Miley Cyrus Twerks Scandal Observations

                                               Beetlejuice and Tank Girl!

 

Last night when I was working and surfing online, I noticed intriguing comments about the VMAs performance by Miley Cyrus. There were also some weirdo photos; some shopped, some not. The Tank Girl twerking Beetleguise photo I saw was the final straw. I just HAD to go and look at what the fuss was about.

 

I went to Youtube to watch the clip. In case you've not seen it, here it is:

 

Miley Cyrus at the VMAs

 

At first I was a bit stunned but perhaps I'm just jaded from fetish clubs and reality shows. It was kind of dumb but not THAT bad. As well, I just spent four days with an author booth at Fan Expo which means watching over 100,000 people walk, prance, skip, roll, hobble, crawl, and slither around in costumes. So, I already had giant teddy bears and half naked space girls burned into my retinas as I stared wearily at the monitor.

 

I had never watched Hannah Montana but was aware of who Miley is, who daddy is, read mountains of the tabloid headlines, and champion her affair with the herb. It was already obvious to this mommy that she's been pushing the envelope for a few years now. So what's next? Why not get nasty? Worked for Madonna, Lady Gaga, Christina Aguilera, Cher, and many more before her? What photograph put Norma Jean on the map? Playboy. Even Burt Reynolds got in on it back in the day with Playgirl. Sex sells. Scandals for everyone.

 

I thought about it all and wasn't too sure what I thought. I thought and I thought until my thinker was sore. She was ugly and crass but was she worse than any of her predecessors?

 

I worked some more and then when I went to bed, I turned on my TV. Lo and behold, the station was still on Much Music from the night before and the timing was weirdly right when her number started on a replay of the VMAs (MuchMusic always runs award shows twice in a row and then multiple times for a week or so) so I watched it on the TV too. So after watching it twice, I say...so what? 

Remember when Cher freaked everyone out with her "scandalous" outfit at the Oscars? That outfit now is not so scandalous at all. She has a killer body so it looks "worse" than it really is.

Remember Madonna gyrating around the black priest and everyone freaking out about her desecrating the Catholic church? How she masturbated in her live show? How she published a fetish book with pictures of herself performing what was at the time scandalous acts? Everyone said she went way too far. And every time, she'd go further until other acts came along.

Remember when Sinead O'Connor ripped up the pope?

Remember when Boy George was the weirdest freak anyone had ever seen outside of the Rocky Horror Picture Show midnight screenings?

Yeah, I do....hell, Elvis got in shit for a hip roll on TV before I was even born! Hip roll...booty shake...twerking...what next?

 

As for Disney scandals, Christina Aguilera took a lot of heat with her videos. Britney Spears goes through wacky episodes but always makes it back. Her Catholic schoolgirl routine was considered pretty racy for the time.

 So now we have Miley twerking with teddy bears. Big Deal.

The gypsies on the gypsy shows have been twerking for several seasons and now I know what it's called!

I was more disturbed by the Beetlejuice costume that likely wasn't supposed to be a Beetlejuice costume though it would have been funnier it had been. Maybe it was. I don't know.

 

Lord knows I saw enough Beetlejuice guys and girls this past weekend that to me, that's the first place my mind went. And maybe I was correct. I recognized the songs but don't "know" them. I wasn't sure what the anime stuff was all about but as I said, it was just one more anime thing to me after being immersed for eight hours on that day alone!

 

The whole tongue caricature thing to match her shirt, etc. was just dumb. Not sexy. Not funny. But she pushed it. The girl has balls, as she showed us very clearly. This was indeed the kind of performance I would expect at a SexShow midnight cabaret. I think other artists are just as nasty so I'm not so sure why she's being singled out. I guess cos it just happened. It also takes our minds off all the horrible things going on in the world.

 

It's the same reason people are so passionate about the Ben Affleck as Batman casting. It's something safe to have an opinion about. We can argue about whether this career choice is wise or not for a multi-millionaire who just wants to have fun. Who can blame him? I'd jump at being Batman too. Sure we won't get some great movies from Affleck for a while but maybe we will. Who knows?

 

Does it really matter who plays Batman? As many have argued, almost any of us could play Batman. Ben's a comic book geek. Let him play dress-up!

 

So complaining about Miley gyrating like a horny bear against a tree or Ben donning a superhero suit is really kind of silly.

 

Popular culture. Where would we be without it?

 

It's a magnificent diversion from the daily grind, the horrors of war, the insanity of gun violence, and all of the conflicting opinions that go with them.
 

Miley is breaking free as girls her age do. Just as Justin Bieber is doing. It's hard to push the envelope when you're competing with Lady Gaga and Madonna and all of the others.

 

Miley's name is out there now. She got what she wanted. Her name on everyone's lips.
 

You gotta give her credit for that.