Damn it! Miley Cyrus Should Not Apologize for Her Sexuality!

Has anyone noticed it is all but impossible to scrounge up articles in the Traditional American Media (TAMMY) that actually support Miley Cyrus’s decision to pose in a mildly erotic way for Annie Leibovitz and Vanity Fair?

It appears I’m able this morning to google up over a thousand articles that each seem to assert Miley Cyrus made “a terrible mistake and horrifying moral decision” when she allowed Leibovitz to photograph her wrapped in white satin with her back revealed while giving the camera a post-coital look. Yet, does the nearly unanimous moral group-think of the TAMMY folks really mean Cyrus’s decision was a moral mistake?

Of course it doesn’t! When have the TAMMY people ever been morally right?

Indeed, it should be evident to most Americans their poor TAMMY is morally insane. After all, this is the very same Traditional American Media that only recently distorted, exaggerated — and even made up — facts and reasons to help President Bush and Company lead this country into a foolish, immoral war. And while the Miley Cyrus Affair doesn’t even come close in moral insanity to that outrage, it’s not as if the same folks capable of lying with neither shame nor regret in order to manipulate their viewers, listeners and readers into supporting a criminal war are likely to be suddenly morally right about much of anything — including right about Miley Cyrus.

The fact is, I feel for the kid. She’s a 15 year old caught in a storm. She’s been abused, condemned, and vilified. She’s been called a “tramp”, a “whore”, a “pervert”, a threat to young people, and blamed for nearly everything that’s gone wrong with our world short of global warming.

Her crime?

She made a decision. Lord save us! (A decision, by the way, that I would be proud of had any of my teenage friends made.) The immensely accomplished photographer, Annie Leibovitz, offered to capture Miley’s youthful sexuality and Miley — Oh, how this shocks TAMMY! — decided for herself that was a good idea. At the time the offer was made by Leibovitz, Miley’s parents were not present. Her grandmother was there, as was her teacher, but her dad had left the shoot. It seems Miley made the decision to pose herself.

Naturally, the Traditional American Media cannot believe that was somehow right of her — or even possible of her. Instead, the Traditional American Media wants to spin it that a 15 year old girl cannot — is actually incapable of — making such a decision for herself. According to so many of the TAMMY folks, she just had to be under the sway and control of Annie Leibovitz. The evil Annie Leibovitz.

Well, Balderdash. Not only has this kid been abused, condemned and vilified, she’s been infantilized. She’s been told her decisions aren’t worthy of respect by the same Traditional American Media that — instead of just reporting the facts pro and con a few years ago — assumed it had the moral authority to actively help the most unsuccessful Administration in American history manipulate a great nation into a vile war.

This morning my friend, Chanson, beautifully and eloquently pointed out the repugnant nature of infantilizing Miley Cyrus in a comment posted here:

I especially question the assumption that it’s always a situation where adults are exploiting young people’s innocence by forcing sexuality upon them, as though no one under eighteen (especially no girl!) would have a natural desire to express sexuality.

When I was fifteen (or even fourteen or thirteen) I would have loved to have been in a photo like that. Especially the subtly erotic aspect of it. And as an adult looking back (having studied my journals and my past, etc.), I think that would have been a perfectly appropriate expression of my own feelings and where I was at at the time.

Also this morning, Jerry, a person new to commenting here, forcefully wrote:

I’m glad I’m raising my children here in Europe where there is an acceptance of teens as being people and not “children” that need to be told what to do like in America. The issue of sex and the responsibilities that go along with it are here in the schools and at home and so the sexual issues and problems Americans are so worried about do not exist on the vast scale they do in America – problems created by the all knowing, all controlling fundamentalist “Christians”, and given credence by the self serving media.

People like Chanson and Jerry are capable of expressing more genuine moral insight in three paragraphs than the Traditional American Media is capable of expressing in what seems like a thousand articles.

Contrary to what the TAMMY people think, any 15 year old has the moral right not to be infanilized, and all sane adults have a moral duty to respect her as a person in her own right. Specifically, Miley Cyrus’s decision to pose in an erotic way should at least be respected — even by people who do not support it — and most importantly, she should by no means be abused, condemned, or vilified for having made that decision. Common decency demands at least that much of the morally sane among us.

Now, the title of this post is “Miley Cyrus Should Not Apologize for Her Sexuality”. Unfortunately, she has already done so. On Monday, she stated: “I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be ‘artistic’ and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed. I never intended for any of this to happen and I apologise to my fans who I care so deeply about.”

If she wants to apologize, then I myself cannot support that decision (but I am certainly not going to abuse, condemn, or vilify her for it). In the first place, Miley Cyrus is not morally required to apologize to her fans for her sexuality. If a 15 year old is morally required to apologize for her sexuality, then she is morally required to apologize for breathing. Both come naturally to 15 year olds, as well as most of the rest of us.

It’s possible she even has a moral obligation to not apologize. She is, as everyone likes to point out, a role model for young girls, mainly between the ages of six and fourteen. If that’s true, then one might ask whether her apology does more harm than good. For instance, by apologizing to those girls for her sexuality is she sending the message that her sexuality (and by extension their own sexuality someday) is something to be ashamed of? A sense of shame about one’s sexuality can lead to all sorts of unhealthy problems, and should not, therefore, be promoted by anyone.

If Miley desperately wants to apologize to someone, maybe she should issue a very mild apology to the executives and shareholders of the Disney Corporation. After all, they might experience a very mild, downward blip in their earnings because of her actions. On the other hand, if the executives and shareholders of the Disney Corporation abuse, condemn or vilify Miley simply because they might loose a tiny fraction of their potential earnings from her, then those executives and shareholders need to take a course or two in basic ethics. To the morally sane among us, money ain’t everything. And it would be immoral to reduce Miley, or any human, to no more than a balance sheet.

The last weakness in Miley’s apology is strictly a strategic, rather than a moral, one. When she apologized for her sexuality on Monday, she screwed up. She set the frame for the discussion by falsely implying she was wrong to express her sexuality. It seems the TAMMY people have at least in part taken their cue from that gaft and now refuse to discuss even as a possibility the notion that Miley is within her moral rights to pose for a mildly erotic photo.

For those and other reasons, I find I cannot agree with Miley Cyrus’s decision to apologize for her sexuality. Heck, I even think she made a good decision when she decided to pose for a mildly erotic photo by Annie Leibovitz. I hope that someday she’ll be able to look at that photo and smile at her 15 year old self.

See also on this blog:

Sexualizing Our Children

Miley Cyrus and America’s Love Affair with Sexual Nonsense