Miley Cyrus. Her name has become synonymous with twerking, flappy butts, and downfall. What made Hannah Montana turn into this? What caused this horrendous downfall into celebrity oblivion? Could it be because she was a child star? No, I doubt that. Maybe it’s bad parenting, who knows.
On Aug. 25, the 2013 Video Music Awards aired, and of course, we all expected some sort of controversy. Personally, I was looking forward to the rumored N*SYNC reunion, but all everyone can (and could) talk about is this former child star trashing her image as publicly as she could in front of [how many people watched VMAs]. Never mind Justin Timberlake’s amazing(ly long) performance; it seems like we only care when celebrities do bad things because we’re bad people and like bad things, I’m sure that’s how it works.
For those of you who have been living under some anti-Miley rock, the best description I’ve heard is that “she was twerking it all up and down Robin Thicke in her nude bikini with a teddy bear.” Was it shocking? I mean, only if this was the first time you have seen anything controversial ever. Was it comparable to Madonna and Britney and Nirvana during their peaks at the VMAs? Definitely not.
Why are we talking about this on CNN or MSNBC and why is this considered news? It’s just another child star trying to desperately strangle the image of Disney princess out of our heads; did America not see this coming? Well in the (slightly altered) words of my favorite YouTube celebrity, leave Miley alone. Or better yet, don’t give into the attention-parade of a confused celebrity. And what can you learn from Miley’s horrific performance, you may ask? The same thing you can learn about the outrageous behaviors of any person ever.
I hate to pull the celebrities-are-people-too card, but their extreme wealth and blinding good looks make us forget that no person on this planet was made perfect. I would like to think this is common sense, but there is no person on this Earth whose walked-on ground you should worship. Maybe instead of allowing our younger generation to treat these celebrities like God, we should emphasize that no person is better than another, instead of allowing these simple “fangirl” aspirations to develop. It may seem simple and harmless but there’s a difference between a really good fan and a girl who is willing to write death notes or (pretending to kill your dog). We can’t control our celebrities or their actions or when they decide they don’t want to be role models anymore, but we can make an impact of people who are currently within our reach like our sisters and brothers and friends and even ourselves.
In life, there always is this near-toppling balance or better yet, fine line between what the people want and what they get. When do we draw the line of attention-seeking and actually damaging the minds of the youth? When do we go from bad role model to #cutforbieber? How long can we allow a select few who had talent at some point that we call celebrities to have such a major impact on the lives of the people? And just saying, there’s a reason they’re called celebrities not leaders or heroes or politicians, well sometimes we call them politicians). There are people who we should consider role models but when you join the entertainment industry, this is not a requirement, as we have learned from Ms. Cyrus, Britney Spears, Chris Brown, and Lindsay Lohan.
All in all, Miley is talented and she definitely has our attention, let her do her job as a performer, not just a singer and definitely not a role model. Sit back and watch the show (or train wreck, however you look at it). I actually kind of like her, I think.
