fett on 13/8/2009 at 14:54
It's also worth pointing out these two things:
1) There's a distinct gap between Miley's age and her audience's age. She is reaching adulthood and accordingly will begin to express herself in more sexual terms - we've seen this before with Lindsay Lohan and Brittany Spears. There's nothing wrong with it, *except* for the fact that her audience is pre-teen, pre-pubescent. In that sense, most anything sexual is inappropriate since that age group has very little if any sense of sexuality. You wouldn't want Barny the Dinosaur touching himself on screen. Miley's audience is not much older than his, psychologically and socially speaking. It's easy to look at her age and think her audience is the same, but they are drastically younger in every way.
2) There's a bait and switch going on for parents with Miley, and with other franchises as well. Many parents let their kids watch Miley because she's safe, clean, etc. An 8 year old may not even know what a pole dance is, and has no context to understand why it may be inappropriate in mixed company, or for a child. Now mom and dad have to concern themselves with little Becky imitating Miley any time she gets near a pole in line at the local bank. Mom and dad are put into the awkward position of having to explain to little Becky why we don't rub up against poles.
"Why mom?"
"Because strippers do it."
"What's a stripper?"
"A woman who takes her clothes off while dancing."
"Why does she take her clothes off?"
You get the picture and if you don't think those conversations are real it's because you haven't spent much time around 7 year olds.
2a) They did this shit with Transformers and it pissed me right the hell off. The cartoons and toys are marketed to 5-8 year olds (know any 10 year old's who play with action figures?). So I take my boys to the movie only to find that it's filled with all kinds of overt sexual stuff that is inappropriate for kids. It's a bait and switch and I'm left trying to explain masturbation to a 7 year old who can't even get a proper erection. Fuck you Michael Bey and fuck you Transformer franchise. Parents who don't pay attention to what their kids watch and hear, or are too prudish to address it at all, deserve that shit. But I go to great pains to introduce my boys to adult subjects at the appropriate time, in the appropriate way and you just got all in the middle of my shit, so fuck you.
Kids are gonna hear and see stuff before parents want them to anyway, right? But it's different when something that has been safe for years, or pitched to you as being kid-appropriate and turns out not to be and oops! It's too late to go back because Jr. can't unwatch or un-hear it and now I'm left holding the bag. That, in a small way, is what happened with Miley Cyrus last night. It also begs the disturbing question - why did someone do this in the first place?
Also, off topic - her dad is the biggest cock in the universe, huh?
Rogue Keeper on 13/8/2009 at 15:03
Smart parents will realize she's not innocent anymore and won't allow their kids to watch her things. Well, maybe if she was responsible, she would say : "Parents of the world! Hereby I state that I'm no longer a little girl and maybe not even a virgin (I have to check again) and I will increasingly express my sexuality in my performances." But maybe her agents won't allow her to say that, who knows?
OnionBob on 13/8/2009 at 15:13
Quote Posted by ZymeAddict
Even though this isn't full on whore-behavior, we all know it's pointing in that direction and that's where she's going to end up.
lol
Thirith on 13/8/2009 at 15:14
Quote Posted by Rogue Keeper
Smart parents will realize she's not innocent anymore and won't allow their kids to watch her things.
True, but there are lots of dumb parents. I think although "Think of the kids!" is so often used as a cheapo conversation ender (on both sides, depending on whether you're being earnest or sarcastic), but the companies selling crap do share some of the responsibility.
TafferLing on 13/8/2009 at 15:19
Already called dibs on that!
Kolya on 13/8/2009 at 15:49
Alright tigger. I wasn't serious anyway. There's just something about Miley Cyrus' innocent smile, the firm little ass, her burgeoning breasts and....THAT WHORE MUST DIE!!! :mad:
Starrfall on 13/8/2009 at 15:54
Quote Posted by fett
It's also worth pointing out these two things:
1) There's a distinct gap between Miley's age and her audience's age. She is reaching adulthood and accordingly will begin to express herself in more sexual terms - we've seen this before with Lindsay Lohan and Brittany Spears. There's nothing wrong with it, *except* for the fact that her audience is pre-teen, pre-pubescent.
You know, part of it is probably that she is STILL doing the disney show (or at least I think one of the articles said it's on for one more year). Britney Spears may have been stripping on stage at 17, but she wasn't still in the Mickey Mouse club at the same time.
However these two points:
Quote:
Mom and dad are put into the awkward position of having to explain to little Becky why we don't rub up against poles.
Quote:
Most of her fans may not know what a stripper pole is (they will in the next few days if it stays in the news), but even look at the shorts she and the dancers are wearing in that video.
I think demonstrate that over-reactive parents are part of the problem. Kids are kids. Some of them are going to swing around a pole because it's a fun thing for a kid to do. You get to spin real fast in a circle and discover things like centrifugal force and shit. If mom and dad see their kid swinging around on a pole and say OMG DONT ACT LIKE A STRIPPER it is THEY who have injected sex into things.
To put it in other words over-reacting to this sort of thing compounds the problem because now you're not only dealing with the fact that kids will do what the kid-oriented pop stars do, but you have to deal with the fact that you've just told them that what the pop stars are doing is naughty. Is this going to make the kids more or less likely to want to be like the pop stars? I'd go with more. Obviously parents should be paying attention to what their kids are picking up from other sources, but make it taboo, and you only increase interest.
Especially when you're starting with something so goddamn innocuous. If your kids see a picture of Lindsey Lohan all coked out and drunk and looking like shit coming out of a club, that's a teaching moment. If your kids see Miley Cyrus doing a not-very-sexy dance and try to shoehorn it into a teaching moment, you're being uptight and are probably not presenting a very clear message about where the lines really all. The two are not on the same level and I think treating them as such is a mistake.
The clothing/short shorts thing is kind of a different matter (and an interesting one I think), but even so I'd say the time to freak out is when your daughter actually wants to get a pair, not when she happens to see them on tv. If she was just watching that performance, she might not give the shorts a second thought. If she hears her parents going "look at those shorts that's so inappropriate" then the shorts become a point of interest where they may not have been otherwise. If she wants to get a pair later, surely
that is the time to Be A Parent.
I also don't think this was much of a bait and switch. It was the TEEN choice awards, it wasn't the KIDS choice awards that nickelodeon does. And while I'm not arguing that Miley's fans are all teens, surely the name of the show gives parents enough warning? Adults (and teens) should not be forced to live in a world for children just on the off-chance that children might see something meant for adults (or teens). Neither should they be castigated for acting like adults/teens in a forum meant for adults/teens.
The g-string thing is really bizarre though.
Queue on 13/8/2009 at 16:51
Quote Posted by Kolya
Alright tigger. I wasn't serious anyway. There's just something about Miley Cyrus' innocent smile, the firm little ass, her burgeoning breasts and....THAT WHORE MUST DIE!!! :mad:
With or without hollandaise sauce?
And, fett, I'm about as big of a heathen as they come, but I quit letting my daughter watch anything Disney Channel related about the time Britney was blowing up. They had become a vile, money-grubbing entity that had nothing to do with constructive entertainment for children. The company is no better than any pimp out whoring a product by pandering to the lowest of sensibilities--in this case, the sexualization of tweens. It's not to say that the exuberant, burgeoning, lady-youth aren't more than happy to become objects for jamming things into, but it doesn't mean that a corporation that sells itself to the public as some great bastion of "family entertainment" should be the ones handing out dildos with pictures of Tinkerbell riding a "magic wand." There was no way I was going to support that crap.
SD on 13/8/2009 at 17:21
Miley is lovely. I would achey breaky her hymen.
I don't understand why this is such a big deal when there are (more) nude photos of Vanessa Hudgens recently plastered all over the Internet.
