I have seen pictures of… what is it called? The VMA performance? Or something. Truly, I do not care what eMpTyV thinks award-worthy, and I will demonstrate why in good time. No, what I want to talk about is the performer known as Miley Cyrus, and some far more disturbing things that her recent antics tap into.
Miley Cyrus, for those who do not know, is the daughter of a talentless bum who posed as a country and western singer (like there is a real difference) and calls himself Billy Ray Cyrus. Billy Ray Cyrus had a number one hit in the mid to early 1990s with a song that I fart more complex things than, going by the name of Achy Breaky Heart. Record deals were proffered, awards were awarded, and the world forgot about Billy Ray Cyrus almost as quickly as it heard of him. Tough break, I am sure some will agree, but some people just do not know when their fifteen minutes are up.
This is where Miley Cyrus comes into the picture. Miley‘s birth appears to predate the Achy Breaky Oversimplified phenon a bit, but not by much. What is telling, however, is that Miley‘s Career in showbusiness has been inextricably linked with Billy Ray‘s. And not in a positive fashion.
I know of no fourteen year old girl who wants to really be seen by outside observers, especially ones as crude and uncaring as the entire rest of the world, as a little girl. That is, as having the mindset and worldview of a child. Yet every piece of merchandise and property I saw with the words “Hannah Montanah” emblazoned on them gave precisely that impression.
Diverting slightly for a second (I promise, it is for a reason), remember the “children’s entertainment” programme known as Barney The Purple Dinosaur? Here is one text discussing the implications of using that fiend as a babysitter for children. But this essay, my favourite, concerning the negative effects Barney has on a psychological level, sums up my objections to all materials that depict fourteen year old girls (or indeed, fourteen year olds in general) as if they have the mentality and worldview of a toddler. Two quotes from this essay are particularly pertinent:
Mister Rogers doesn’t show kids interacting with each other that much, but his make-believe and his songs send the message that you are a good person even when you have bad emotions, and that intelligence can be applied to difficult problems to find good solutions. Barney says that you are only a good person when you have good emotions, and that problems don’t exist — a very bad message to send.
and:
In line with the idea that the children are taught to deny their basic differences, somehow all these kids on Barney, whose ages I estimate at 8 – 16 (or maybe older, Lucy is pretty big), not to mention the grownups who show up on some episodes, pretend that they are all the same ages as the kids watching the show (2 – 5?).
The second quote is especially disturbing to me in context of Barney The Purple Dinosaur, but it describes a problem I have noticed in all of the media I have noticed aimed at children since reaching legal adulthood. Basically, it seems as if all programming aimed at children is designed with the purpose of blurring or even erasing the distinctions between toddler, early school age child, early adolescent, and late adolescent. This is a very, very bad idea, to say the least.
The character referred to as Hannah Montanah does not behave in the manner of a fourteen year old girl. Hell, she does not behave in the manner of the twelve year old girls I grew up around. It is as if someone in Disney, or the post-conversion Billy Ray, wanted to send the fourteen year olds of the world a message. We want you to behave and see yourselves as if you are children. Even if you might be old enough to have children yourselves.
On a societal level, this is a prescription for disaster. It may surprise some to know that this is also the case on an individual psychological level.
I have no idea which possibility is true. However, when you strip out the fine details and stick to the basics, two possible explanations emerge for Miley Cyrus‘ recent behaviour. One, she was put up to this by Billy Ray or one of their mutual handlers. This in itself is enough to make one ill, quite honestly, as it implies a level of cynicism and idiocy on the part of a Born Again that, quite frankly, is the sort of adult-child abuse that we would expect from Born Agains. Two, she got so sick of the fact that she could not get people to see her as an adult no matter what she did that she decided to go to extreme measures. Either possibility is equally valid and has merit, so I will address each in turn.
If the first possibility, that Billy Ray or their mutual “people” put her up to this act, is true, then I have to following to say to Miley. Remove your father from your life. Do it now, and do it as much as you can before it is too late. Any father that would get his daughter to act in this manner for his benefit (and I am sure he has some sort of claim upon your earnings) clearly has something wrong with him. I do not have any children myself, and my sister’s children are about eighteen or more years your junior. But I do not need experience to be able to tell you that if it were my daughter or niece up on the stage debasing themselves in such a fashion, I would be horrified.
This is where the second response comes in. Miley, I am sure you wanted to accomplish something in this act. People rarely act in such a manner unless they want to accomplish at least something. Whether that is being disowned by their family or being treated with revulsion by your former mostly-children audience, the parameters are the same. And there are much, much better ways to accomplish this. One thing you need to do right away is get the pop rubbish you are coming out with out of your mouth and throw it away for good. The people who write and manufacture what we kindly call pop, they might have done a good job of convincing you that they are your friends. They are not. And at the first sign that you can no longer make them money, they will dump you by the side of the road and look for the next youngin to leech money from.
(This situation is not unlike that which many before you have faced in the past, either. Tina Turner is the most successful example who broke out of the mould created around her by someone who had taken control of her life (in her case, Ike Turner). Tina went on to record numerous great songs, including what remains the greatest James Bond theme ever recorded, GoldenEye. You can turn things around, Miley, but first you need to acknowledge the mire you have been submerged into, and escape it.)
And if you really wish to force people to acknowledge the fact that you are legally an adult, then there are things you must do in order to make that happen. Again, unbuckling yourself from your talentless, one-note, Born Again father will go a long way down this road. You are not incapable of doing this. Women uncouple themselves from abusive partners and families all the time with far less in the way of resources than you have.
Additionally, you need to change the kind of material that is in your act. You could perform naked and get a mob of large men to group you as you perform in front of the audience. Without the change in actual material, it will not matter one lick. No doubt, your father has told you about how music can be used to send a message to the masses out there. What he has probably not told you, or even gone to great pains to prevent you from hearing, is that the message music can be used to send may well be anything. It can be used to send the masses a message that certain treatment of certain individuals who do not fit perfectly in this society is unacceptable. It can be used to send a message that expecting young adults to think of themselves as children until the day they grow old and die is not acceptable. And so on.
In that spirit, please allow me to present to you an example from the artist that one woman held up to be her example for how to live life both before and whilst I was with her. You have probably never heard of this artist, Cadaveria. Very likely, your moronic father wants to make sure you never hear of Cadaveria or her backing band. Given that much of Cadaveria‘s material is about taking command of your life and exalting in your right to control your destiny, I am dead certain your father and your mutual handlers would not want you hearing of this material. Speaking from the perspective of an adult who knows exactly what songs consist of simply by having played enough on the bass guitar, I can tell you that the kind of mindless thought-discourager material you normally have access to is beneath this song in the same sense that Proxima Centaurii is a bit far away from where you are.
But if, just by chance, you get to see this and understand why both the poetry in this song and the images in the video have a lot in common with what I see being done to you, I am always available to ask where to go from here. All I ask in closing is please do not make the same mistake I did at your age and mistake the people who surround you for friends. They have demonstrated quite effectively that they are not.
I Still Find It So Hard... 
I also don’t know what she was trying to accomplish. To me, it looked like she was dancing as many do when they’re in a room by themselves, singing into a hairbrush. That’s what kids do when they think no one is looking. She did that on stage for some reason I don’t understand.
Someone asked me how to explain this act to a teen who just saw it. I said, “tell your teen that sometimes people make bad choices (in behaviour or clothing) and sometimes they don’t have anyone to guide them. This is why we have rules in our house, so you don’t end up like Miley. We love you and that’s why we ask you not to wear certain things or do certain things.”
Miley seems to be missing those people who care.
But no criticism of her strange actions would be complete without criticizing the men who chose to participate in the act with her. Robin Thicke did not have to be grinded on or allow himself to be licked. If he didn’t tell her not to do that, he’s part of the problem also.
The slivers of knowledge I have about the entertainment industry enable me to make informed speculations about it, but without really talking long and hard with Miley herself, nobody can say for certain. I think that she has been conditioned to think in a certain way by both Disney and her idiot male parent (gee, where do I get that idea from?), and she is trying to act out in a way that will make the fans who are compatible with Disney and her moron asshole male parent run away. Unfortunately, without an informed view of what will be the most effective in that regard (vis the Cadaveria video I linked), she can only wildly flail out and hope she hits something.
I would explain this in a totally different manner to my nephew or nieces if they asked me and were in their teens. Actually, knowing myself, their dad, and their mother, the likelihood is that none of us will need to. But if asked, I would tell them that Miley has been fed a very distorted and wrong view of the world by those who are supposed to care for her, and she is trying to break away from the mould that they have put around her. Nobody acts like this without goals like that in mind (this is not mere hyperbole, I speak from a certain amount of experience here).
What Miley is missing the most is, in fact, people to whom she is more than something to exploit for financial gain.
Acts that appear in television specials and the like are never spontaneous these days. They are planned out months, even years, in advance, and every move is strictly worked out amongst participants. I doubt very much that Robin did not expect what happened. Of course, the finer details such as how carried away Miley would get are still a somewhat on-the-spot thing. But the only people who can convincingly pretend that they are surprised at what happened do not know showbusiness at all.
Miley is probably just as sick as I am, if not more so, of the bubblegum pop that children have shoved into their ears nonstop these days. She also knows that the Internet and ease of finding things on it has all but eroded entirely the market for such bubblegum pop. She probably knew that when she was fourteen years old, in fact. If Billy Ray thinks she is acting out now, he is going to have an unpleasant surprise when he tries to get her to push more of his pissant white-bread view of the world upon her audience.
I am suddenly very interested in Cadaveria. We need more artists who send the right messages to young folks (self respect, self determination), not the canned media schlock we have gotten forever. Thanks for the mention – off to Google I go!
My post that tries to comment on all of the LPs that Cadaveria‘s self-named band have released thus far (four of them) is at this link, in case you are interested. Also worth mentioning is that she and her drummer, Marçelo Santos, performed vocals and drums respectively in an Italian band called Opera IX prior to this band being formed. I mention that mainly because the three Opera IX albums that Cadaveria and Marçelo are on range from masterpiece to good. The Call Of The Wood, Sacro Culto, and The Black Opera (and its excessively long Latin subtitle) are those albums. If you only get one of those, Sacro Culto is definitely the one to go for.