Does it bother you that a “teen idol,” to whom tween girls across the US apparently look up, has a questionable sense of modesty?
When I was a teenager, even the most well-behaved girls were sometimes deliberately careless with how much skin they showed. The difference between those girls and Miley is that, in the mid 80’s, there were no camera phones to snap surreptitious photos, and no WWW on which to distribute them to the whole world in a matter of minutes. In other words, Miley isn’t really doing anything out of character for 15-year-olds, she’s just in the public eye when she does it.
Well, my daughter is post-tween now. But she’s still a teen. The picture of Cyrus I’ve seen with Miley holding a blanket over her front doesn’t bother me because it’s a beautiful picture. I"d like my kids at any age to appreciate the image. Also, it doesn’t strike me as sexual or provocative in any way (although it is sensual).
Spears in “Hit me baby one more time” is a much more disturbing image.
She’s a fifteen year old girl exploring her sexuality and attractiveness, and someone hacks her phone to get private pictures off it and we question HER modesty.
This is what fifteen year old girls do. The find out that if they wiggle when they walk a little, their butt moves. They discover showing off a belly button is cute. They play with makeup and push up bras. This seems normal to me. The issue is that Ms. Cyrus isn’t being permitted to do it like other teenage girls - in private or with a few giggly girlfriends at a slumber party.
Not a parent, here, but I found the Vanity Fair photo to be quite beautiful and artistically satisfying. Coupla days ago, I open up People magazine and see the same gal sporting a tight, white wife-beater (hate the terminology, but I don’t know what else to call it) t-shirt that looked pretty slutty. I don’t get it…
Meh. She’s behaving like a fifteen year old girl. Expecting her to refrain from behaving like a fifteen year old girl based on some expectation of her “positively influencing” ten year old girls seems pretty unreasonable to me.
And the only thing “controversial” about the Vanity Fair photos is that her parents attended and participated in the entire shoot, then claimed to be “shocked… shocked!” at the results, in an embarrassingly successful effort to stir up controversy.
When I was 16, my best friend and I put on gobs of makeup (tastefully done, of course :dubious: ) and skimpy t-shirts and took pictures of each other. I honestly don’t recall what we ever thought we were going to do with the pictures (give them to our imaginary boyfriends??) or why we thought we looked so hot, but we did.
I was neither a teen star nor a teen slut, and I grew up to be a boring suburban mom.
What bothers me is the clash of capitalist prurience with prudish mores in the U.S. where the latter never understands its fueling effect on the former.
I posit that to humans anywhere, the human figure is one of the most beautiful of things and that to many males emerging womanhood stimulates symbology distinct from dirty old man reactions.
Much of the prevailing tween dress seems sluttish but the original Liebowitz photos do not.
She’s doing what 15 year old girls do - exploring her sexuality and attractiveness. Damn, if I’d looked that good at 15, you wouldn’t have been able to pry me away from the mirror.
It’s not her fault somebody hacked her phone and violated her privacy.
FWIW, Miley’s apparently on the way out in the tween set. At least according to my oldest daughter.
And no, I’m not particularly bothered by this. Jamie Lynn’s pregnancy was a lot more bothersome. And it turned into a good opportunity to have a “This is not a good thing to happen to you” talk anyway.
I’d more focus on the aspect with my kids that celebrities and sports figures are not very good role models and you should never really look up to them in any way.
You can admire their professional accomplishments but if you need a role model find someone you personally know and admire. A parent, aunt/uncle, cousin, friend.
Celebs are there for our entertainment, not to idolize.
