05.12
Plugged-in online has a blistering write up on the new post-Disney Miley Cyrus music video:
It’s hard to know where, exactly, to begin with “Can’t Be Tamed,” the first single from Miley Cyrus’ forthcoming album of the same name.
So I’ll start with a blunt summary: This song and its accompanying video are everything Hannah Montana isn’t. And that means the latest whiplash-inducing s-curve in Miley’s career leaves no question about her post-Disney trajectory.
Miley has traded Hannah’s innocuously superficial odes to girl power for a conspicuously superficial ode to girl sexiness. Or sleaziness. Take your pick. The result is a frantic, techno-pop celebration of Miley’s infatuation with herself and the hold she believes she has over guys.
So maybe this is still about girl power.
“For those who don’t know me,” Miley informs fans, “I can get a bit crazy/Have to get my way/24 hours a day/’Cause I’m hot like that/Every guy, everywhere/Just gives me mad attention/Like I’m under inspection/I always get a 10/’Cause I’m built like that/ … About my intentions/I’ll tell ya I’m not here to sell ya/Or tell ya to go to h‑‑‑/I’m like a puzzle but all of my pieces are jagged/If you can understand this/We can make some magic/I’m on like that.”
Miley wants people to know that life and love are all on her terms. And any man who’s interested in her should heed that warning: “I go through guys like money/ … They try to change me/But they realize they can’t/ … If you’re gonna be my man/Understand/I can’t be tamed.”
I’ve always had a bad feeling about Miley Cyrus from the first time I saw Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel, back when we had cable. It’s hard to explain, but you can just tell when Hollywood is using a person versus when a person is using Hollywood. It was obvious that the latter was the case with Miley Cyrus. And, when I say she used Hollywood, I mean that she used the public. The veil of innocent tween-ism in her personal life was obviously an act. The whole Disney thing was just a launching pad to a larger adult career. And all of the tweens that loved her are going to be pretty shocked to see the mask come off:
Merging Britney Spears and Lady Gaga, the video elevates the sensual and the bizarre in equal measures…
Breaking free from her confines, she and a retinue of dancers clad in black leather S&M-style outfits menace fleeing spectators and, more frequently, writhe sensually with each other. Miley, who throughout the song reveals great deal of herself, seems equally at home striking sexualized poses with male and female dancers.
Washington Post celebrity-culture blogger Liz Kelly put it this way: “‘Can’t Be Tamed’ … should perhaps be called ‘I Am Some Kind of Sexually Predatory Bird Woman (And Please Ignore the Fact That I’m Still Underage While I Grind Against This Guy).’ A mouthful, but it would be more accurate.”
Amazingly, Miley seems to think her song is more about empowerment and vision than overt sexuality. “I wanted it to be something different for a female artist,” she told Ryan Seacrest in an interview aired on cable’s E! channel. “That it’s not just about, ‘Oh, I have to stand here and do the whole sex thing the whole time and that be what it’s about. That’s not what this video is about at all. It’s about the creativity. … It’s about the core of, you know, I don’t want to be to be in a cage. I want to be free and do what I love.”
“I wanted [the video] to be something different for a female artist.” Maybe she means different in the way that Saw IV is different than Saw III? Continuing:
Asked whether trumpeting her reckless flight from circumspect adolescence into no-holds-barred “adulthood” is appropriate for the millions of tweens and teens who have become so fond of her, Miley thinks it’s a ride they’ll connect with. “It’s not like I’m going to do anything that I wouldn’t be proud of my family to see,” she told Seacrest. “Or the fact that my little sister, who’s 10, can still go to school and her friends aren’t going to be like, ‘Oh my god, your sister’s video!’ You know what I mean? I think they could all watch it. … Because I think people can relate to it, even if you’re just going to high school.”
“Because I think people can relate to it, even if you’re just going to high school.” Can we all please remember for a moment that she is still 17 and she’s up on a video grinding some dude. Ummm, am I the only one seeing a problem with any of this? Maybe so. Because, you know every parent wants their 10 year old to be able to “relate” to a video with S&M bondage apparel and explicit sexuality with a minor. That sounds just grand doesn’t it.
But, seriously. Does this surprise anyone? I mean, it was obvious what was going on with this girl when she did this the first time by posing in those semi-topless photos for Vanity Fair. When the parental furor went up, Disney quickly mounted a P.R. campaign to save their brand and forced her to make a public “apology”:
A Disney spokeswoman, Patti McTeague, faulted Vanity Fair for the photo. “Unfortunately, as the article suggests, a situation was created to deliberately manipulate a 15-year-old in order to sell magazines,” she said.
The article, written by Bruce Handy, seems to support that claim, quoting Ms. Cyrus as saying, “Annie took, like, a beautiful shot, and I thought it was really cool. That’s what she wanted me to do, and you can’t say no to Annie.” She also said of the photo, “I think it’s really artsy. It wasn’t in a skanky way.”
Ms. Cyrus had a different view in a prepared statement released on Sunday:
“I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be ‘artistic’ and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed. I never intended for any of this to happen and I apologize to my fans who I care so deeply about.”
Beth Kseniak, a spokeswoman for both Vanity Fair magazine and Ms. Leibovitz said, “Miley’s parents and/or minders were on the set all day. Since the photo was taken digitally, they saw it on the shoot and everyone thought it was a beautiful and natural portrait of Miley.”
So, now we know that she and her family absolutely faked the whole “I feel so embarrassed” thing. Maybe parents who didn’t see through that whole charade the first time will now.
But, why am I spending like 1200 words of blog space on this? It’s not because I expect culture to be moral. And, it’s not because I give a rat’s butt about Miley Cyrus. Like I said, we never let our kids watch that show anyway. The point I’m making is that media is a game. It’s all acting. On and off stage. The Miley Cyrus craze always bothered me from a parental standpoint because it was so obviously phony. It was like the Disney version of the WWF, with Miley being Hulk Hogan. One day she’s telling you to take your vitamins and say your prayers and the next day she’s joined the NWO and switched to wearing all black. Well, maybe that’s a totally weird analogy, but it serves the point that celebrities are an empty tank. They don’t stop acting when the director yells “cut.” Their whole life is an act – on and off set. Don’t throw your hard earned time and money into them. And don’t let your kids do it either.
