I haven’t been digesting every single bit of Miley Cyrus news since her infamous performance with Robin Thicke, but I wonder if anyone has been comparing Miley with another, very specific, musical sex revolutionary.
Yes, I mean Madonna.
Yes, I’m comparing Miley Cyrus to Madonna.
Yes, I’m calling both sex revolutionaries.
Part of the reason I haven’t paid too much attention is that this latest taboo-shaking performance by a young, female pop star is just that: no, not taboo-shaking, but rather the latest performance by a young, female pop star. It felt like just another occurance that seems to happen every year at a music industry awards show.
Young woman, flavour of the moment, nearly naked, something outrageous…blah, blah blah.
However, that was before the next Miley Moment happened. With this week’s release of the video for Wrecking Ball, it could be argued that this is just yet another nearly naked pop star moment. And maybe it is, but I think there’s more there. I think Wrecking Ball goes beyond the video award performance, and it goes beyond the wildy popular We Can’t Stop.
Wrecking Ball is a fucking fantastic pop song. That crash into the course is brilliant. Miley’s voice is perfect in its imperfection. And it is the quintessential pop song anti-ballad. These factors all point to it being something that gives Miley more of a reputation as an artist, not just a former child star playing at singing and being shocking.
And this is what got me thinking of Madonna.
She burst onto the scene in a somewhat bubblegum way, not as a child, but still very ‘poppy.’ However, once she gained that limelight, she let loose the true Madonna persona that captivated the world. Whatever sexual exploit Madonna pursued, we lapped it up. She was a pin-up and a revolutionary, who was also reviled by many different authorities.
Madonna changed sex. Her videos and book shocked, amazed and inspired a generation of people to look beyond sexual binaries to expand their desires.
I think Miley Cyrus can be the next female pop sexual revolutionary.
Sure, there have been pretenders to that throne, and it isn’t even one Madonna has abdicated just yet. But as we hear more from Miley, and see more of Miley, I think we’re going to be very surprised by her. People are going to doubt this, and I certainly can’t be sure, but I think she’s a very savvy young woman. Having Terry Richardson helm the Wrecking Ball video is genius (no idea if it was her idea or if she even knows his work).
Here are some of the reasons I think she’s going to be a difference-maker:
- She remained fairly quiet after the award show. She didn’t come out swinging, didn’t say anything outrageous, didn’t blame anyone. (not that I have heard, at least)
- She is moving as far away from Hannah Montana as possible, quickly, and not using her former career as a crutch.
- She is confident in her body.
- She is making bold choices, musically, early on…and they work.
- She has created a new physical look for herself that is different from her previous look but not wildly outrageous.
Not everyone will agree with these things being virtues, and while I can’t say I know everything about Miley, surely she has had missteps and made mistakes. But so did Madonna. So does every credible artist and person. It is how you deal with them, and the fallout that makes you revolutionary.
Perhaps most telling, to me, is how, to my knowledge, Miley has not come out to any type of defence of Robin Thicke. And because of this, the conversation has, at least partially, shifted to his involvement in that performance and more scrutiny has been cast on Blurred Lines. Was this intentional? Did Miley go out on stage and camp and sex up Blurred Lines in order to draw attention to the songs questionable lyrics and theme?
Honestly, I doubt it.
But it happened. And if Thicke had of just performed that song on his own, I imagine it would have been forgettable.
And finally, I do think there is one last way that Miley will be important, as Madonna was.
When Madonna was sending the world into a tizzy with her sexual antics, everyone was still wondering how a “woman” could act like this. How a “woman” could lay claim to sexuality, empower herself and encourage other “women” to empower themselves.
Well, Miley’s doing the same thing, expect she is doing it for “young women.”
We all know Miley as a girl who grew up on television as Hannah Montana. But she is grown up now, just as our daughters do and will grow up (mine are 14 and 11). How do we react and treat them when they become sexual beings? When they become outrageous and challenging? Predominantly, we’ve pushed that aside. We’ve ignored their growth or we’ve suppressed it.
Miley is putting it right into our faces that we can’t ignore her growth as a “young woman.” She is here and she is sexual. And I think this is very important. People like the “no-selfies mom” still want to put girls in that little box of respectability.
Fuck that box.
While I am sure I won’t always agree with what she does, and I’m not about to say that I don’t have issues with some things (racism in that award performance, drug references in songs that will obviously be goggled by a young audience), I do believe we will be hearing and seeing a lot from Miley Cyrus.
And that’s a good thing because she’s going to make a difference.
