Teens have it so hard today, man.
A quick summary of something stupid: Miley Cyrus. Teen Choice Awards. Pole dancing. It looks like this:
Compared to the Sean Kingston thing from a while back, yeah, there’s a big of a double standard going on why this is not okay and that is supposedly okay.
But I think before you even get into objectification and underage sexual representation and, honestly, hypocrisy toward young female sexuality, I have to register this point again: Why is Miley Cyrus a successful pop star again? I feel like ten years ago we were force fed Britney Spears as a joke (herself a slightly more trashier version of someone like… Tiffany)(Though “I Think We’re Alone Now” is still awesome and “Hit Me Baby One More Time” was never all that awesome), and now it’s like that joke has become a wound and BillyRay Cyrus’ daughter is the salt that the Evil Music Industry Powers That Be are stabbing us with because they can.
It’s such a bizarre conundrum of the young female pop star, any young female pop star, with some initial talent and something marketable that is then seemingly surgically removed and changed into something even more marketable. She teases subliminal and not so subliminal interests of naughty sex and eroticized youth while possibly not quite understanding it herself. And not being given the breathing room to actually make that journey of discovery (which, yes, involves the breaking of certain boundaries to see what they’re made of). All the while surrounded by adults who should know better, but possibly don’t know better, or just have $$$ in their eyes. Then there’s the younger generation, who either are lead to believe that this is okay, this is socially acceptable, or that actually find something they can relate to, a down home-ness, a simpler mindset, an affinity for something positive in skeeziness.
I’ll stop myself there. I understand how it all works and because of that, I don’t understand how all of this actually works. And I don’t want to. Who are the positive young female role models for their youthful peers in this country?
Beyond that, there’s questions that come with certain aspects of pop culture – lolita obsessions, violence in movies, really bad music that is more choreography than actually listenable music – that don’t have answers. They just pose more and more questions and shudders of worry about posterity. Does everything fall into This Is What They Want?
Obviously she’s not American, but one of the many reason I like Lily Allen is because I still get the sense that she’s either doing or at least trying to do everything on her own terms. Her mistakes and her successes have one very important thing in common: They belong to her equally. Also, she’s awesome.
I’ll leave this particular spice of WTF with saner words than I can manage on the subject, one of Counterforce’s favorite internet crushes, Tracy Clark-Flory:
“That’s some potent imagery: an emblem of childhood (an ice cream cart) juxtaposed with a symbol of modern young womanhood (a stripper pole). Looks like her managers are following the Britney Spears sexy-virgin path to success — or self-destruction, depending on your perspective.”
In other news:
Jake Ryan: “Be my guest.”
Will Arnett and Mitch Hurwitz team up for new FOX pilot.
Big Willie Styles in Vegas for his B-day.
Crystal ball sets hour on fire. Should’ve seen that coming!
Guy coming to rescue gets shot in the balls.
Watch Community, the new pilot starring Joel McHale and Chevy Chase.
Everyone wants a piece of you…
