# There are currently SIX article on the Huffpo regarding Miley's performance at the VMAs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 27, 2013, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-currently-six-article-on-the-huffpo-regarding-mileys-performance-at-the-vmas/667343 "2013-08-27T23:18:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-currently-six-article-on-the-huffpo-regarding-mileys-performance-at-the-vmas/667343/101 "2013-08-31T07:45:40Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Miley’s schtick makes me wonder what the future Mileys are going to be like in 20 years. The teenage pre-Empress Theodora [allegedly] set the bar pretty high with that geese-eating-grain-off-her-lady-bits (aka Leda and the Swan) routine in the sixth century. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-currently-six-article-on-the-huffpo-regarding-mileys-performance-at-the-vmas/667343/102 "2013-08-31T09:46:45Z")
I watched it and wasn’t particularly offended. The performance was mostly just silly and kind of boring. Though as a whole (meaning including her official video for that song) Miley’s sexualization strikes me as… hollow is the best word I can use. The best I can compare it to is when a teenager or early college student really gets into Nietzsche or Plato and the like but doesn’t really understand it. Where they’re trying really hard to use all this deep philosophy and apply it to everything, but it gets ridiculous when they start trying to compare their job at McDonald’s to the Allegory of the Cave. The sexualized act is just… not sexual. While, intellectually, I get that it’s **supposed** to be sexual, they just feel like motions to me. Like, she’s performaning actions and moving certain ways, but they don’t really feel **linked** to anything sexual. Like she doesn’t really know what she’s doing. It reminds me of high school where people thrusting their hips was funny because… uh… sex is funny when you’re a teen I guess. I keep just wondering when she’s going to try to do a straight-faced no-irony cover of [Elektronik Supersonik](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp_PIjc2ga4). Because it feels like a parody of sexuality that forgot it was a parody. I mean, if you’re going to go insane with the sexuality at least go all in and be Ke$ha. At least Ke$ha is fun about it. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-currently-six-article-on-the-huffpo-regarding-mileys-performance-at-the-vmas/667343/103 "2013-08-31T10:07:02Z")
Though, as always, my main objection is that for a song ostensibly about being able to do whatever you want and having fun partying (and possibly fucking) it is an **excessively** boring song, video, and performance. 80BPM is not a party song, at least not without far more effort than they put into that thing. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-currently-six-article-on-the-huffpo-regarding-mileys-performance-at-the-vmas/667343/104 "2013-08-31T17:18:55Z")
Is it wrong for me to have been more amused watching [Mika Brzezinski freak out about it](http://gawker.com/mika-brzezinski-hated-miley-cyrus-s-vma-performance-mor-1201144494), demand firings at MTV, and indignantly upbraid everyone else on her set and even on those of other shows to dare to disagree, than the actual Miley act? As **Mister Rik** points out, one of the elements of “shock” about MC is the contrast with her spiritual predecessors from a decade-plus earlier, such as Britney S. who started off with “naughty-schoolgirl tease,” and then went deliberately step-by-step working it up to “trainwreck sex goddess”. But that’s part of the issue: while at Disney, Spears and Aguilera were just part of the company players – they only became headliners AFTER they’d moved on and _adopted an overtly sexy image_, so the audience did not feel uncomfortable about them heating the act up as time went by. Miley OTOH has the Hanna Montana albatross around her neck. (BTW: note to tween girls and their parents: _Hanna Montana died three years ago._ Find another idol.) [Jon LaJoie brings up his take about this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2zbxM4EehE) (completely SFW) saying\* “we’ll watch others do this and we’ll be fine because we can’t picture them as kids”\*. It’s all about “OMG my tween daughter can see this!!”. Well, time to do some parenting for cryin’ out loud. I’m with **Jragon** in that Miley (or Team Miley) comes across as trying too hard, and is substituting shock for maturity. But, she’s only 20, that demographic both as audience and as creator tends to confuse shock value for maturity a lot, hopefully she’ll get over it. Still, since she has been acting up for a few years now, it’s hard to explain why people just now claim to be stunned. The performance was just so-so musically, confusing in concept and staging, sort of trainwrecky at times, she is not that good a dancer and her apparent ongoing tribute to Gene Simmons was distracting. By VMA standards it was just average IMO. For cryin’ out loud it was a duet with Robin Thicke, what did they expect, art? ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-currently-six-article-on-the-huffpo-regarding-mileys-performance-at-the-vmas/667343/105 "2013-08-31T18:53:11Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > As **Mister Rik** points out, one of the elements of “shock” about MC is the contrast with her spiritual predecessors from a decade-plus earlier, such as Britney S. who started off with “naughty-schoolgirl tease,” and then went deliberately step-by-step working it up to “trainwreck sex goddess”. I think you and **Mister Rik** are forgetting that 10+ years ago there were people who were shocked by Britney Spears’s music videos and VMA performances. There weren’t a bunch of articles on Huffington Post about her 2001 “Slave 4 U” performance because Huffington Post didn’t exist then, but I remember there being plenty of “What’s the world coming to that something so offensive could be shown on MTV!” in response to it. ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-currently-six-article-on-the-huffpo-regarding-mileys-performance-at-the-vmas/667343/106 "2013-08-31T20:47:54Z")
> [@Ms\_Boods](#): > > The teenage pre-Empress Theodora [allegedly] set the bar pretty high with that geese-eating-grain-off-her-lady-bits (aka Leda and the Swan) routine in the sixth century. Please tell me there’s cites? maybe pics? ---
**Author:** ![Helena330](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/helena330/32/531_2.png) [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-currently-six-article-on-the-huffpo-regarding-mileys-performance-at-the-vmas/667343/107 "2013-08-31T21:53:08Z")
I wasn’t all that impressed with Miley’s “sexuality” or the “choreography” or theme of the song, but there’s one thing I do like about Miley. She has a _healthy_, fit body and isn’t stick-thin like showbiz always demands. That a great thing to project to young girls/women. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-currently-six-article-on-the-huffpo-regarding-mileys-performance-at-the-vmas/667343/108 "2013-09-01T02:03:00Z")
> [@Helena330](#): > > I wasn’t all that impressed with Miley’s “sexuality” or the “choreography” or theme of the song, but there’s one thing I do like about Miley. She has a _healthy_, fit body and isn’t stick-thin like showbiz always demands. That a great thing to project to young girls/women. [Healthy? Really?!](http://img.thesun.co.uk/aidemitlum/archive/01754/Miley_1754723a.jpg) :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-currently-six-article-on-the-huffpo-regarding-mileys-performance-at-the-vmas/667343/109 "2013-09-01T02:21:21Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > I think you and **Mister Rik** are forgetting that 10+ years ago there were people who were shocked by Britney Spears’s music videos and VMA performances. There weren’t a bunch of articles on Huffington Post about her 2001 “Slave 4 U” performance because Huffington Post didn’t exist then, but I remember there being plenty of “What’s the world coming to that something so offensive could be shown on MTV!” in response to it. Oh, I certainly remember the outrage, (and the earlier outrage at some of Madonna’s performances). But the outrage at Madonna and Britney wasn’t coming from their fans. From what I’ve seen regarding Miley, a lot of the WTF?! is coming from her fans. They seem as baffled and disgusted as anybody. And again, I think it’s because, where Madonna and Britney proceeded 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, etc., Miley has gone 1, 2, 3, 4, 11. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-currently-six-article-on-the-huffpo-regarding-mileys-performance-at-the-vmas/667343/110 "2013-09-01T04:03:56Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > Oh, I certainly remember the outrage, (and the earlier outrage at some of Madonna’s performances). But the outrage at Madonna and Britney wasn’t coming from their fans. From what I’ve seen regarding Miley, a lot of the WTF?! is coming from her fans. They seem as baffled and disgusted as anybody. And again, I think it’s because, where Madonna and Britney proceeded 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, etc., Miley has gone 1, 2, 3, 4, 11. I haven’t heard anything at all about Cyrus’s fans being shocked or confused, although I haven’t been following this “controversy” closely. But I did click your link for the “We Can’t Stop” video, and within the first 45 seconds (all that I watched) Cyrus was shown wearing a skimpy costume and rolling around in bed, hanging her tongue way out of her mouth, and spanking a black woman. So that’s basically her VMA performance right there. The “We Can’t Stop” video was posted on Vevo more than two months ago, and [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miley_Cyrus#2013:_New_image_and_Bangerz) tells me that it was quite successful – it even broke some Vevo records prior to the VMA performance. Of course one reason the video might have been viewed so much would be that Cyrus’s fans considered it shocking, but if that’s the case they couldn’t truly have been shocked all over again when they saw her very similar VMA performance. They may not have _liked_ it, but anyone who’d seen the video had fair warning that Cyrus had changed her image since her Hannah Montana days. I’m sure plenty of people who watched the VMAs hadn’t seen this particular video, but it seems unlikely that many Miley Cyrus fans tuned in to the VMAs without having first seen the video that she was nominated for. ---
**Author:** ![Helena330](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/helena330/32/531_2.png) [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-currently-six-article-on-the-huffpo-regarding-mileys-performance-at-the-vmas/667343/111 "2013-09-01T04:41:26Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > [Healthy? Really?!](http://img.thesun.co.uk/aidemitlum/archive/01754/Miley_1754723a.jpg) :dubious: That looks REALLY 'shopped. Look at her physique in the video. She has muscles. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-currently-six-article-on-the-huffpo-regarding-mileys-performance-at-the-vmas/667343/112 "2013-09-01T04:51:35Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > the fact that our society has become a wicked den of immorality should be news to no one Nor unwelcome news to any one! _Laissez les bon temps rouller, et laissez_ Miley Cryus be as much of a hooor as she wanna be, man! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-currently-six-article-on-the-huffpo-regarding-mileys-performance-at-the-vmas/667343/113 "2013-09-01T04:59:59Z")
> [@Helena330](#): > > That looks REALLY 'shopped. [I know what you mean.](http://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/This_c9e64e_848539.jpg) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-currently-six-article-on-the-huffpo-regarding-mileys-performance-at-the-vmas/667343/114 "2013-09-01T05:00:59Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#): > > Please tell me there’s cites? maybe pics? her Wiki page talks about “salacious” performances > [@](#): > > Lynda Garland in “Byzantine Empresses: Women and Power in Byzantium, AD 527–1204” notes that there seems to be little reason to believe she worked out of a brothel “managed by a pimp”. Employment as an actress at the time would include both “indecent exhibitions on stage” and providing sexual services off stage. In what Garland calls the “sleazy entertainment business in the capital”, Theodora earned her living by a combination of her theatrical and sexual skills. In Procopius’ account, Theodora made a name for herself with her salacious portrayal of Leda and the Swan. > **[Theodora (wife of Justinian I) | Early years](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodora_%28wife_of_Justinian_I%29#Early_years)** > > Much of her early life, including the date and place of her birth, is uncertain: for instance, according to Michael the Syrian, her birthplace was in Mabbug, Syria; Nicephorus Callistus Xanthopoulos says Theodora is a native of Cyprus; and the Patria, attributed to George Codinus, claims Theodora came from Paphlagonia. 21st-century historian Clive Foss has also suggested the Egyptian city of Alexandria as a potential place of her birth. The modern consensus seems to be that Theodora m Her father,... ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-currently-six-article-on-the-huffpo-regarding-mileys-performance-at-the-vmas/667343/115 "2013-09-01T14:03:53Z")
> [@deltasigma](#): > > [I know what you mean.](http://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/This_c9e64e_848539.jpg) 😃 Ugh. That page makes my brain twerk. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-currently-six-article-on-the-huffpo-regarding-mileys-performance-at-the-vmas/667343/116 "2013-09-01T15:10:26Z")
I don’t have a problem with people being offended by it. But, for goodness sake, it isn’t news. It’s not that big a deal at all. All you are doing is exactly what she wanted–giving her publicity. Just post that it was shocking and disgusting or whatever, and them move on. I should not still be seeing newly written articles about this! BTW: her hair is still what makes the whole thing unsexy to me. I know some girls who can handle it, but it just makes her look fugly. ---
**Author:** ![AnalogSignal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/analogsignal/32/1085_2.png) [@AnalogSignal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnalogSignal)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-currently-six-article-on-the-huffpo-regarding-mileys-performance-at-the-vmas/667343/117 "2013-09-01T16:38:57Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > BTW: her hair is still what makes the whole thing unsexy to me. A good rule of thumb for Miley is when your tongue is longer than your hair, it’s time to grow out your hair. This could be a Miley smiley if the tongue were 3 times longer. -\> 😛 ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-currently-six-article-on-the-huffpo-regarding-mileys-performance-at-the-vmas/667343/118 "2013-09-01T18:31:31Z")
> [@AnalogSignal](#): > > This could be a Miley smiley if the tongue were 3 times longer. -\> 😛 Hmmm. Maybe I need to watch the video after all. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-currently-six-article-on-the-huffpo-regarding-mileys-performance-at-the-vmas/667343/119 "2013-09-01T19:51:23Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > It was sad, really. just doing it to get attention and basically whore herself out to shock the world. The tongue was the most disturbing part of it. I don’t think its cool to slam her lack of ass or breasts as a way to judge the thing… I think she’s built like a 13 year old boy, and odds are, not too many 13 year old boys would fill out that outfit either. She’s a late bloomer.. Or maybe she will never have a “booty and boobs”. Who cares? Maybe next time, look at her before shoving on stage to make a fool out of herself. > > I am officially old. I did not know the song, the old guy she was ramming herself into while he played porno-actor from behind, the purpose of the bears, the foam finger fucking, or anything else. It wasn’t even erotic or sexually stimulating. It was just plain sad. > [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > Basically, what I saw was a young woman trying to be “sexy” without having the first clue as to what “sexy” means. Honestly, I thought Miley was “sexier” before she started _trying_ so hard to be “sexy”. Though, honestly, I’ve always seen Miley as more “cute/pretty” than “sexy”. From what I’ve seen lately, Miley is showing all the signs of somebody who’s had their every move controlled by “handlers” for too many years, and now she’s all “I’m a grownup! I’mma do what I want!” Basically, postponed teenage rebellion. This has been said by more than two posters, but I’m too lazy to quote more than two. Do you really think this performance was choreographed by a wholesome 21-year-old girl confused about her sexuality? That the million dollar entertainment enterprise that is Miley Cyrus wanted to be sexy but failed? Everything else in Miley’s life was choreographed, but this is a teenager rebelling against her corporate handlers? Just like Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Katy Perry, oh, wait… She did not want to put on a proper “sexual” performance. Whatever that means. She was intentionally being sexually careless because that’s what sells records. There is a genre of pop music that young adults like that features rich young adults parting without giving a shit about any consequences. The whole point of these songs is that the people partying affirm their right to behave irresponsibility. Examples: [Ke$ha - Tik Tok.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP6XpLQM2Cs) Listen to the lyrics. The whole song is about her doing irresponsible things and not giving a shit. She moves around like a drunk during the video. Do you think that’s because she can’t dance? [Far East Movement - Like a G6.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4s6H4ku6ZY) Rich people drinking all day and feeling good about it. I read someone on reddit say that the apex of this genre is [Millionaires - Party Like A Millionaire.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyh3vb9TgaM) Here is the chorus: “I do what I want middle finger in the air. Gonna party party party like a millionaire. Gonna dance like a slut, and I don’t even care. Gonna party party party, like a millionaire.” That pretty much sums up the genre. Now it’s time for Miley Cyrus to cash in. Her dancing, or whatever you want to call it, fit the ideology of this genre perfectly. She was being sexually careless. The kind of sexually that will get adults going “be more careful, someone will think you’re a whore” and that was the point. The message is that she can be as irresponsibly as she wants and no one can stop her. I thought doing the performance with a 40-year-old sleazy man whore added to the whole careless attitude Cyrus was trying to convey. Read the song [lyrics](http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/mileycyrus/wecantstop.html) if you want more evidence. She sings about doing whatever she wants - drugs and sex included - and how no one will stop her. > [@DSeid](#): > > My sense of this performer is that her true personality is somewhat closer to Hannah Montana than this new character she is acting out on direction of whoever is trying to market her into an adult performer. You’re saying that Disney had less influence over her when she was a child? I’m not arguing that Miley Cyrus is the greatest entertainer alive. But she’s not some confused young adult who’s “struggling to understand her sexuality”. She and her corporate handlers had a plan that they executed perfectly and everyone who says “she’s behaving like a whore” is only going to earn them more money. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2013, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-currently-six-article-on-the-huffpo-regarding-mileys-performance-at-the-vmas/667343/120 "2013-09-01T19:53:12Z")
Okay an unofficial poll: Who thinks that the real Miley Cyrus personality is more like a) Hannah Montana b) The character she now portrays, or c) Who you see is her, a train wreck in progress. I vote for option a. A fairly white bread kid trying to act a part for the sake of her career. No Lakai, but I think the character they had her play was closer to the real her and less of an acting stretch. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-currently-six-article-on-the-huffpo-regarding-mileys-performance-at-the-vmas/667343.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-currently-six-article-on-the-huffpo-regarding-mileys-performance-at-the-vmas/667343.md?page=7)