I’ve avoided putting my two cents in on the 2013 VMA performance
by Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke mostly because everyone paying attention to pop
culture has an opinion about it, so why add to the cacophony of drivel? But a
day ago, Miley “broke her silence” about the performance (did anyone ask her to
speak?) so now I will break mine.
For starters, Miley said of her libidinous VMA performance
that too many people are overthinking it; how she violated that foam finger is
no different from anything Madonna or Britney Spears has done. She’s wrong on
both accounts – there was a point to Madonna’s overt sexuality; her
performances were meant to antagonize and draw attention to the institutions
that oppressed women, like the Catholic Church. Madonna didn’t act slutty because
that was the only way to advance her career during her heyday. So, when anyone
compares what Miley did to anything Madonna has done, I don’t think those
people have much of a sense of pop music history. (Or, are trying to protect
Miley from scorn for who-knows-what reason). Nor is Miley’s performance
anything like a Britney Spears performance if just for the fact that love or
hate Brit’s music, Brit is ten times the stage performer. [One wonders why
Miley would want to compare herself to Brit anyway given Brit’s meltdown a few
years ago. But the mind of a teenage girl is nothing anyone can figure out.]
Second, I think it is fair to say that many people who criticized
the performance were offended simply because those people cannot divorce “Slutty
Miley” from Hannah Montana. Well, I can’t help people who are that narrow
minded but Miley didn’t help them by going the easiest possible route it is to
go for a female “artist.” Really, we have enough overtly sexual female music
performers. How much better would it have been for Miley to have gone all Rage
Against the Machine on the audience and called out President Obama for not
taking action on Syria? I assure you that had Miley done that, people’s jaws
would have dropped all the same and her sales would have increased just as they
are now in the wake of her VMA pandering. On the other hand, as I’ve just said,
with her sales boosted by her krewting (the attempt and subsequent failure of a
white person to twerk), can you really blame her for giving the masses what
they want, that is, a slut? Well, yes, because as I just pointed out, she didn’t
have to go down that road. Then again, her father is Billy Ray Cyrus, a man
lazy enough to steal a dance and call it his own. Really, how else did anyone
think Miley’s career was going to evolve given her gene pool?
I certainly have no problem with women expressing their
sexuality on stage, but at least don’t half ass the performance or for the sake
of the VMAs do something original. Yet the fact is that this particular performance
by Miley Cyrus was uninspired and weak (at NO point was she twerking, oh white
defenders). Art is often thought of as something people know when they see it.
Well, if that’s the case, what Miley did at the VMAs wasn’t art. Art would have
been Miley slowly stripping Robin Thicke nearly naked during the melody and him
gyrating all over her. See? See how easy it is to be original? It just takes a
second of thought.
Finally, let’s not let Robin Thicke off the hook. His
failure in the performance certainly complemented Cyrus’ as men are expected to
sit back and feast their hungry eyes upon a woman while not being expected to
do any work. Sure, no one expects pop artists to be agents of change, but the
stale act by Cyrus and Thicke certainly didn’t “make history,” as Miley says
they discussed. Take note, Robin and Miley – those who do not learn from history are doomed to
repeat it. Indeed.
[Got a minute to spare, literally? Read Miley Breaks Her Silence.]
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