I have to admit that I could care less about the VMAs, MTV, or most of the time, even the halftime show at the Super Bowl. Honestly, after the Janet Jackson-Justin Timberlake fiasco at one of the Super Bowl halftimes, I just became uninterested. Bluntly, I don't want to see some sleezy act that looks like it belongs on the local low end strip club stage. Yes, I realize that celebrities will do almost anything for attention, but notice that Janet Jackson has pretty much died out of the spotlight since that fiasco with the pastie. So, was I even remotely surprised to hear that little miss Miley Cyrus made a sexually inappropriate move on the VMAs on Sunday? No, not really. Was I even curious to see it? No, but there was such a conversation about it on Monday that I did go look. What could be worse than the mother of these whore acts, Madonna, dry humping anything and everything on stage? Or Britney Spears who claims Madonna as her source of inspiration after her own little fiasco? Teddy bears. Yes, I'm pretty sure grabbing yourself, taking a foam finger and sliding it back and forth between your legs, shaking your butt at the crowd like you're shaking it for a dollar, all surrounded by teddy bears...well, that might be even further over the top than Madonna. And Madonna, are you proud? All these little girls imitating the Madonna "sex sells, tough twinkies" attitude--she must just be beaming!!!
Consider this all started with Madonna. Oh, I know the sexual revolution started in the 60s and 70s, but in spite of her own life story film now, Linda Lovelace wasn't what anyone dreamed of their little girl growing up to be and we never hear a little girl answer the question "what do you want to be when you grow up" with "porn queen". Madonna, on the other hand, was a huge heroine figure for young women. Like a lot of professional ball players, Madonna fans wanted to be her, imitate her, and took her words like she was touched by God. But, Madonna, just like the pro-ball players, is little more than someone who had a talent. Doesn't mean she's smart. Doesn't mean she has any class. Doesn't mean she should be a roll model. Definately doesn't mean as parents we should encourage our daughters to follow her lead, but that isn't how our world works anymore. Often parents don't have much input after a certain age on who their kids idolize. Madonna was the inspiration for Britney Spears. Britney, Christina, all of these little girls, growing up, hyper-exposed to an "idol" who expressed sexuality blatently with a lot of disregard to who her audiance might be. Even now, well into her 50s, Madonna did a show only last year dressed up in the slinkiest, sleeziest outfit that she could find with some extremely sexual overtones. I heard how great she looked and I heard how disturbing it was. She did look great. She'd have looked great if she had been in a tight mini dress, but she wanted to show as much skin, sell herself as sexually as possible, and really was kind of disgusting. It's not the age that should shock us. It's the fact that we don't want our daughters thinking if she wants to make money that it has to be covered, smothered and bathed in sexuality.
I don't have a daughter. Thank goodness. I've seen girls wearing club clothes and thought how cute. Nothing wrong with a good looking woman looking great. Our daughters deserve to be able to wear clothes that make them feel good about themselves, and yes, I wore spandex in the 90s. I might have even wore stuff that a more pious person might find inappropriate, so I also know that it varies from person to person. I've wore a Calvin Klein suit and blouse with a cami under it and been told it was inappropriate because I needed to "dress more like a man". We're not going to make everyone happy. But, the shock factor of the music awards and other shows watched by millions seems to always have some super overcharged offense even to the most open minded of us. I mean, really, teddy bears with sliding a foam finger between her legs. Even I was mortified as I watched and I consider myself pretty open minded. Still, apparently not that open minded. If I did have a daughter, particularly if she was a Miley Cyrus fan, we would be having a long conversation about sexuality as long as she was pre-teen about clothing choices, and about teenage rebellion.
Yes, teenage rebellion. Hanna Montana. The perfect little Disney girl. Disney really loves to create these perfect images of teenagers that are really purposely marketed to little girls and their gullable parents. Don't get me wrong; if I had a little girl, I'm positive I would encourage my daughter to have watched the squeaky clean Hanna Montana. Only problem is that sooner or later the Mouse girls become adults and they no longer want to be the squeaky clean mouse. Britney Spears, Christina Aguilara, Hillary Duff, Lindsey Lohan... There are other Disney girls that don't do some massive sexual spread immediately after becoming adults, but for the most popular Disney girls there are more "crash and burn" style stunts. These attention mongers get used to everyone watching them under a microscope, and it's got to be a pressure cooker to live in. They also want desperately to shake the "little girl" image that makes Disney icons huge. They get to 18 or 19 and people are still thinking of them as the "little girl", because simply put, we still are thinking of our own kids as little kids. They're always our babies. Only the Disney girls don't get it just from their parents and family. They get it from everyone. Shake that salt shaker. Everyone comes up to you and treats you like a little kid. I don't remember being 19 as well as if I were a 19 year old, but I remember wanting to be treated like an adult. I may or may not have deserved it, and sometimes I'm sure I still acted like a kid. Yet, I do remember that I thought of myself as an adult. So, my best guess is that Miley Cyrus, the epitome of the Disney "little girl" who millions of kids and their parents watched grow up is tired of anyone assuming she's a little girl. She wants to be thought of as an adult, and who can blame her?
Yet, what a teenager doesn't understand, what most people in their early 20s don't understand, is that between 18 and 26 we go through as much change as we do between 10 and 18. The changes, the growth in such a short period of time, is something that no one can explain to the teenager that is now legally an adult. But we also forget that they are adults. Of course, it's a little hard to think of Miley as an adult while she has giant teddy bears dancing around her doing her amateur stripper act, but perhaps that is her point. She's surrounded by people treating her like a kid still and she wants them to acknowledge her as an adult. For the teenage mind, sex is one of those "adult" only things, and voila, the Disney girl turns into a sex pistol right before our eyes--to our dismay and shock. Somehow though, it really shouldn't be that shocking. Our own little girls and boys flash their independence, not as showy by any means usually, but our kids didn't grow up in a spotlight that focused solely on a little kid image.
Is it our fault? No. Is it Billy Ray Cyrus' fault? That he has a typical teenage daughter? Probably not. Is it Disney's fault? Well, not exactly, but they do go to great lengths to package the Disney girl image and maintain it, and they seem to have a high number of "crash and burn" girls. Not everyone is going to crush under the pressure, but it might be time for Disney to start being a little more selective, provide counseling for these girls and their families to ensure that the ones that are at more risk have the coping capabilities, and maybe quit packaging so well that the "crash and burn" girls aren't pushed into either being little girls or strippers as they become adults. Madonna may think sex sells, but many of us are sick of her antics too. Don't get me wrong. I love seeing old rock bands still rocking it out, but there's a point where I want to see your talent, not the antics. Of course, maybe that is the point with Madonna. She wasn't ever anything more talented than Shannon, Janet Jackson, Taylor Dayne or the Go Go's. She was just more outrageous, sexually charged, and tawdry. Madonna is the queen of shock value, and she has definately made a point of showing to these pre-packaged little girls that if they do not want to be seen as little girls anymore sex definately sells it. Of course, Madonna wasn't one of the little mice and we just don't want to see the little Disney girls slut out like Madonna. I don't have an answer. I wish I did. I'm just glad I don't have a daughter who watches Hanna Montana or any other little Disney girl who might join the ranks of Miley, Britney, Christina and Lindsey....
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