Posted on 05/05/2008 5:16:13 AM PDT by Invisigoth
This week, tween star Miley Cyrus shocked America when she crossed over to the dark side of adulthood. When Vanity Fair released photos of 15-year-old Miley draped in a sheet, concerned parents and Disney execs were aghast that their sugary pop idol had become a sexualized young woman.
Parents told reporters that they were no longer going to let their daughters watch Hannah Montana, Miley’s Disney-produced television show-turned-musical-act-turned-brand-phenomenon. Internet message boards, populated mostly by furious mothers, advocated for a massive Hannah Montana paraphernalia bonfire. There are rumblings that Disney might even replace Miley with her up-and-coming co-star, Serena Gomez. Miley insisted in a statement that the photos were meant to be “artistic” but was sure to cover-up (no pun intended) for her mistake by saying that she was “so embarrassed” once she saw the sexual nature of the finished photographs.
I have to wonder though, why all of this uproar now? Why Miley? It is troublesome that Miley’s career should take a hit when the problem goes much, much deeper than one girl posing for one magazine in a marginally sexual way. She’s become an unwilling scapegoat for a problem that can’t be fixed by an outraged bonfire or a cast replacement.
(Excerpt) Read more at northstarwriters.com ...
Had it been a regular guy, not Vanity Fair, taking the photos, they would have been picked up for child porn.
Our children must be exposed to sex in a regimented, controlled way, if they are exposed to it at all.
I'm dyin' here!
The reason people are upset about Miley Cyrus is that they expected, just this once, that Team Rat would play it straight, and not sexually exploit one of their child stars. It is like Lucy asking Charlie Brown to kick the football. Maybe this time, she won’t pull it away.
Team Rat does this every time. They are going to do it every time. It is what they are.
Anyone who watches South Park already knows the answer to this.
it has something to do with harvest rituals . . . .
This article is a little too feminist for my liking. Why not blame Miley? Is it really the culture’s fault? Where were her parents? Is pornography/promiscuity really a stage young girls go through, but it was just made public? REALLY? Are they really surprised, given the photographer chosen? Or maybe it’s just Bush’s fault...
Blame blame blame. How about a little personal responsibility for a really bad decision? Miley and her parents should have known better. I would NEVER have let my 15 year old pose for something like that, NEVER.
This is just the next step. Her *style* of dress may be fashionable for young teens but, you knew where she was headed.
You would think that when the photographer suggested Miley take her underwear off, some kind of internal alarm would go off. But then, show-biz people are not quite like us.
Miley will always be Hannah Montana. However, they are now rolling her out as a young woman who will soon be legally mature enough to be exploited as an adult. The exploitation won’t end with her turning 18 years old. All you have to do is look at Britney Spears’ “journey” to know that it’s just the beginning of Miley’s long personal nightmare. Speaking of Britney, could this whole thing with Miley be (hmmm...Britney...Miley...it’s sort of rhymes, doesn’t it?) about the “scheduling” of replacements for the Parises, Lindsey’s and the like? The entertainment industry needs to build on the new generation of stellar social piglets, do they not?
of course we have to blame miley and her parents. It is her parents job to raise her to NOT be taken in by the culture. the culture is base, there’s no way around it. good moral parenting is made harder because of it, but it can be done. my 13 yo [never really a hannah montana fan] sent me the link to the story with the comment “look, another slut...”
Parents: if it takes throwing the television set out the window do it.
Coincidently enough, that's also the subject line on what most of what my buds email me...
You mean the gang of kids hanging out behind the garage are not necessarily in agreement with this?
“...my 13 yo [never really a hannah montana fan] sent me the link to the story with the comment “look, another slut...””
It’s none of my business but...did you admonish your 13-year old for using the “s-word” when referring to another underage girl?
I dont understand the people here who are trying to paint this as if this was the Disney company’s decision in a predetermined destiny that all Disney child stars go through and that Disney somehow had something to do with this. I just don’t buy that, I don’t believe that the Disney executives knew that the photographer was going to do this.
I recognize that the cross over to adult work involves recreating a child star’s image; but in this case I think this had more to do with the photographer (who has pulled this same stunt dozens of times over the years with various artists) and Vanity Fair than the Disney execs or even her parents were aware of. This should be a wake up call to Disney not to let Anne Liebowitz or Vanity Fair anywhere near any of their kids ever again.
Ahhh, all the pious FReeeprs come out to crow.
This is the funny thing about FR. The attitude is that this Cyrus picture is absolute evil and someone should be arrested for taking it. On the other hand polygamous child molestors should not have the government harassing them.
If anyone wants to know exactly how screwed up a theocracy would be in America, read FR.
Bingo!
You would think that with the millions she's already made, she could afford to be more choosy about what she has to do to transition to a more mature stage of her career.
At what point would you say to yourself, "...a semi-nude photo spread to look serious? No thanks, I don't need that...if I can't get on my acting/singing talent, I'm satisfied with what I have, and I'm not willing to squander my personal and professional integrity for a few bucks."
It's been a long-standing tradition of FreeRepublic to make political and social commentary on topics of interest. It's called a free exchange of ideas. If you don't like it here, perhaps you'd be more comfortable over at DU?
LOL!
If my children see my husband and me being even the slightest bit affectionate, they start arguing about whether they'll have a new brother or sister, and who's going to have to share a room with it, and can my oldest boy run away and live in the wilderness with a pocketknife, and yadda yadda yadda ...
Isn't the dad, though, that achy breaky heart moron, Billy Ray Cyrus? I mean there's no way that dude is playing with a full deck.
You'd think you wouldn't have to explain to people what's wrong with the idea of mixing theocracy with bureaucracy.
yeah, and he’s gross.
Not posting any more until I've had more coffee.......
They were there on the set giving their tacit approval.
Gotcha. Free exchange if ideas. "Think like me or get out!" Nice.
In the minds of liberals, concepts of serious art and free speech become concepts of ever-increasing cheapness. In the minds of liberals, they must at least appear to believe that they’re participating in the advancement of multiculturalism. Another problem of theirs is a reluctance to admit when they’re only in it for the money and more of the “stuff” that comes with fame and fortune.
I agree. I have a 15-year-old daughter and can’t imagine her posing for the masses in such a way. There are enough problems with pedophilia; celebrities don’t need to encourage the sexualization of children.
Yeah, cuz ANYONE who would disagree with this being a good idea must be some insane Bible-thumper...
Excellent! The subversive “One Day At a Time” strategy.
I agreew ith you. The media tells us who is beautiful, and then pounds away until we agree.
Look at Julia Roberts. Clownmouth is not beautiful, but she was hyped after Pretty Woman to no end, into $ 20 million/picture. Then we found out that there was a body double used in many scenes. I can’t look at her either.
Come to think of it, Julia reminds me of MacKenzie Phillips. Hmmmmmm.........
“This is just the next step”
BINGO! This is business. This is the business she is in. Her current fans are getting older. If she expects to keep them it’s time for her to slut it up.
The young girl acts all have to do this as they get older or they fade from the scene.
“Gotcha. Free exchange if ideas. “Think like me or get out!” Nice.”
You spin it pretty hard there L98Fiero...don’t hurt yourself, now. However, if it’s victimhood you seek to achieve then I guess that’s your business. You have that right!
Slut was an approiate word!
It was the predatory photographer’s fault.......just looking for that million dollar picture.............Anne Leibowitz or whatever her name is.
What a stupid analysis.
Besides the sexualization issue, which, by the way, is the number one way to screw up (no pun intended) the developing adolescent brain, this whole incident reeks of greed and ignorance. On the part of the parents.
This girl is worth about$1B. Does she really need to do Vanity Fair for money?
This girl is on every magazine cover and is on the verge of going into publicity saturation. Did she really need to do Vanity Fair to get even more publicity?
No. She needs neither money nor additional publicity right now. What her parents fell into, besides the greed trap, is the age-old lie that a star who has a reputation as a good person must somehow reposition herself as a bad, edgy, “grown-up” (i.e., sexual and dumb) person who has “grown” out of her “typecasting.”
There’s nothing wrong with being a good person. There’s something wrong with being a person who is uncomfortable having a reputation as a good person.
And if it were just a picture of a teenager in a bathing suit, the reaction would be, "Oh, slightly chunky, somewhat cute young girl in a bathing suit. Big deal." She certainly wouldn't be in "Vogue."
These photographs, being "art", have the purpose of making the subject look like a whore while giving dirty old men and lesbians a cheap thrill.
Nice close - you put that excellently
WE HAVE A WINNER!
Disney by now should realize this is the trajectory of their/in general stars.
If they sincerely think this risks their stars’ careers (they don’t; they actually like this because it helps lower the bar for what their fans accept and then Disney can continue to spiral down its content), Disney could put a clause in the contracts that covered these things.
It was totally predictable that Vanity Fair would try everything possible to encourage Cyrus and her parents to do as controversial a shoot as possible. Duh. What’s not “duh” is that her parents/minders fell for it? “Artist”? That’s the oldest line in the book. As someone else posted, once the suggestion was made that this girl take her underwear off, flags should have been waving in the minder’s heads. And even in Miley’s head. She’s not too young to know taking your clothes off for something that will be published is not the way to go.
Gross! I hadn’t seen that one, and wish I hadn’t.
There was once a time when an average 15-year-old girl would have said “NO” to such a photo request on her own ... without the need to seek advice from her parents, publicists, Mickey Mouse, or the ouja board.
I usually like artistic photography yet saw nothing artistic nor beautiful (or even pornographic) about the photos of Cyrus in question.
She did show poor judgment in her MySpace photos tho, IMHO. Which is why when my girls got MySpace accts, so did I!
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