In defense of Miley Cyrus

There’s a reason why Miley Cyrus performed with Robin Thicke for this year’s MTV Video Music Awards. If you had no problem with Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines, jaw-dropped over the nude models dancing in his explicit music video, ideally, you shouldn’t have a problem either with Miley Cyrus’s suggestive twerking.

Coincidentally, just a few days before the talked-about risqué VMA performance with Thicke, I had stumbled upon her music video for that song We Can’t Stop. It’s nothing new, a cut-and-paste of random pop culture references: a little bit of Lady Gaga, Madonna, lots of twerking, and a Damien Hirst knockoff. Admittedly though, I had that video on loop. Partly because I was so intrigued by her new persona, and mostly because I just like the song. It’s very catchy. It rhymes, too. La da di da di, we like to party.

People have a lot of things to say about her VMA performance, mostly how they shake their heads with disgust. “What the hell happened to Miley?” Though she hasn’t gone completely bonkers yet, right? (See: Amanda Bynes.) There are no headlines of her shooting up drugs, robbing houses, or drunk driving, so nothing actually has happened to her. She is your average, everyday, law-abiding citizen. There’s nothing wrong with her, really. She’s just not Hannah Montana anymore.

She wasn’t going to be 13 forever. If there’s any crime that she should be accused of, it’s being really bad at being sexy, which for her means sticking out her tongue in freakish ways and rigidly dry-humping everything she sees. She doesn’t need an intervention on “how to act like a proper woman.” She needs an intervention on “how to dance sexy.” 

People should ease on the slut-shaming. There is nothing wrong with wanting to act sexy. It’s only wrong when the execution of the sexy is so off the mark. Let’s not fault her for her suggestiveness, because, hello, Robin Thicke spelled out with silver balloons in his music video that he “has a big dick.” Let’s fault her because she’s over-the-top-bordering-on-tacky.

Female child stars just really have it the worst. Imposed upon them when young is a sweet, innocent, good girl image, and then society expects them never to grow up. Like they’re supposed to carry that pure, virgin image with them forever. People cry outrage at Miley like she was supposed to be Hannah Montana for the rest of her life. What were you like when you were 13?

This kind of isolated female slut-shaming is also a little bit of regressive thinking. The more we call women sluts, the more we force upon ourselves a conventional view of how women are supposed to act. There is no right or wrong way to define the gender, there are plenty of ways a woman can be called a woman. It’s not wrong to want to be a bit more Taylor Swift, but it’s perfectly fine to have a few Miley Cyruses.

The girl is not disturbed. If anything, onstage, she just put out a female voice that countered Robin Thicke’s dominating masculinity.