THE PSEUDO-SACRIFICIAL "SLUTTING" OF HANNAH MONTANA

[justdrew]

[Jerky]

If you want to read someone who REALLY missed the point...

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/anne-theri ... 19177.html

[Jerky]

It's just mind-boggling to see so many ostensibly intelligent people here tripping over each other's dicks to prove how un-shocked they were - because they're just too cool and have seen it all and by God they're no fucking prudes - by Miley Cyrus' performance at the VMAs, when that is NOT the point I was making at all.

Was I personally shocked by Cyrus' performance? Listen, I worked in the porn industry for fuck's sake. For ten years. I was NOT personally shocked by Cyrus' performance.

I WAS nonplussed by this performance in the context of this being Hannah Montana up on that stage doing those things. NOT Madonna, with her previous track record and zero history as a child and tween superstar. I WAS shocked because I think she has SOME fucking responsibility for alll the 5 to 14 year olds who still put her on a pedestal and look up to her as a role model and hero.

Is that really so fucking archaic of me?!

YOPJ

[barracuda]

You worked in porn for ten years and you're suddenly worried about the children? Because of Miley's bikini dance?

At least now I know why they call you Jerky.

[Project Willow]

Is that really so fucking archaic of me?!

Yep. If you've worked in the porn industry, the veritable center of woman as object not subject, then your response makes even more sense. And it's vulva, not vagina, and what is so intrinsically offensive about menstrual fluid?

Gawd, it just occurred to me the only other example I can come up with is Michael Jackson, former child star turned crotch toucher extraordinaire. The issue here is that women are not supposed to display aggressive sexual desire and agency, they cannot be actors, they exist to be acted upon. Cyrus transgressed that rule, and hence the uproar. It is deeply misogynist.

The most common examples in music videos, available for those girls and tweens you're worried about, is of the objectified female, which I find much more problematic.

.................

The teddy bear thing was weird, depending on how it's interpreted of course. I'm probably missing some other cultural reference.

...............

---

I was at an artist talk last week and the subject of rap music was broached. The speaker said he learned of an agreement established in an actual meeting, a conspiracy if you will, among record companies to promote the most violent (gansta) examples of the genre. Has anyone heard about this? I'd much rather discuss that, and other aspects of its co-optation, including, perhaps, Cyrus's.

[justdrew]

I was at an artist talk last week and the subject of rap music was broached. The speaker said he learned of an agreement established in an actual meeting, a conspiracy if you will, among record companies to promote the most violent (gansta) examples of the genre. Has anyone heard about this? I'd much rather discuss that, and other aspects of its co-optation, including, perhaps, Cyrus's.

that's been posted about here. not sure what search term to recommend. It was thought to be a hoax of sorts, but if so, it may be one of those not-factual truths in some way.

[82_28]

Well said, Jerky. Is it really not that apparent given the context and characters involved what is at stake? We're talking about dehumanization and the fact that this is all "normal" for people. No it is not and it is nothing I want to see normalized. I work in an industry where it is my job to protect females from predatory males. I am probably a little more militant than most because I tend to look at all people as innocent entities regardless of gender and my heart breaks continually. There was a huge prostitution and drug bust here in town today. Last year I had prostitutes who lived across from me and word is from the neighbors they were employed by a female pimp. I once saw them coming out in their night clothes and kind of gave them sarcastic shit as they waited for their towncars to buzz them to their utilization.

I don't know if any of this is lost on you, but pornography was once a fringe thing. Of course you know that! Yet it was once a fringe thing or guilty pleasure or something only sick fucks were into who masturbated in theaters and shit. I don't give a fuck whether or not you think it's all fucking normal or some kind of misdirection. It's not normal to have live fucking feeds at a push of a button of people having sex. It has never existed before. Sure, go back to depictions of sex in cave paintings and shit. You're not scaling right. The old Miley Cyrus was bad enough, now like a Pied Piper she continues on into the new phase of her life and that, I think, is meant to be artificially, vicariously followed. Sure, we're not following suit, but kids will because of their identification with her fake persona.

[Jerky]

You worked in porn for ten years and you're suddenly worried about the children? Because of Miley's bikini dance?

At least now I know why they call you Jerky.

Oh, so NOW you're a prude.

Jerky

[barracuda]

I don't get it.

[Forgetting2]

The teddy bear thing was weird, depending on how it's interpreted of course. I'm probably missing some other cultural reference.

Just kind of skimming this thread, and haven't seen the MTV bit of Cyrus.

And just FWIW, Courtney Love used to do her stripper act at Jumbo's Clown Room with a teddy bear. (Didn't see that myself, but know people who did.) I think it's a common stripper act prop, like school girl outfits, you know, for kids!

[82_28]

So wait, Willow, you're saying that increasing the impressionable minds of the targeted audience that young women and young men should approach this nagging and pressing issue with abandon? Her demonstration was some form of activism in the freedom of the feminine gender? No it wasn't. It was males imposing upon females what they should do. Do you see why I hate porn now? At all? It doesn't scale in the "world we want to see". How much further must we go where everyone says shit is fucked up and we're done with it?

NEVER. It will only continue if we cannot accept this window of opportunity for what it is -- a deep and abiding sickness of taking care of all souls and dying a death where this kind of bullshit is just normal and accepted and in fact, welcomed. Welcome to the existence you defend. Not you YOU Willow, just welcome to the existence everyone. An existence where we are led around by the whims of assholes.

So, question. What did you think of the "Girls Gone Wild" Jerry Springer era? Exactly.

[Crow]

Is that really so fucking archaic of me?!

Yep. If you've worked in the porn industry, the veritable center of woman as object not subject, then your response makes even more sense. And it's vulva, not vagina, and what is so intrinsically offensive about menstrual fluid?

Gawd, it just occurred to me the only other example I can come up with is Michael Jackson, former child star turned crotch toucher extraordinaire. The issue here is that women are not supposed to display aggressive sexual desire and agency, they cannot be actors, they exist to be acted upon. Cyrus transgressed that rule, and hence the uproar. It is deeply misogynist.

The most common examples in music videos, available for those girls and tweens you're worried about, is of the objectified female, which I find much more problematic.

Quoted for the many here who would benefit from re-reading PW's post.

And I will add my YEP here.

[Luther Blissett]

"under fire for appropriating black culture for her own profit"

bwa ha hah ha ha. only blacks "twerk it" - apparently.
as for the rest of the deconstruction of that critique, I'll leave that in the 'too obvious for words' bin.

Well yeah. Everyone knows that only black women have that special kind of wobbly ass with just the right amount of mass displacement vs. g-force that makes twerking look good.
White, skinny chicks just don't cut it.

Black activists, whose opinions I value highly on contemporary race matters, have long been critical of Miley Cyrus's cultural appropriation. If it's offensive to them I'm apt to listen.

[Jerky]

Which Black activists would that be?

Personally, I would think that performing (mock) anilingus on someone is more of a sub thing than a dom thing.

Also, Cyrus does not come from an oppressor culture. She comes from po' white trash.

YOPJ

[justdrew]

what the fuck is wrong with this idiot?

Columnist rips Howard Kurtz for slut shaming daughter-in-law over Facebook photos
By David Edwards | Tuesday, August 27, 2013 16:28 EDT

A television critic, who was recently fired by CNN and The Daily Beast after a series of embarrassing mistakes about a gay NBC player, on Tuesday devoted his Fox News column to how little clothing his former employer’s daughter-in-law was wearing in her Facebook photos.

Fox News media critic Howard Kurtz began his Tuesday column by noting that Washington Post Vice President Ben Bradlee, who Kurtz had worked for before leaving for The Daily Beast, was “one of the great men of American journalism.”

But the point of Kurtz’ column was not to praise Ben Bradlee: it was to call out his daughter-in-law, Pari Bradlee, for a profile photo she posted Facebook because she is wearing a “Swiss-cheese bra that leaves little to the imagination and long black leather sleeves and briefs, is so revealing that it drew a torrent of breathless comments.”

Kurtz added that the yoga instructor posted another photo where “she is nude, shot from the back, twisting one arm behind her.”

Although there is nothing about the photos that wouldn’t make it past network television censors, Kurtz asked, “Do the pictures go too far?”

“And while there is a light-hearted aspect to the R-rated pictures, Pari Bradlee is also making a statement,” the Fox News critic wrote.

“The Hamptons photo shoot, conducted by an old friend, Barry Fidnick, prompted friends to post such comments as ‘HOTT THANG!!!!’, ‘u look sexual’ and ‘Turning this gay man STRAIGHT!’ Kurtz observed. “And her husband obviously approves: he ‘liked’ the picture on her page.”

However, Sally Quinn, who writes a column on religion for the Post and is married to Ben Bradlee, probably won’t be “liking” anything Kurtz does anytime soon.

She told Media Matters that she was “appalled” and “heartbroken” when she saw the comments about her daugher-in-law.

“I thought Howard was a decent guy, I thought he was my friend and I’m appalled and really heartbroken that he would do something like this,” she explained. “Why would you want to hurt somebody?”

“Why would he want to hurt me and Ben and Quinn and Pari by doing that?” Quinn wondered. “I just don’t know. Ben has seen the photos…but they’re not revealing.”

“Pari is a beautiful woman and she is a yoga teacher and I don’t see what the problem is, I don’t see the problem,” she said, later adding, “It makes it look like he is an old geezer, I feel sorry for him.”

Fox News announced this week that Kurtz’ new show MediaBuzz would premiere on September 8 at 11 a.m.

“A veteran journalist and renowned media reporter for over two decades, Kurtz will examine media bias while dissecting news events of the current and previous weeks,” a statement from the network said.