However, picking on Miley’s body, how she was dressed, the style of her hair, and how she couldn’t manage to keep her tongue in her mouth just takes the focus away from the fact that she culturally appropriated millions of people, their ancestry, and how they engage their own culture within a society that has not ceased to marginalize them.
But wait, we’re not finished. Let’s not forget everyone who is talking smack in regard to Miley getting all up on a married man. Yes, Robin Thicke is married to actress Paula Patton. He was also entirely complicit in the performance, and has given interviews on multiple occasions in which he is asked about his wife’s reactions to his performances with half-naked women, and he reveals that he and his wife understand that it can be part of the job as artists, and nudity can and has been involved in both of their careers to heighten the art.
How does any of this help? I’ll let you in on a secret: It doesn’t. These non-constructive negative reactions do nothing to start a conversation. It does nothing to deal with the issues at hand. All it does is continue a vicious cycle that keeps everyone down and away from the potential to become an open, accepting, and liberated society of equals.
It pisses me off to no end that I have to defend Miley Cyrus for some of her artistic choices while calling her out on others, but if this is indicative of anything, it is that we have so much farther to go. Until we can stop shaming one another and begin to honestly confront the uncomfortable truths before us, we’re always going to be stuck in a rut where no one makes it out alive. And, even more than that, I’m going to be stuck defending Miley Cyrus once again, and, let’s be real, no one wants that.
= new reply since forum marked as read