Miley Cyrus: an argument for her propagation of slut-shaming

Miley Cyrus’s performance for the 2013 VMAs seems to have produced two camps. The first describes her performance as vile,  hyper-sexualized, and “really, really disturbing”. The second touts her performance as a retaliation against society’s good girl expectations, celebrating “being herself”. While watching her twerk around the stage with giant dancing teddy bears, I felt immensely conflicted; I strongly believe in women using and displaying their bodies however they please, but I couldn’t help but cringe as Miley saucily rubbed against Robin Thicke. There was something off-putting about Miley’s performance, but it wasn’t immediately understandable. It took me awhile out what was wrong: her performance isn’t crude because it’s so sexualized, it’s crude because it’s not novel and baits media into slut-shaming.

Yes, the reaction Miley’s costume and dancing demonstrates our society’s problematic slut-shaming, Madonna-whore complex culture and sheds more light on the imbedded cultural rules of acceptable use and display of women’s bodies. However, does it challenge these systems? I would argue the opposite—Miley and her publicists are instead relying on a culture that finds overtly sexual women as scandalous and distasteful in order to garner as much media attention as possible. Furthermore, they are propagating our understanding of what it means for a female child star to come of age: to make herself into a consumable sexual being.

Let’s face it: when it came time for Miley to bloom into adulthood, her publicists were not thinking of an image that would challenge the status quo or otherwise make a stand on gender issues. The focus was on choreographing the most rebellious, outrageous public persona possible. Sex and scandal sell, plain and simple. Inevitably, as Miley very well knows, the media will humiliate her for “acting out” and abandoning her sugar-coated childhood image all while gobbling up her newly objectified form. This reaction is just as assured as the more critical, feminist-friendly journalists fighting against the media’s slut-shaming. In short, Miley’s provocative performance adds nothing new to the discussion of women displaying their sexuality; it simply feeds gossip mags’ hunger for a new subject to chastise and gives critical press the chance to regurgitate the same argument for why Miley should be able to use her body in any way she wishes.

Imagine an alternate reality in which Miley, upon becoming a legal adult, decides to speak about women’s issues that matter. Imagine her vocalizing against slut-shaming. Imagine her proving herself to be verbose and intelligent, only then stepping onto the VMA stage to deliver the same provocative performance. This Miley would have delivered a much different—and more needed—message: that women can be sexual and wild while simultaneously being smart and driven. We need more of these sorts of role models, not any more celebrities who fall into the lazy trap of hyper-sexualizing themselves to draw the shaming eyes of the media.