. I do not have a problem with the Vanity Fair photo shoot (thought the one picture of Billy Ray and Miley is a bit creepy). What does bother me a bit is the panty shots she posted on myspace, the flashing of the bra and the laying across some guys lap. Even as a 15 year old flirting with her sexuality, that is a bit much and not because she is a role model for children but more because she is a child. What is it with little girls showing the world their goodies? I don’t get why they would take those pictures…and then be stupid enough to post them on the internet. My girls are still allowed to watch Hannah/Miley…but we’ve banned the pregnant Zoey 101 in our house.
>The MySpace photos (which I just looked at for the first time, btw), are way worse than the Vanity Fair spread. And yet, they’re unfortunately no worse than anything I’ve seen on the MySpace pages of some of my stepdaughters’ friends.Miley is a product of her culture and it’s unfortunate and yeah, shocking to those of us who are ONLY 15 years older than she is and would never have posted photos like that when we were teens, but that, unfortunately, is where we are now, thanks partly to the Internet, sex-drenched MTV, teen trash like Gossip Girl, and the popularity of celebuhos like Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton. And it sucks. But it’s not fair to hold Miley under a microscope when I think she’s behaving far better than would most girls in her position (I mean, look at her predecessors).
>i completely agree with you. all the mommies and the media stressing over this is just too much. here’s my take on it all:http://adventuresinjuggling.wordpress.com/2008/04/29/they-must-live-under-a-rock/
>I completly agree. I have a 9 year old daughter myself, who hasn’t seen the photo, but only becaseu she is far more interested in watching Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel than reading Vaniety Fair. If parents are so worried about their children seeing the pictures, why not be more concerned with what your kids are doing that what Billy Ray’s is.
>you and i share a brain lately. i just posted about this this morning….. personally, i think she looks like gollum in that picture. you know, from lord of the rings. LOL
>Sing it sister!It’s the media that has caused this tempest in a teapot – I already stopped watching news on tv, what’s next? give up my beloved morning newspaper? It’s frickin’ Vanity Fair magazine – not GQ, not Hustler, not Tiger Beat for tweenage boys to drool over.AND, I am soooo sick and tired of parents presenting up television and music entertainers to their kids to adore and act like and dress like (God I remember the Madonna era and more recently the Britany brigade)and THEN get all hysterical when these people change or God forbid, grow up, and act in the manner of any other red-blooded teenager.As for the MySpace pictures — has anyone gotten a look at some of the pictures teenagers (which Miley is one) put on their MySpace pages? Hers are tame AND very typical of the average teenagers pictures.OK, I’ve said my piece. thanks!
>Yeah. The people who are freaking out over this must not be exposed to the same teen circles I am. I would still take Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus any day of the week over the “15-year olds” on other shows like Gossip Girl.I don’t think she or her parents should have gone through with that one frame of the shoot (a lot of the other photos were awesome) but that’s not because I’m worried the teenage girls in my life will want to mimic her. It’s more because they should have KNOWN this drama was going to unfold because of it. There should have been a voice in her head that said, “I’m thinking the general public might object to this.”
>Oh – but I should put a disclaimer on my comment. I’m a huge fan of the Show and the books Gossip Girl. I feel like I should come clean about that since my previous comment looks as though I might not approve of it and I don’t want that held against me or my tivo.
>I don’t have a fifteen year old daughter (thank Gawd, I think), and I probably wouldn’t want her to pose for the bikini shot; but the one that Miley actually did, eh…I just don’t see the harm.Call me ignorant, but in my opinion, the ‘fervor’ over Miley’s photos is a lot of hysteria over nothing.
>Puh-leeze is right! It’s the first word in one of my two posts on this topic. I totally agree with you. But I have to say, if we had internet when we were all teenagers I bet we’d all know more than a few girls who would have posted pictures like Miley’s or worse. Remember the 60’s – free love anyone?? Let’s all get a life and focus on what’s really important.
>Strangely, I had a similar reaction as you did Lindsay.I always had a fondness for Annie Lebowitz’s work, however.I will have to pry Vanity Fair out of my 5 year old daughter’s mitts. She makes me read Dominick Dunne’s monthly offering when it arrives. She will just have to suffer with the New Yorker in June.Sigh.
>I agree! The myspace pics are worse. I bet she looks more risque on a trip to the mall. I just think she is young and maybe an “artsy” photo shoot for Vanity Fair is a bit much and of course it is to sell magazines. She is 15 and not supposed to be making career decisions-her parents should do that. She is not a very pretty or talented girl and they are exploiting her with an adult pic in an adult magazine and it is unnecessary. They should be teaching her how to handle her money so when this is over she can get on with her life.
>I’m with you on this on – frankly, I think it’s a little ridiculous for a 15 yr old to be photographed in this way, but it does look purely artistic to me, and I don’t mean “artistic” as in the shots that turn up years after an actress has made it big and she cries as she swears it was a favor for an art student friend. Also, this looks pretty much like 90457934758349758 other Vanity Fair covers I have seen – don’t they tend to take beautiful actresses and drape them in things and have them look at the camera expressionless, i mean pensively?I am the oldest of 5 kids and have a sister on the brink of highschool and another one at 8 years old. all these things make me hyper-aware of the sexuality in mainstream media, and frankly, Hannah Montana is not part of that. She is a cute girl, dresses age-appropriately, and I have yet to see her with any bare stomachs or cleavage on her show. As far as the myspace pics, well, she’s still a teenage girl, and they were a mistake, and I’m sure she is WELL AWARE of that by now. Let it go – she’s a far cry from Lindsay Lohan, and with her close and seemingly stable family relationship, I think she’ll make it through most of the Hollywood pitfalls unscathed.As a side note, the lighting is absolutely hideous. I hope they change that before final cut.
>I think she looks like she just had a romp in the bed. Lipstick smeared….hair in disarray…satin-like sheets. In my opinion that is what the photo states. A picture says a thousand words. It really isn’t Miley’s fault and nor do I see a BIG deal about it. I suppose if I had girls ages 8-12 thinking it was the best picture in the world…I’d get worried.
>Amen sister!
>I’m not mad at Miley or her parents or VF for that matter. Though I agree with Vicky that it looks as if Miley has had a good romp in bed. I’m more upset with our current culture and how the sexuality of women is getting more and more skewed. Or perhaps it’s just cultural sexuality in general? But then again, I don’t see any buzz going around about male teenage stars & sexuality, so maybe it is a woman’s issue.
>AMEN! Miley is 15. Yes, she is in the spotlight and she is a celebrity. Does that mean we should hold het up to a different set of standards than the average everyday 15 year old girl? Cause I saw a group of 13 year old girls at the mall yesterday that made even the MySpace Miley pics look dame.
>Rock on sista! You are so right about this.
>It isn’t the kids who are acting like every other kid out there that we need to worry about. They, unintelligible to us as they are, at least still have a peer group to whom they hold themselves accountable; a group they try to fit in with.In the end, these kids will run the world, and it will be the world they choose, tempered in large part by their parents’ restrictions, but not determined by those restrictions. And as adults they will be adults, and they will make adult choices, and they will raise their children in a way that permits them to survive and adapt to the world, just as we are doing with ours. Unintelligble as they are to us.The ones to worry about are the ones who have no peer group to impress, lead, fit in with, mold, hang out with, respect, or look to for answers. What’s the difference between Miley Cyrus and Amy Winehouse? One is socializing, if in a way we don’t comprehend; the other is rejecting society and endagering her own life.Miley isn’t even a bad role model, much less a troubled child.And really. It’s a great photo. It reminds me of those pictures that what’s-her-name used to take for Rolling Stone.;}
>I write a gossip blog, and I have had a huge response to my comments on Miley. I said that she was acting like a 15yo, and parents all responded with ‘my kid doesn’t act like that!’ Yeah, sure…you just don’t know about it yet.
>What I don’t get is this– it’s obvious that at least her dad was present at the photo shoot, and at some point she was directed to lose her shirt and pose with the sheet… what exactly was going through his mind? I highly doubt that her dad was around when she took the photos that are on her MySpace page– and you’re right that those pictures depict a teenager experimenting with her sexuality– pretty normal. I just find it hard that her parents sat back during the Vanity Fair shoot and watched it happen. It’s one thing when teens, on their own, try to express the beginnings of adult-like behavior but it is a whole different thing when they are encouraged by adults (who are supposed to protect them) to engage in adult-like behavior. That’s just my opinion.
>I’m glad you put that picture up, becuase I had been hearing all about it here and there, but hadn’t seen it, and now I know what Annie Liebowitz was talking about – it DOES have a classic, portraiture feel to it, almost reminiscent in light of a Vermeer, actually, and I really like it. How silly people can be. I think it’s only because it’s on the heels of the internet pictures of her, which I also haven’t seen, but apparently are in fact somewhat racy, so people are already thinking that way.
>Yeah, that’s a bummer. And to think somebody made her apologize for the pose. Ratfinks.
>I don’t have a problem with Miley. I do question any photographer, who when presented the challenge of taking a “classic portrait” of a FIFTEEN year old, thinks… “Hey, I know.. let’s ruffle up her hair, strip her down, and wrap her in a sheet!”. What the hell? Like that was the ONLY option. I don’t buy it.I am against all exploitation of young people, but it particularly unnerving when you see it under the guise of “art”. Take the fancy lighting away, make the sheet cotton instead of satin and think about how you would react if you saw it on MySpace or worse.
>THANK you! I was seriously beginning to think that there was something wrong with me for not joining in the hand-wringing. I think the photo is cool. Not so much provocative/sick/disturbing/whathaveyou as emo/goth. Very good point about Vanity Fair’s audience. She’s 15, and I imagine it’s time to start working on an older fan-base.
>I’m in a confused gray area on this. I agree with you, Vicky, queen of the shake shake, and Gertie. Hell, I think I was shaking my head yes with ALL the commenters. I feel that the picture is inferring more than it should by today’s standards…or, perhaps, MY standards. No, I’m not a prude but she’s still 15. For her to take her own MySpace photo’s proves that she’s 15. To be photographed this way makes me realize that she was a 15 year old that was *asked* to do it…by some standards that would be considered child porn. If say, Uncle Chester asked 15 year old Judy to take her clothes off, sit on a bed wrapped in the sheets and muss her hair a little, well, that wouldn’t be right…would it? But since it was done in the name of “art” and it was done in a studio by a famous photographer, then it’s supposed to be ok.As far as art, we don’t live in the time of Vermeer anymore. We live in a time of Uncle Chester’s just waiting to see what they can find online, in magazines, etc. to either give them idea’s for something evil or help them get their rocks off.Like I said, I’m in a gray area here. We don’t have tv in our house so, sadly, the only people my kids have to look up to are their family, teachers, doctors and dentists and, especially, our family’s soldiers.We’re overdoing the “idol” stuff. Some of our kids are going to grow up and be very disappointed that they’re not going to be famous for doing nothing like a lot of these “celebrities”. But I think Miley has something good going on and I hope she continues on that road and doesn’t fall prey to the evils of stardom like some of these other kids….Too much? sorry it was long…
>I thought the picture with her Dad was more creepy…
>OK, I’m back but I gotta say…I just went to the VF site and watched the behind the scenes video and looked at the bts photo’s and if Annie would have stuck with more of those, I don’t think there would be an uproar at all.The “bed” photo is Miley sitting on a bench in pants with a satiny drape wrapped around her…makes it look a little different than the cover.Now I’m really confused….go look at the VF site
>Like you said, her myspace pictures are far more provocative and troublesome than the VF pictures… funny thing is I didn’t hear as much fuss over those pictures as I have with the VF photos. Maybe I slept through it, but it seems backward to me.
>I agree — it’s our responsibility as parents to instill good sense in our kids. It’s not my job to watch out for Miley Cyrus, and I agree that most advertisements aimed at tweens are way more disturbing.
>Ive worked as a school counselor (jr. and high), worked in juvenile hall, and been a therapist with teens for a couple of decades now…so, Ive seen it all, and then some.Im not mad at Miley, Im disappointed in her parents.What good is it to be “flanked by her parents at all times” if they allow this?She is 15, not 19. I think it’s inappropriate, and that’s not the image I would allow of my daughter.I realize there is a lot worse in our society, but that doesnt mean it’s all ok.
>Also…re: the other photos….It also goes to her parents poor judgment, that she just had the naughty my space photos show up, and then they go and do this? I would think they would be working over time to convey a different message…not showing more sking.
>You just made me very happy I did not see any talk shows this week.
>Thank you so much. I’ve been waiting and waiting for the voice of reason here. As is frequently the case, you are it!! 1. My 8yo has heard neither hide nor hair of this controversy. Unlike say, like last summer when she informed me that “Britney Spears got drunk and shaved off all her hair.” 2. If she does hear of it, I can’t imagine what there will be to teach her from this, except about media hysteria.
>As usual, the hype is much worse than what’s there. It’s weird how puritanical the media gets over things like this… 15 is young, but as you said, it’s normal for girls to start flirting with that kind of stuff at that age. It’s a nice picture… I feel bad that she’s being made to feel so ashamed of it.
>Amen Sister!Seriously, ever heard of a self-fulfilling prophecy people? If you peg her a slut and the next Brittany or Lindsay, she may very well become that!Lay off that girl, she is doing great under the circumstances!
>I didn’t think the picture was that bad, except for the whole just-had-sex vibe… Which took me a whole day to get. I’m pretty sure that at eight, I wouldn’t have noticed. Or known what sex was. Everyone is going on about the other pictures… A green bra, a bare midriff, laying all over her boyfriend. But isn’t at least the boyfriend one normal? And don’t a lot of girls have embarrassing moments during these years? For me it was when I went to a Halloween party (at 15) and was sitting next to my boyfriend on the couch and he had his arm around me. The girl who was hosting the party was chunky and had acne and braces and no boyfriend. I’m pretty sure that’s why her mother accused me of letting him “grope” me in her living room. That did NOT happen, but this woman was a total witch and she and her daughter were pathological liars. I told my mom everything and she just shut the woman down the following evening when she showed up on our front porch with a plate of COOKIES, for gosh sakes, wanting to discuss my inappropriate behavior. My mom said “Jenny told me what happened, and there’s nothing to discuss.” I’ve never been so proud of my mom. We were all afraid to eat the cookies.The point is, if I’d been famous, a rumor like that could have ruined me! Stuff like this is normal for teenage girls, but not teenage idols.
>I think the media should be jumping the photographer not Miley. My 8 year old loves Hannah Montana and unless she sees it on TV she won’t see the picture. I would hope most children aren’t reading Vanity Fair. Maybe I saw the wrong picture, but I didn’t see anything wrong with the picture with her dad. The media turns on teen actors so quickly it is no wonder Brittany Spears is a basket case.
>Totally ditto everything…so tired of people making these celebs a role model and then acting shocked when that celeb does something HUMAN. They aren’t superheros.
>I think she looks like cossette from Les Miserables in that photo. You know – poor, cold and hungry. Not sexy. Thanks for saying what I’ve thought too!
>This was the best post I’ve seen on the Miley hoopla yet. Thanks for being a parent who can also be a voice of reason.
>Well, I guess I’m in the minority. I think this picture is very inappropriate for a 15-year old. It’s not that she’s showing private parts, it’s that the picture gives the impression that Miley just got laid. Mussed hair, smeared lipstick, wrapped in a satin sheet…the sexual subtext is totally there.
>I asked the 14 year olds that I work with what they thought of the Miley pic.”She looks like she’s sick or something, all pale like that.”LOLOL. The kids didn’t think she looked sexy…more like she had the flu or even anorexia.
>I don’t understand the brouhaha either. I think it’s a lovely, artistic portrait of a teenaged girl. Period. I don’t see it as sexual or see it as a girl who has just gotten laid, etc. To me it shows a rare glimpse of vulnerability in a girl/young woman who is in the middle of a crazy media circus.
>Mmm, I don’t think that’s it at all. Having been raised among many “followers of Christ” and counting many of them as friends, I can safely say that they make as many mistakes as anyone else. And I think Christ himself would agree with me.
>I don’t think the problem is that young girls will see the picture and want to copy her.I think the problem is that it is in a magazine for adults. When my daughter is 15, she might take some pictures of herself or have her friends take pictures that her dad and I would not approve of. That is completely different than if we took our 15 year old to a photographer, let her take her shirt off, and then put photos of her in a magazine, read by adult men, that often features adult and sexual content. In an art magazine or in their own home, that photo might seem innocent. In Vanity Fair, not so much.
>I’m SOOO with you. Personally, I think the only crime is that the photo is just an unflattering shot of a beautiful girl.So glad to have found you!
>First of all – that’s a horrible picture of Miley – she has chin rolls that don’t even exist and she looks like she just woke up from being out all night dancing to Faith No More.But the real comment is – I have been in an entire Libby Lu store and it was disturbing. I had no idea there was one so close to Nashville! Glittery hair extensions, tiaras, and gobs of makeup on little girls? WTF?!!! Why are they endorsing little girls tramping it up at such a young age? I just don’t get it. It reminds me of a t-shirt I saw last year that was made for a toddler that read “Lil Hottie”. Excuse me? Maybe it should read “My mom is a slut” or “Future Hoochie” – I’m all for being direct, you know?
>I’m so sick of people acting like it’s the end of the world. It’s not like she took a picture compelty nude. GET OVER IT!!! IT’S OLD NEWS PLUS IT’S NO BIG DEAL!
>Thanks, Anon. I think everyone is pretty much “over it” now, since this post was written two months before you commented on it. And yes, that does make it qualify as “old news.”
>It´s typical american! I´m from Germany but my mother and sister are citizens of US and I know the american people. I´m sorry to say it, but You are uptight.In Germany and Europe nobody would talk about such picture more than a minute.Greetings from GermanyThomas Schmidt