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Miley, We Hardly Knew Ye
Amidst all the news of petrochemical malfeasance in the Gulf -- and thank you, Rep. Joe Barton, pride of Texas, for your apology to BP, demonstrating everything that's wrong with a Congress jammed too snugly in the pocket of big business -- I watched teen sensation Miley Cyrus on David Letterman Thursday night.
Oh my. Listening to her, I thought, there is no there there. And that made me sad.
When Gertrude Stein wrote, "There is no there there," she was lamenting the loss of her childhood home in Oakland, California. At 17, Ms. Cyrus already seems to have lost her entire childhood, careening into her majority like a runaway bus with a bomb on board.
Not that she isn't a smart, savvy young woman with talent. But of course, she's more than that -- she's a Disney-manufactured phenomenon, with hit records, movies, the Hannah Montana TV series and sold out concert tours, a role model to millions of adoring girls who buy up all the Miley-related merchandise they can get their hands on. "You represent popular culture," Letterman told her and he was right, with all the good and bad that implies. Then he asked, jokingly, "Are you looking for the warmth the spotlight can't provide?" Ms. Cyrus said, firmly, "No."
Maybe she should send out a search party. Scrape off the increasingly heavy makeup and toss aside her pounds of bling and all that seems to be left is a chilly hollowness, a jaded, world weary, adult-sounding nonchalance signifying nothing; an attitude far too mature in one so young. Unfortunately, it's one that's assumed and emulated by a lot of other teenage kids: too cool for school and pretty much everything else.
Call it the curse of the child star, one that goes back at least as far as Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, if not farther. A few years ago, I was on a set in Hollywood, where a TV special I had written was being shot. A number of child actors had been cast in it. One of them, who had been involved in both a successful TV series and a hit movie, was having her childhood slowly drummed out of her by a stage mother who spent most of the day working the phones to find more and more work for the kid.
Each morning, when the child arrived on the soundstage, the mother made her walk around and make a show of kissing me, the producer, and the director. It was creepy. She was still a smart, sweet kid, but you could see that everything natural was being taken away from her as adults sought to make the most of her ability while she was still young.
Recently, a friend was telling me about the misbehavior of a popular movie actor on a film my friend had written. The actor had hit it too big, too young; like Cyrus, he was a star at 17 and it had ruined him as a human being.
When I was 17, David Letterman said, I had a paper route. I know what he means. When I was 17, I was working in my father's drugstore in upstate New York, marking merchandise with a grease pencil and running out for coffee.
But that summer, I was given the extraordinary opportunity to go to school in England, studying literature and drama. It was a grown-up setting, for sure, and it changed my life but nevertheless, no one tried to stop me being a kid. Adults kept their eye on us in a caring, non-mercenary way. Even when I developed a serious crush on a red-haired girl in my classes over there, the feeling was reciprocated but we were chaperoned most of the time. Besides, unlike kids today, we were clueless when it came to matters of the heart and libido.
Not that all is lost. This week, I attended the 8th grade graduation of my girlfriend's niece Lexie in Philadelphia. The ceremony was in a church, the girls were in white dresses, the boys in school blazers, ties and khakis. Each endeavored to be as grown up as possible but they were still caught up in jokes and wisecracks, still relishing sweet memories of science fairs, May Day dances and the school production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Seventeen is a few years away, thank goodness.
But Miley Cyrus, well, as columnist Maggie Lamond Stone wrote, "I almost wish I were your mother for a day or two, so I could tell you the one thing that you don't seem to understand: growing up is a process. It is not an event. I'm glad you're seventeen and finding yourself and trying to make it as an adult in the music business, but why do you need to do it overnight? The headline yesterday was 'Miley Cyrus: I'm Not Trying To Be Slutty!' That was not an easy conversation with my daughter, I don't mind saying."
Youth is wasted on the young, they say. Ms. Cyrus certainly seems to be wasting hers, but she's in no way entirely to blame. Shame on the grown-ups who have exploited her. Shame on the media's manipulation of a role model's obvious problems. And shame on those of us who have enjoyed her music, then reveled in the gossip of her growing pains.
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31 Comments so far
Show AllThere is a quote that reads: "Childhood is a journey, not a race." I do not recall the author presently.
Please check out the work of Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood up in Boston. They are doing important work on corporate exploitation of our children, addressing topics such as violence in video games and sexualized clothing for young girls.
Here's their site-
http://www.commercialexploitation.org/
I find Miley Cyrus, and many of her ilk, positively cold. The one thing that left people like Judy Garland, Liz Taylor and even Mickey Rooney, is that will all of their hardships, they retained -- or got back -- their humanity. I caught a clip of a short tribute on TCM to Garland on a new release of "A Star is Born," and Margaret O'Brien spoke of her experiences as opposed to Garland. When O'Brien came along Hollywood was starting to have to play by some rules. Garland was brutally used and it wasn't tantamount to child abuse -- it was child abuse. It is frankly amazing, though, that through all of it she did not become this shallow, cardboard persona -- like a Miley Cyrus.
Disney, in my opinion, is close to being what the old MGM was -- except that they turn these kids into collaborators. I would be surprised if Cyrus makes it to 30, likewise Lohan.
Of course, in this case one must look at the parents who collude with the Disney to create these unfeeling, shallow beings.
All of this is child abuse, of course, which our nation really doesn't care much about anymore -- because this form of child abuse makes a lot of money.
Speaking of Miley, have you been in a Wal-Mart lately. Wall-to-wall Miley.
"I would be surprised if Cyrus makes it to 30, likewise Lohan."
While these young females (notice that I didn't say "women") may reach the chronolgical age of thirty, they will in all likelihood never reach the same age emotionally.
q
Is this hand-wringing homily on the pernicious effects of [corporate media] Show-Biz on Innocent Youth a backhanded "Father's Day" tribute?
There's no doubt that one of the screwiest things we've screwed up in our screwy Amerikan prolapsed culture is sexuality. And that mass media has REALLY done a number on adolescent girls with its grotesquely garbled standards of traditional innocence and hyper-sexual appearance and demeanor.
And it's a given that "child stars", especially manufactured teeny-bopper superstars, are themselves tragedies.
But the smarmy Norman Rockwell tableau of the Stepford Children in church, resplendent in their white dresses and blazers, doesn't scream "salvation" to me as it does to Winship. We each favor our own heartwarming stereotypes, but Winship should know better than to assume that culturally conservative conformity is an antidote to the depravity he rightly deplores.
This strikes me as the stuff of Reader's Digest, an article that Soccer Grandmoms would clip out of the local paper and mail to their granddaughters-- or encourage Mom to tape to the fridge as "food for thought".
Come here and READ this, young lady! Because you're not setting a FOOT out of this HOUSE with THAT stuff all over your face!
Seriously! What is this, a slow news day or something? I, for one, don't give a flying fuck about Miley Cyrus. Any spawn of the idiot who got a one-hit wonder from "Achy Breaky Heart" cannot represent anything but the shallow end of the gene pool.
Well said! This is the stuff of of American priorities today...mindless drivel.
i had a similar reaction - yes the corporate machine is a monstrosity, and Cyrus is both a victim and a burgeoning player, but:
"Besides, unlike kids today, we were clueless when it came to matters of the heart and libido." Winship writes this as if it is a positive recommendation for healthy development.
Yeah those were the days, let's keep kids in the dark about sex and sexuality until they are adults. No knowledge, no problems! Yeesh.
Capitalism turns everything into a commodity, reduces everything to the cold nexus of the cash payment. Who has time for personality or warmth or childhood when there's money to be made?
That's my basic lens for viewing world. Yeah.
who knew that hannah montana would become a pole dancer, and then a girl kisser?
I cannot believe I am commenting on a "news" item about Miley Cyrus, but here goes....
Miley Cyrus is the next Lindsay Lohan/Britney Spears. When the author of this article said she is an invention of Disney....well....there's a lot more to that than just the sentence. I read once how much money Disney was making off the downfall of Britney Spears. Monumental amounts.
The children the Disney Corporation GROOMS are cursed and doomed for a reason.
Anyway, back when she was still a clean-cut little girl on Hannah Montana I said, "They're getting her ready to be the next Britney Spears." And...VOILA. Another evil corporation at work.
I thought the same exact thing. As one commenter said, so far the one Disney creation that is coming out in the best shape is Aguilera, but Christina has solid -- really solid -- genuine talent. When I first heard Aguilera I was surprised to find out that she started with Disney.
All the words and type wasted on these manufactured " girl bombs " from Disney, etc. Parents are sometimes the worst things for kids. Maybe Miley can sing a little bit but lots of young people can. She plays no instrument, dances clumsily and is a cardboard cut-out actress. She'll be used goods in 10 years; tabloid fodder and that's about it. Her father was an idiot/savant with one trick pony. When she's divorced twice with three kids the mobile home manufacturers will start the assembly lines, again. Sorry, but these sensations make me tired. Brenda Lee or (insert name here), anyone?
All the teen girl popstars do is perpetuate patriarchy. Listen to the lyrics Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, and others sing. It's all about being cute, sexy, having fun. When they sing a serious song, it's all about how they miss their men, need them badly, and would do anything to keep them in their life and make them happy. They're all needy, clingy partygirls without a thing to say.
"Not that she isn't a smart, savvy young woman with talent."
Uh, no. Like most celebs, they're born into wealth, privilege, and in Miley's case, fame as well. Thusly, they have the connections.
Very few of them climb out of poverty. Go on wikipedia sometime and look up a celebrity's bio. Pick one at random. Scroll down to "early life" or "personal life". Look at what their parents did for a living. You'll seldom find that their parents worked in low-wage fields.
I wish more young girls would emulate women like Angela Gossow.
And Lady Gaga's just a rich, famous hipster, who again was born into a wealthy family.
Growing up is a never ending process, a life process, or should be. You don't turn 21 and grow up and then suddenly nothing ever changes. The line between childhood and adulthood is imaginary. These are social constructs that have been created out the the nuclear family, they aren't real.
And I can't help but to be disgusted by the Puritan attitudes that think she's being "too sexy." I find nothing wrong with what she wears, in and of itself.
Sure Miley is entering down a destructive path but that's not because she "grew up" too fast, if anything it's due to her innocence. She doesn't know anything, she's not educated and that's allowing her to be exploited by a system that's going to leave her feeling used and abused by the time she's 30. If anything I would say Miley NEEDS TO GROW UP.
@ShadowDancer
Europeans? What Europeans? Cyrus? Disney? True, Tony's European, but he's about as representative of what's British as “British Petroleum” are.
There you go again using the name of a defined group of people to express only negative concepts. There's a word for that.
The corporate conglomerate is within and outside all nations. Its origins are the greed and fear of individuals and social groups – it is not of the land and does not respect it, so any who can feel the land through this tacky veneer will be beyond it; whichever part of the earth they happen to walk. Dividing us by continent, race, nation, gender etc. is one of empire's oldest tricks.
I used to think the whole corporate morass could be encompassed by the word “American”, but I stopped when I became aware that I was buying into part of the imperialist mythology and that it just made me look like an ignorant bigot.
You there yet?
So the genocide of North American indigenous peoples by invaders from Europe is of little consequence to you? It's a kind of "just get over it" deal with you? Tell the Jews about that while you're at it. I'm sure they'll understand it. They'll "get there", right?
Who is Miley Cyrus, and why should I care?
Sir, Madam; may I offer you some more bread with your circus?
I really do not see this as about being about Mily Cyrus at all.
I recently spoke to a number of people who had been laid off from the firm they worked at. They were in the IT department and the bean counters at top determined that this was an "expense". They were told that since they produced no measurable revenues they had to be sacrificed in order to cut costs...(Oddlt those that MEASURE who produces what in Revenue with their spreadsheets and who is a COST mever seem to include themselves in that Calculation. After all they have families to feed)
Childhood is seen my many as a "revenue producing opportunity" and the Children that can not produce revenues are simply an expense. Their value is measured by how much an income stream they can produce.
In a system that places the "Value" of a given person to the society by how much income they earn, the inevitable outcome is to ensure that the process of generating these revenues begins as early as possible.
Just look to the kids that have had 4 surgeries on their knees by the age of 16 so they can be great "gymnasts" and get that commercial endorsement.
KACHING!!
"And I can't help but to be disgusted by the Puritan attitudes that think she's being 'too sexy.' I find nothing wrong with what she wears, in and of itself."
Lessthanlickable-Well, it is exploitation, even in the case of adult women, even when they choose to do it.
Sex can be a major distraction if nothing else. I want to hear what women have to say and be impressed with what they can do and think. We worry too much about what women look like. It's either Mary Poppins or Jenna Jameson with many Americans. We're alternately too Puritanical and too Caligulan.
"And shame on those of us who have enjoyed her music, then reveled in the gossip of her growing pains."
Enjoyed her music?? Is he kidding? Is he an adult?
I HATE that song "Party In The USA" so fucking much! God it's horrible. Holy ProTools! I've heard punk frontmen sing more obnoxiously than Miley Cyrus.
It seems as though they've put her on a slightly less provocative Britney track. Even the new single sounds like that "seek Amy" song. It's seems a total regurgitation of a tired, but tried and true marketing plan.
With Disney, of course it's all about the money, accusations of child abuse be damned! The only successful "product", including male performers, of the "Mouseketeer Imperative"
(http://rockthelist.com/2008/10/08/the-10-most-sexiest-grown-up-disney-mouseketeer-women/)
I personally find by far the most talented musically, even if not so emotionally "stable", appears to be Ms. Aguilera.
The fastidious sexual grooming aside, this woman definitely has pipes that rival the Mariah Carey/Minnie Riperton range, while also accommodating diverse forms of musical genres. (Check out her cameo with Mick in Scorsese's recent documentary SHINE A LIGHT)
But alas, Ixtina can come across as somewhat of an OCD megalomaniac when interviewed, however.
Excuse me. Again. WTF is miley cyrus, and why should I care?
funny, many years ago I saw an interview with the three guys who had written 'Achey-Breaky Heart'...
they thought it was an okay song, but not great...
they were amused by the success Billy Ray had with it...
weird how the world goes...now, thanks to that song, and a mullet, we have Miley...
I've enjoyed Miley's stuff, as we have a 10-year old girl in our house, so I'm familiar...don't take it so seriously...
from the planet's perspective, few humans add value...
why be so harsh on her?
now, back to business...how's that oil thing going?
@Michael: Sounds like you need to be looking for intellectual fulfillment from females more your own age...
I think the point is important. I was a child performer, and my parents, though well meaning, filled my head with a bunch of stuff that made it very difficult to function in the everyday world for years and years after I left home. I don't think most people understand what this kind of thing can do to a good many young people.