I have never been a fan of celebrity culture. I think the way people obsess over the lives of people whose professions are entertaining is vapid and upsetting. The whole industry revolving around paparazzi and tabloids is just incredibly toxic. It dehumanizes people and cheers on questionable behavior. Worst of all, celebrity culture welcomes stigmas about public figures that the general public actually knows nothing about, that’s what I’ve been seeing with Miley Cyrus.
In case you’ve been living under a rock, Miley Cyrus started her career as a Disney channel star on her show Hannah Montana, and that brought her to mega stardom for teenagers. Being in the Disney crew showcased Miley as a squeaky clean pop star with G rated thoughts and opinions. But after she aged out of the conglomerate, she started making her own choices and lived a bit on the edge.
She started singing more about drug use, primarily marijuana-related, and being a free spirit, along with having very little worry about showing her body. This was a complete departure from the Miley Cyrus many knew. She even was quoted saying “I murdered Hannah Montana” as a joke on Saturday Night Live.
Now really, none of this is actually all that bad. Some people could be offended by her references to drugs, but she isn’t an addict or breaking the law. The only thing she’s really guilty of is identifying as a free spirit. But there has been a large Miley backlash. So many people have called her a “train wreck,” her VMA performance had people thinking she was unhinged, and I have heard multiple people call Cyrus a “bad role model.”
I don’t understand this backlash; Cyrus has not actually done anything different than your average pop star. She’s provocative; she uses explicit language, and sexualizes herself on her own terms. What is the problem there? Is her background as a post-Disney channel star mean that this behavior is suddenly unacceptable now? That doesn’t make any sense. Miley Cyrus has actually taken a really interesting path with her career. She has a lot of attention on her, yet she also plays like an indie performer. She doesn’t sell out huge stadiums for her concerts, most of them are much more personal and in smaller venues. I actually saw Cyrus perform at The Electric Factory in Philadelphia last year and thought she was excellent. Her songs are strange and unique, and you won’t hear them on the radio.
But despite all the weirdness, she’s also a mainstream figure who has no problem “selling out”, not that that’s a bad thing. Just this year she’s become a reality star co-host, she has done guest hosting duty for a daytime talk show, and she just costarred in Woody Allen’s Amazon series. She simultaneously very stable, but also lives on the edge.
Miley Cyrus is still very young, at age twenty-three; she is a hot commodity and is only cementing her status as a pop culture icon. That is going to draw in haters. So when they ask what’s wrong with her? I’ll just say, "Oh she’s just being Miley."
