Shame Day: Slut-Shaming Miley

Everyone remember when this happened?

Do you remember how it was followed by a whole lot of this?

And then there was also a lot of adults that started writing “open letters” to the poor “disturbed” Hollywood princess. Letters like this one from a concerned mom or this one from a celebrity website journalist . All of these letters say essentially the same thing as the tweets I shared above: “Miley, stop being such a slut.” Or, to put it in other words, stop selling your body in a context that doesn’t appeal to your public.

In her letter to Cyrus blogger Kim Bongiorno even explains the subtle difference between being slutty and being artistic by comparing Cyrus’ performance to Lady Gaga’s the previous year. Bongiorno argues that Gaga was able to sport her “strategically-placed seashells” and “flowery g-string” in a way that engaged the audience, while Cyrus’ performance made her look like nothing more than a “stomping vagina.”

I’m not saying I liked Cyrus’ performance. In fact, I managed to avoid actually watching the whole thing. The only reason I even found out about it is because articles concerning the performance were splashed all over every social media site I use. While I really didn’t like the performance I have some big issues with the way people are reacting to it.

For one, people need to stop being surprised when another Disney actress has an orchestrated exit from her childhood career that is completely centered around her sexuality. Seriously, stop believing that the Disney Channel is providing wholesome morals for your kids, because they really do not care about your morals. What they care about is making money. And when a female actress reaches a certain age she makes a heck of a lot more money by baring her body than by providing what appears to be”innocent” entertainment.

As the Oatmeal aptly explains, this was all intentional marketing.

We also need to stop pretending that Miley Cyrus was the only person involved in that performance. Her involvement may have been the most eye catching, but she wasn’t even the one who choreographed it. Nope, that masterpiece was coordinated by the same lady who choreographed Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines music video. 

Speaking of Thicke, where are all the concerned mother’s writing to Robin Thicke about his involvement in the performance?

I’ve really, really have tried to ignore Thicke. Don’t get me wrong, I really dislike the guy and have read some great articles that helped me form that opinion, like the one about how the lyrics to his song, “Blurred Lines,” are kinda rapey, or how Thicke thinks his song should be part of the feminist movement because it’s “great art” that is supposed to “stir conversation,” but I have read so many blogs on Thicke by feminists of every position that I felt like every angle I could possible discuss had already been covered. 

And yet, the double standard of the public reaction to the VMA awards is just too much to ignore. Cyrus is labelled as a slut, while married, 36 year-old, fully-dressed Thicke can grind the girl (who is young enough to be his daughter) right back and still be viewed by the public as some sort of victim in the whole thing. 

So today I want to shame the slut-shaming that happened after the VMA awards, and is continuing to happen to Miley Cyrus as her music video “Wrecking Ball” gains public attention. Not because I liked her performances, in fact I’d rather not watch either of them again, but because this is no different than anything else we have already seen in other music performances and videos. People are not slut-shaming Cyrus because she is using her body to sell her music, they are assigning her that label because she is doing it in a way that makes them uncomfortable. While featuring naked women in “Blurred Lines” is what made Robin Thicke cool, featuring herself naked in her own music video has made Cyrus’ slut-status official. 

So stop it. Stop blaming the newest “good girl gone bad” for a poor performance while ignoring the system that made that the only way she could get your attention. Maybe if female performers were treated a little more like male ones they wouldn’t always have to choose between being irrelevant or becoming everyone’s new favorite slut to shame.