Miley Cyrus, Pedobear, and the Hollywood Spectacle

[The Good Reverend Roger]

"Butt-cankles" 

That outfit was what flipped me over from "holy shit this is embarrassing" to "Is she trolling?" because how does a 20-year-old with a perfect body even FIND something that unflattering? Let alone one with the budget she has.

Also, she is perfectly capable of singing well, but that was terrible as fuck.

I am more and more leaning towards "troll".

I mean, her career was sort of stalling at altitude, so why not?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

At the root of it, Miley Cyrus didn't violate any laws against lewd behavior -- official, cultural or otherwise. She was as distastefully and overtly sexual as we tend to expect in these outings. American pop culture is a weird combination of voyeurism, exhibitionism, and Puratanism that allows for almost any degree of debauchery provided there is no risk of any of the peasants actually getting some of that. That is the chief cultural rule in America: There are Beautiful People, and then there is Everybody else. The beautiful people can do whatever they want, because they are gods. They are untouchable. They can even commit murder in some cases and while they technically may not "get away with it," they remain fixed in the constellation of the American pantheon of demigod celebrities.

The one thing a celebrity can do to fall from grace -- and this is what the current debate is about regarding Miley Cyrus -- is to engage in this kind of obnoxious behavior and fail to keep up the appearance of perfection while doing so. It isn't that Miley Cyrus insulted entire communities of people with her ass, or that she looked like she was trying to mate with anything within arms reach, it was that she didn't look good while she was doing it. She became, visually, a regular person engaging in behavior reserved for the gods.

This is dangerous to everyone. It is dangerous to the "beautiful people" class because it exposes this illusion of the enlightened, beautiful elite for the charlatans they are. And it's dangerous to the peasant class because it could make them wonder why -- if this oafish girl can be up there jiggling away in the national spotlight -- why must they resign themselves to a lifetime of mediocrity and labor supporting these so-called "beautiful" people? And it's dangerous to the entertainment industry because if there's anything an illusionist hates, it's when someone sees the god damn wires.

Wow, Vex, you're on a ROLL today!

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I still say the entire thing was justified by the looks on Will Smith's familys' faces.

Especially his son.

ETA:  Smith himself turned into ECH for a second or two.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I don't get how the dude who is singing about date rape and wearing a Beetlejuice suit with her is getting virtually no flack for grinding up on a young woman.

Why would he? He was just a stage prop for her performance.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I still say the entire thing was justified by the looks on Will Smith's familys' faces.

Especially his son.

ETA:  Smith himself turned into ECH for a second or two.

Almost makes me want to watch it again.

[LMNO]

Pixie: Beetlejuice was Robin Thicke, and he IS getting a lot of shit for his video "Blurred Lines" which is also pretty horrible, from a "isn't this what America wanted" POV.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Pixie: Beetlejuice was Robin Thicke, and he IS getting a lot of shit for his video "Blurred Lines" which is also pretty horrible, from a "isn't this what America wanted" POV.

Now I have to watch this.  There is a trend, here, and I now think this was deliberately planned.

[Cramulus]

  confession: I've been listening to Blurred Lines on a loop today. Hadn't heard it before yesterday. It's catchy. ((I also feel its inspired by Toe Jam by David Byrne, which may be why I like it))

And I could be wrong, but my interpretation of the lyrics is that it's about a girl who is making her controlling boyfriend jealous by going crazy and dancing with the narrator at a party.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Pixie: Beetlejuice was Robin Thicke, and he IS getting a lot of shit for his video "Blurred Lines" which is also pretty horrible, from a "isn't this what America wanted" POV.

Now I have to watch this.  There is a trend, here, and I now think this was deliberately planned.

After watching it I have gone from 50% to 98% convinced that Cyrus' performance was satire.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

This was an interesting article on it: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/08/was-miley-cyruss-vma-performance-a-failed-blurred-lines-criticism/279062/

[Pope Pixie Pickle]

I don't get how the dude who is singing about date rape and wearing a Beetlejuice suit with her is getting virtually no flack for grinding up on a young woman.

why do you think he should be getting flack?

Because he's an asshole who is basically a walking rape joke.

Pixie: Beetlejuice was Robin Thicke, and he IS getting a lot of shit for his video "Blurred Lines" which is also pretty horrible, from a "isn't this what America wanted" POV.

Yup. I'm saying for this particular thing, the focus seems to be on Ms Cyrus' butt.

This was an interesting article on it: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/08/was-miley-cyruss-vma-performance-a-failed-blurred-lines-criticism/279062/

interesting...

this quote kind of sums up my feels about it all..

There are other reasons why the performance makes audiences cringe: For some, the age difference--she's 20 and getting called a slut, while he's 36, has a family, and is mostly getting off the hook--makes their interplay feel exploitative, even if she's initiating. To others, the aggressive degree to which she did initiate contact seemed like less-than-consensual activity instead of a playful move to level the playing field. And then there's Cyrus's troubling appropriation of black culture that pervades her album's promotional campaign despite mounting criticism of it.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

So, a woman couldn't plan something like this all by herself?

[tyrannosaurus vex]

I don't get how the dude who is singing about date rape and wearing a Beetlejuice suit with her is getting virtually no flack for grinding up on a young woman.

why do you think he should be getting flack?

Because he's an asshole who is basically a walking rape joke.

Pixie: Beetlejuice was Robin Thicke, and he IS getting a lot of shit for his video "Blurred Lines" which is also pretty horrible, from a "isn't this what America wanted" POV.

Yup. I'm saying for this particular thing, the focus seems to be on Ms Cyrus' butt.

This was an interesting article on it: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/08/was-miley-cyruss-vma-performance-a-failed-blurred-lines-criticism/279062/

interesting...

this quote kind of sums up my feels about it all..

There are other reasons why the performance makes audiences cringe: For some, the age difference--she's 20 and getting called a slut, while he's 36, has a family, and is mostly getting off the hook--makes their interplay feel exploitative, even if she's initiating. To others, the aggressive degree to which she did initiate contact seemed like less-than-consensual activity instead of a playful move to level the playing field. And then there's Cyrus's troubling appropriation of black culture that pervades her album's promotional campaign despite mounting criticism of it.

I stand by what I said earlier about her primary infraction being related to looking sloppy. Sure, she's being called all kinds of offensive names now, but that's because people in general (and popular media in particular) lack the eloquence and vocabulary -- not to mention the awareness -- to say what it is they're really thinking. Nobody objects to Miley Cyrus acting like a mindless sex robot. I mean really -- what do people think her job is in the first place? To be a singer? HA! Her entire purpose for existence within the context of pop culture is to be an unattainable, physically "perfect" hyper-sexualized icon of "what you should be but never will be."

No, she's being called a "slut" because that's what you call a prole who dares to have (or even suggest having) sex like a celebrity, not because someone somewhere thinks that she ought to act more like a "lady".

Not that this is any excuse for using that kind of offensive language. I just think the main difference here between the flak she's getting an the flak Robin Thicke isn't getting isn't her gender, it's her failure to pull it off glamorously.

[Cramulus]

I don't get how the dude who is singing about date rape and wearing a Beetlejuice suit with her is getting virtually no flack for grinding up on a young woman.

why do you think he should be getting flack?

Because he's an asshole who is basically a walking rape joke.

so I spent like the last 20 min reading article after article about this song --- I was totally unaware of the amount of dialog surrounding it! Both Robin Thicke and the director had interesting comments. Yeah, what a dickbag!

still stuck in my head though

this quote kind of sums up my feels about it all..

There are other reasons why the performance makes audiences cringe: For some, the age difference--she's 20 and getting called a slut, while he's 36, has a family, and is mostly getting off the hook--makes their interplay feel exploitative, even if she's initiating. To others, the aggressive degree to which she did initiate contact seemed like less-than-consensual activity instead of a playful move to level the playing field. And then there's Cyrus's troubling appropriation of black culture that pervades her album's promotional campaign despite mounting criticism of it.

eh, I think their age difference would be relevant if they were having sex, but it's two of this year's pop stars dancing together. If it reminds people of some kind of irresponsible sexuality, are we angry at the performance or what it symbolizes?

My reading of this performance is more along the lines of a debutante ball




as for the appropriating black culture thing, I'm not on that page - in the long run, stuff like dance and music helps unify groups. We do that little service by treating shared experiences like private property. We can't take these living collective ideas and freeze them in amber and protect them with racial fences so they don't spread or change. Replication is the highest form of flattery, and in the long run, it's how the Other becomes something you recognize as similar to you.

I dunno, I can see why some people are angry at miley, but I do get this "she should act more white" or "she's acting too black" message in some of the dialog... I think it's getting carried away. Was Elvis racist? Would it really be better if white performers drew no inspiration from black performers? How should we define each race's limitations on how they should sing and dance? Who owns twerking and how does it get passed on? Can I get some of that? When will it be okay for me to twerk?

I need to know because I'm attending a wedding.

[Cramulus]

btw, liked this article: http://kimboekbinder.tumblr.com/post/59490908152/miley-cyrus-is-brilliant

relevant snip:

Miley Cyrus doesn't want our acceptance, she only wants our attention. In this scene we are her parents and she is the rebelling teenager. She took the stage half-naked, but it was the kind of half-naked that has been sanctioned for young girls. The totally ok half-naked. Then, to be really shocking, she stripped to the other kind of half-naked - the half-naked that has not been sanctioned for young girls. And she danced with the most disgusting man she could find. The kind of man that her public (read: parents) would never approve of. And the whole show is so obvious, so badly orchestrated, so boring, that I can't believe that I am even writing this, but her show transcended its own mediocrity somehow to become the kind of spectacle it was trying so desperately to be. 

Growing up in public must be hard, because growing up is hard to do under any circumstance. Maybe Miley Cyrus is actually having a breakdown. And if she is, my heart goes out to her, but only a little bit. Because I have breakdowns too. But I don't get to monetize mine.

No, I don't think Miley Cyrus is hurting. And I don't think she's harming either. She's a brilliant young women using her sexuality in the exact way she has been taught to, to build a career and a life for herself in a world that only cares about how many clicks you're worth.