Are we still talking about Miley? Cause I wanna talk about Miley.

So, in case you've been living under a rock that's buried below a tree that's growing in a different universe, you've heard about Miley Cyrus's performance at the VMAs on Sunday night. And before I go any further here, please know that I've never really been a Miley fan. She's always grated my nerves something fierce. But the criticisms I've seen of her in the last 72 hours have gone way past "yeah, she's kind of annoying" territory.

If you haven't, go watch it. I'll wait. You won't be gone long, because it's horrible and the most cringe-worthy thing ever.
Are you back now? Okay, so:

Our girl Miley has obviously gotten a lot of criticism for her performance. Let's talk about why.

First of all, there's the pesky 'cultural appropriation' issue. Twerking is her thing now, right? Ignoring the fact that, uh, she's not even really good at it, twerking is something that has been appropriated from black culture forever. Not cool, Miley. Not cool.
That's all I'm going to say about that, because there are people who are much smarter than me that spell out exactly why everything Miley is doing right now is extremely problematic, and you can (and should) read those articles here, here and here.

But for real. If I met Miley right now, there's only one question I think I would ask her: why, girlfriend? why?

I believe a woman has every right to dress the way she wants, dance the way she wants, and talk the way she wants. I didn't think her performance the other night was "slutty" like a lot of people did (God, I hate that word.) but I did think it was just... weird. Why did she think that thrusting with a foam finger and sticking her tongue out all over the place is sexy, or cool, or whatever it is that she's going for?

What was she trying to accomplish with this performance? Did she only want people to start talking about her again? Because that's definitely happening. People are most assuredly talking about her today. But it's definitely not kind. And I'm not sure she's going to be able to bounce back from it.

Everyone's so angry that she was grinding up on Robin Thicke, but I haven't seen hardly any outrage directed at him. And he's married. It takes two to tango, so if you're going to be mad that she was dancing up on some man, you need to get mad at the man, too. It's not like he was pushing her away. She doesn't deserve all your anger just because she's a woman.

AND AND AND: 'Blurred Lines' is literally about blurring the lines of consent. It's a super creepy, rapey song. But you're mad about her dancing too provocatively? Get outta here. If you're going to take issue with her performance, get mad at that. Get mad at the fact that, as a woman singing and dancing to that song, she perpetuated the idea that women ARE objects. She has every right to express herself the way she wants to, but not at the expense of others.

Finally, I want to know who told her that THIS

was a good idea. Because that person should be fired.

At the end of the day, I really do feel sorry for her. And am a little confused by her. Honestly, I'm not sure what to make of her. From where I'm standing (okay fine, I'm sitting) right now, I see a confused, insecure, slightly delusional, probably scared 20 year old girl. Can you imagine having everyone watching your every move when YOU were 20? I can't - having my awkward phase immortalized forever would be... awful. She's like that girl that gets too drunk at parties. She shows up, drinks way too much of everyone else's booze, and stumbles around, spilling beer, dancing on whoever is standing still and laughing way too loud. She's annoying, but you mostly just feel sorry for her because she's clearly trying WAY too hard to be liked and it has to just be exhausting. I mean, yikes.

So maybe what she needs to is take one giant step backwards, out of the spotlight (especially if the rumors about her doing drugs are true). Examine what her priorities are and what she wants to accomplish with her music. If she decides that she likes what she's doing, like, she REALLY believes she's on the right path, fine. She's a grown woman, past the age of consent, and totally capable of making her own choices. But hopefully she realizes that what she's doing - whatever the heck it is - is most decidedly not working for her, and she'll take some time (a lot of time) to reevaluate.



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