TV Turnoff Week is over, so this morning I flicked on the Today Show for a few minutes to catch the weather forecast. While we were waiting, I watched a segment about Miley Cyrus and the controversy her photo shoot for Vanity Fair magazine is causing.
My kids are too young to be Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus fans, but I totally get why people are upset.
The Vanity Fair pictures are so much worse than the Miley-With-Boy and Miley-Showing-Bra pictures because there were adults involved. Annie Leibovitz can call that photo "art" all she wants, but it doesn't belong in the pages of a magazine and it's not the sort of photo she should be taking if the subject is 15 years old. So what if Miley was clothed underneath the sheet? It looks like she is naked. It implies that she is naked. I'm no prude and I think that the human body is a beautiful thing, but nudity and teenagers do not go together. There is a time and a place for everything, and this isn't it. I'm not saying that the picture is bad, because it isn't. It's just completely and totally inappropriate. And if it's "art" where are the shirtless photos of the Jonas Brothers? The picture has everything to do with sex and nothing to do with art. Adults, Miley's parents included, should know better. Anyone who looks at that photo and doesn't think it's provocative is blind.
Reading about how Leibovitz "convinced" Miley and her teacher and grandmother that the photo would be "artistic" makes my skin crawl. Sort of like some sleazy man telling his girl friend, "It's okay, baby, these are just for us. No one else will ever see them."
As for Miley, she says she couldn't say no to Leibovitz, and I believe that she was dazzled being the subject of a renowned photographer. But I would hope she thinks again before she takes her clothes off.
Additionally, the pictures of her with her boyfriend and the picture of the bra-flashing are disturbing too, but not on the same level. In some way, she's just being a 15 year old girl. 15 year old girls want to be provocative and think that they are provocative and that it's okay to be provocative, but I don't think they have the maturity to handle it. The kid across the street is fifteen and he's not mature enough to listen when I tell him to quit banging his football off my car. Teenagers need to grow up sometime, but if this were my daughter in the pictures I'd be livid. I want her to grow up knowing that sex is not something that you sell to the highest bidder.
Miley might be a normal teenager, but she's not your average teenager. How many teens do you know with their own television show and concert tour, making millions off of merchandising? Considering her fame, Miley should know that any sensational photos of her would end up on the Internet. And she should conduct herself to make sure that doesn't happen.
Neither of my children have any sort of clue who Hannah Montana is or who Miley Cyrus is. I hope to steer them away from celebrities and I will encourage them to look to the people in their immediate lives when it comes to choosing role models. But you can't raise kids in a media vacuum and it's unfortunate that Vanity Fair has forced parents into having conversations about nudity and appropriateness when they might not have been ready for it.
Everyone knows that once you get labeled as "skanky," it sticks forever. Right, Paris? Right, Lindsay? Right, Britney? I sincerely hope Miley thinks about whether or not she's willing to live with that label. And the next time someone says, "Oh, these are just for us, baby," I hope she keeps her clothes on and runs like hell.
My kids are too young to be Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus fans, but I totally get why people are upset.
The Vanity Fair pictures are so much worse than the Miley-With-Boy and Miley-Showing-Bra pictures because there were adults involved. Annie Leibovitz can call that photo "art" all she wants, but it doesn't belong in the pages of a magazine and it's not the sort of photo she should be taking if the subject is 15 years old. So what if Miley was clothed underneath the sheet? It looks like she is naked. It implies that she is naked. I'm no prude and I think that the human body is a beautiful thing, but nudity and teenagers do not go together. There is a time and a place for everything, and this isn't it. I'm not saying that the picture is bad, because it isn't. It's just completely and totally inappropriate. And if it's "art" where are the shirtless photos of the Jonas Brothers? The picture has everything to do with sex and nothing to do with art. Adults, Miley's parents included, should know better. Anyone who looks at that photo and doesn't think it's provocative is blind.
Reading about how Leibovitz "convinced" Miley and her teacher and grandmother that the photo would be "artistic" makes my skin crawl. Sort of like some sleazy man telling his girl friend, "It's okay, baby, these are just for us. No one else will ever see them."
As for Miley, she says she couldn't say no to Leibovitz, and I believe that she was dazzled being the subject of a renowned photographer. But I would hope she thinks again before she takes her clothes off.
Additionally, the pictures of her with her boyfriend and the picture of the bra-flashing are disturbing too, but not on the same level. In some way, she's just being a 15 year old girl. 15 year old girls want to be provocative and think that they are provocative and that it's okay to be provocative, but I don't think they have the maturity to handle it. The kid across the street is fifteen and he's not mature enough to listen when I tell him to quit banging his football off my car. Teenagers need to grow up sometime, but if this were my daughter in the pictures I'd be livid. I want her to grow up knowing that sex is not something that you sell to the highest bidder.
Miley might be a normal teenager, but she's not your average teenager. How many teens do you know with their own television show and concert tour, making millions off of merchandising? Considering her fame, Miley should know that any sensational photos of her would end up on the Internet. And she should conduct herself to make sure that doesn't happen.
Neither of my children have any sort of clue who Hannah Montana is or who Miley Cyrus is. I hope to steer them away from celebrities and I will encourage them to look to the people in their immediate lives when it comes to choosing role models. But you can't raise kids in a media vacuum and it's unfortunate that Vanity Fair has forced parents into having conversations about nudity and appropriateness when they might not have been ready for it.
Everyone knows that once you get labeled as "skanky," it sticks forever. Right, Paris? Right, Lindsay? Right, Britney? I sincerely hope Miley thinks about whether or not she's willing to live with that label. And the next time someone says, "Oh, these are just for us, baby," I hope she keeps her clothes on and runs like hell.
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5 comments:
Have you seen the ads for Gossip Girl??? They are suppossed to be high school kids and the ads are questionable and plastering the streets of NY. That was what I watched on CNN this morning!!!
I agree with you on most of the points. I also think that regardless if her parents are hovering over her at every second or not, she is going to make mistakes. Coming from an Art background, to be photographed by Annie (even though I can topically say it isn't right) would be well, jaw dropping. I would suspect a good portion of the blame should be taken away from the Cyrus's and placed on Annie. (besides the fact I have heard she is rather hard to work with) I would suspect you really don't say no to her. It is kind of like meeting a huge celebrity. It seems like many people's common sense meter goes out the window.
Please know i am not disagreeing with you at all. I just think Miley is getting too much of the backlash.
I agree, Tracy, and I think whomever set up the Vanity Fair shoot is to blame. It's a magazine known for edgy photographs and Leibovitz is known for taking procovative pictures. The picture *itself* is well done. But Miley is 15 and it isn't appropriate. My comments about Miley conducting herself have more to do with the other pictures that were leaked to the Internet, like the one in which she is flashing her bra.
Every child star will eventually have to shed their good girl image and there will always be backlash. When Anne Hathaway wanted to star in a grittier roll than her usual princess stuff, people objected. I'm just saying she doesn't need to get naked to do that.
Hannah Montana is EVERYWHERE! My 3 year old knows exactly who she is despite the fact that he's never actually seen her show. He'll point her out to me all over the place, on commercials, bilboards, his yogurt drinks. I think there is more than enough blame to go around on this one. Everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves. Regardless of how well done the photograph is, she is 15! I know what some 15 year old girls are doing and that photo may be a reflection of that but that doesn't make it ok, and it doesn't mean we should glorify it.
I think that the bottom line is this: She's 15! FIFTEEN! She's not old enough, or mature enough, to make a decision like this!
Her PARENTS dropped the ball, and Vanity Fair (and Annie Lebowitz) need to have a good deal of the heat on this one too. They manipulated and exploited a 15 year old.
Even a "mature" 15 is still a child--a minor. Miley could NOT have, legally (even in CA, I believe) sign a contract or "Okay" those pics. Someone did, though. And that someone, parent or otherwise, exploited her too.
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