Miley Cyrus, Pedobear, and the Hollywood Spectacle

[The Good Reverend Roger]

No problem.

I just want to remark, for the record, it's pretty sad that RWHN is now stooping to parroting baseless accusations of racism because he doesn't want to lose an argument about Miley Cyrus on the internet.

Well, it's not JUST that.  He also has to show us we're WRONG, no matter what the subject is.  It's why he's here.

[P3nT4gR4m]

No problem.

I just want to remark, for the record, it's pretty sad that RWHN is now stooping to parroting baseless accusations of racism because he doesn't want to lose an argument about Miley Cyrus on the internet.

That's not sad, it's fucking VICTORY!!!

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

No problem.

I just want to remark, for the record, it's pretty sad that RWHN is now stooping to parroting baseless accusations of racism because he doesn't want to lose an argument about Miley Cyrus on the internet.

Well, it's not JUST that.  He also has to show us we're WRONG, no matter what the subject is.  It's why he's here.

Which is just silly, because we all know we're WRONG. There are whole REAMS of essays devoted to that fact alone.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

No problem.

I just want to remark, for the record, it's pretty sad that RWHN is now stooping to parroting baseless accusations of racism because he doesn't want to lose an argument about Miley Cyrus on the internet.

Well, it's not JUST that.  He also has to show us we're WRONG, no matter what the subject is.  It's why he's here.

Which is just silly, because we all know we're WRONG. There are whole REAMS of essays devoted to that fact alone.

I have researched a study, in fact, that indicates without room for error that we are as wrong as a squirrel fucking a bobcat.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

I have researched a study, in fact, that indicates without room for error that we are as wrong as a squirrel fucking a bobcat.

Permission to steal?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I have researched a study, in fact, that indicates without room for error that we are as wrong as a squirrel fucking a bobcat.

Permission to steal?

Knock yourself out.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

No problem.

I just want to remark, for the record, it's pretty sad that RWHN is now stooping to parroting baseless accusations of racism because he doesn't want to lose an argument about Miley Cyrus on the internet.

Not to mention that the goalposts have been shifted ENTIRELY from his original argument that it wasn't satire and Cyrus didn't make it awkward on purpose. The rows of big-butted black backup singers were part of the parody. The objectification was blatant for the same reason everything else she did in that performance was blatant.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

An interesting thing about the fairly limited efforts of some media elements to make Miley Cyrus out to be racist; they cry "appropriation" and "exploitation" but the real problem seems to be that Cyrus is not appropriating but embracing, and that, too, makes people uncomfortable. I am all for making people uncomfortable, and even RWHN is clearly made uncomfortable, as evidenced by the fact that he's still arguing that we're all wrong about this, even though what the "this" is that we're wrong about seems to shift a bit every few pages.

It's making people uncomfortable and it's making a lot of people talk about music industry culture, racism, and patriarchy, and that's a good thing, IMO.

[AFK]

You can ignore her problems with racial appropriation but that doesn't make them go away:

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3817286

All the elements of nu-Cyrus that critics have called foul on in recent weeks were on display: black people used as props (see above), black cultural signifiers like twerking used as a means of connoting that Miley's now wild and dangerous, and little in the way of new or evocative imagery.

I've written about Miley's race problems (or, racism, depending on how you take it), but here's a quick summary: She's gone around telling people she wants to make music that "sounds black," that she likes "hood music" but isn't "a white Nicki Minaj," and most recently proclaimed that she's "not a white ratchet girl." Extending her master class on racial identity to social media, she told her followers that she is, indeed, aware of her skin color.

Can you, or someone else, explain to me what is racial appropiation?
When I read the article, it doesn't sound so bad. Is it because the writer just assumes everyone knows why it's bad and it's just me who is missing some crucial context?

"black people used as props"


Let that phrase sink in a bit. 

[Lord Cataplanga]

You can ignore her problems with racial appropriation but that doesn't make them go away:

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3817286

All the elements of nu-Cyrus that critics have called foul on in recent weeks were on display: black people used as props (see above), black cultural signifiers like twerking used as a means of connoting that Miley's now wild and dangerous, and little in the way of new or evocative imagery.

I've written about Miley's race problems (or, racism, depending on how you take it), but here's a quick summary: She's gone around telling people she wants to make music that "sounds black," that she likes "hood music" but isn't "a white Nicki Minaj," and most recently proclaimed that she's "not a white ratchet girl." Extending her master class on racial identity to social media, she told her followers that she is, indeed, aware of her skin color.

Can you, or someone else, explain to me what is racial appropiation?
When I read the article, it doesn't sound so bad. Is it because the writer just assumes everyone knows why it's bad and it's just me who is missing some crucial context?

"black people used as props"


Let that phrase sink in a bit.

After tying that phrase to a lead anchor and dropping it over the Mariana Trench, I agree that phrase does sound bad.
Problem is, I don't know what that phrase signifies. It's just empty sensationalism, like "racial appropiation".

[LMNO]

Been thinking about this.  When, exactly, has a backup dancer not been used as a prop?  The entire job is to enhance the spectacle, not be an individual with agency. 

[Ben Shapiro]

Been thinking about this.  When, exactly, has a backup dancer not been used as a prop?  The entire job is to enhance the spectacle, not be an individual with agency. 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

No, RWHN is telling is, we're supposed to feel offended. Never mind that I and every black person I know loved it precisely because it made a mockery of the backup-dancer-as-prop trope. He knows better.

And the black people collaborating with her, like Kanye and Mike WiLL Made-It just don't know any better. It's a good thing they have Huffpo and RWHN to explain what they should be feeling.

[Don Coyote]

No, RWHN is telling is, we're supposed to feel offended. Never mind that I and every black person I know loved it precisely because it made a mockery of the backup-dancer-as-prop trope. He knows better.

And the black people collaborating with her just don't know any better. It's a good think they have Huffpo and RWHN to explain what they should be feeling.

I was just about to post ailment about that, and that he is basically telling any PoC who isn't iffended that they just dint understand how they have been insulted by Miley Cyrus. it's very fucking patronizing, but par for him.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/03/mike-will-made-it-on-miley-cyrus-more-than-her-twerking_n_4037530.html

I think there are a whole lot of people that just don't get it, and they are so threatened by the fact that they don't get it that they have to insist as loud as they can that nobody else gets it, either.