General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMiley joins the boys’ club ~ acts like a male pop star but gets criticized like a female one
Miley Cyrus acted like a male pop star at the VMAs. But she'll get criticized like a female one
Its hard being a living doll. Ask Miley Cyrus. The singers slightly bizarre, teddy-bear twerking performance at last nights MTVs Video Music Awards has captured the public imagination. Todays news is littered with shock, dismay, disgust and approbation, on many different fronts. (...)
Its impossible to consider her performance without noting the following: 1) a 36-year-old Robin Thicke, standing onstage while Cyrus gyrated around him; and 2) the use of women as props and accessories, a habit that practically defines music industry productions. Usually, though, the people using women thus are men. At the VMAs, Cyrus expressed her celebrity and power pretty much the way the most visible and prominent men in her industry do. And while she deserves some criticism for her performance, the kind shes likely to get is deeply linked to her gender.
This summer, Thicke caused an outcry over his sexist Blurred Lines video, just the most recent example of women used as naked or nearly naked props. In one analysis, researchers found that women dancing in explicitly sexualized ways can be found in 84 percent of videos. In the same survey, 71 percent of women were found to be wearing revealing and suggestive clothing compared to 35 percent of men. In music videos the sexualization is often racialized. Generally speaking, men, like Thicke, sing fully clothed, while women dance around them, largely not.
But what happens when the star performer is herself a woman? Cyrus was cocky, she strutted around, she danced (really awkwardly), was brash and confident and made lewd gestures and creative use of her tongue. In addition, she, like her male peers, sexually and racially objectified other women who were onstage with her, almost all of whom were black and she has come in for deserved criticism for this. Cyrus has recently been the topic of conversations regarding race and cultural appropriation and ratchet culture, and last night further contributed to the debate. But, Cyrus, as other women performers do, also embodies the sexualization that can be so problematic. She acted like a man, objectified herself and other women, and appropriated several racial cultural signifiers when she did. She was performing on many different levels.
~snip~
Women, wed like everyone to keep thinking, are unworthy of too much agency, authority, power and self-expression. Otherwise, everyday people would be decrying every top-billed male performer for engaging in the exact same behavior that Cyrus did last night. It would help if we taught kids, in school, to be critical of stereotypes, to understand constructions of gender, race and ethnicity, and to appreciate the important difference between sexiness and sexualization. Miley Cyrus deserves critique for the racially objectifying elements of her performance, and even for the production of an artistically questionable, odd and distasteful set involving bears and bad dancing. But Cyrus is most likely be criticized instead for being sluttyor crazy and those words matter and speak volumes.
http://www.salon.com/2013/08/26/miley_cyrus_joins_the_boys_club/
Interesting take on the matter...
I have absolutely no qualms with what she did. That said, i do not consider it art as I consider her a C-grade performer at best. Her fame is more for her behavior than what she brings to the stage.
L-
SammyWinstonJack
(44,129 posts)HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)asked me several years ago if I thought it would help her career if she dressed and acted sexy (ala the current crop of pop-tarts). My reply to her: You are a great singer/songwriter/guitarist....do you want to be known for that, or do you want to be know as a sex-object? That ended any further consideration.
Gravitycollapse
(8,155 posts)Where you become afraid of sex.
Humans are sexual beings. Publicly and privately. It seems rather circular to tell a young performer that she should hide her sexuality out of fear that it might be exploited.
dkf
(37,305 posts)Okay I did not see her or the other women, but what does "racially objectify" mean?
oberliner
(58,724 posts)I think that is what the author is going for with that phrase.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)Dance with teddy bears?
Erose999
(5,624 posts)davidn3600
(6,342 posts)Miley has no talent other than being a star in a show for kids on the Disney Channel which she's now left.
She's now relying on pure shock value to stay relevant with a different audience. And it's not working.
The reality is that she's simply not that talented.
Gravitycollapse
(8,155 posts)There you have it ladies. The decision has been made for you. Everyone move along.
davidn3600
(6,342 posts)Dancing around with teddy bears and then molesting yourself with a foam finger on national TV is empowering. Whatever you say...
I dont know any male singers that do that.
Pisces
(5,592 posts)had half naked boys pawing her. Instead she strips down to nothing and simulates sex to sell herself. This is what women feel like
they have to go in order to stay on top in this business. Next year they will just have women nude spreading their legs for
the viewers to enjoy.
I like Miley and I don't attack her personally. I think this is more a statement of what female artist are doing to shock and get attention. It is using their bodies. The more risqué and the more bold your performance, the more you are talked about.
But this mistake in this article is that she acted in anyway like a male artist. Next time she should act like one and let the men debase themselves at her feet for her attention and she should move through as many as she can fit on the stage in varying degrees of undress as she asses and dismisses them one by one. Now that would be more in keeping with the male artist.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)That wasn't 't sexy or strong, it was sad.