Credit: Eonline
I love twitter! As anyone who follows me will know, I love it most for commenting on current showbiz stories, like the latest Kanye West outburst and other life changing events. Twice I have written tweets about the ‘Miley Cyrus vs Sinead O’Connor’ fiasco, however, to my despair my ramblings were just too long for Twitters 140 character limit. So, I decided to properly wade into the argument and write a blog post about it.
OK so, quick synopsis…Miley Cyrus said in a Rolling Stone interview that her video for ‘Wrecking Ball’ was loosely based on Sinead O’Connor’s ‘Nothing Compares 2U’. Sinead decided to, rather than take this as a compliment and move on, send a public lengthy letter to Miley outlining the dangers of the road she is going down. Some not so friendly responses on Twitter were made and so ensued a steady flow of letters from Sinead and a hell of a lot of media spotlight.
Four Letters!!! …four long letters Sinead has openly written since this all began, for the love of god send the girls agent an email at this stage, it’s not that hard. One I could cope with, I even found interesting, but by the fourth I really don’t think I’m the only one who is willing her to stop bashing the keyboard!
Firstly, let me point out that from reading the Rolling Stone article I think Sinead may have read too much into it. I don’t think at any point does Miley say that Sinead is ‘role model’ to her. Sinead, however, taking on this self assigned role, wrote to advise Miley how she feels the music industry is ‘prostituting’ her, she’s worried she has no one looking out for her, and that Miley has to be careful because she is a role model to young girls (and it’s all just ‘not cool’ !!)
When this first letter came out there were multiple posts on my Facebook newsfeed by people saying how great it was, I’m sure I saw one or two likes on a freshly created ‘fair play to ya Sinead’ page. I don’t know if I was the only one but after reading the first letter I thought, even if it was meant with the best intentions, was very condescending and slightly insulting in places. So I wasn’t really surprised when the response by Miley was a bit shotgun like and defensive. Sinead’s words were a bit too harsh and ungrounded it seemed to me, laced with the occasional ‘your records are great’ compliment.
I watched the MTV documentary ‘Miley: The Movement‘, and throughout I was thinking no wonder she got so defensive by the letter. She seems to have a very supportive family and a strong, intelligent circle of management, mentors and friends around her. She also came across very independent and confident in herself and her own decisions. Wouldn’t you then get offended if someone publicly wrote to you saying that you’re being ‘prostituted’ by the people around you and you don’t even realise it? That you have grown up in the music industry, your dad is Billy Ray Cyrus but I still think you and your family are stupid and naive enough to let you get used and ogled at just to sell a few records? Not to mention that in her second letter Sinead went on to call Miley ‘anti-female’ and ‘f–king stupid’ and in her third telling Miley to take five minutes ‘between g-string f–kin changes’ to apologise. I really don’t think Sinead is the all innocent party here.
There is no denying that Miley’s response to the letters have been pretty ill-judged and childish, tweeting screen grabs of a line of distressed tweets Sinead posted over two years ago and referring to the struggling Amanda Bynes. It is apparent that the closed minded attitude Miley has towards mental illness needs to be addressed as I fear it lies somewhere in the 1980s. Lets just remember though, that she’s 20 and when we were 20 we all said some stupid, ignorant things. Sinead O’Connor wasn’t exactly the height of PC when she was 20. Miley should definitely apologise but threatening her with legal action, bombarding her with letters, suggesting her words may be the reason people kill themselves tonight, that she is ruining her kids’ lives, really Sinead? You’re 46, she’s 20, time to leave it be I think.
Maybe these letters wouldn’t have even existed if Sinead had watched the documentary first because to me it seemed Miley is very much in control and aware of exactly what she is doing and why she is doing it. Sinead worries Miley is ‘prostituting’ herself by getting naked in a music video and dancing provocatively at the VMAs but didn’t Madonna do a whole book full of provocative pictures in the 90s and it’s not exactly the first time I’ve seen a female artist grinding on some guy on stage. These things surely don’t make me think they are any less of a person and it certainly doesn’t make me think they don’t care about themselves (another Sinead insight).
Obviously Miley has fans who look up to her as a role model. Hopefully, these fans are old enough to know just because Miley is getting naked and licking sledgehammers doesn’t mean they have to. If they aren’t old enough hopefully they have sensible parents to tell them they are too young to act or dress in a certain way or to tell them ‘hey, what Miley said was a bit stupid and insensitive, that’s not nice, don’t copy that’. Jesus, if every celebrity was to scrutinise every single thing their fans might copy they would never do anything, they take risks and make mistakes just like the rest of us.
I don’t think the music industry is prostituting Miley because she got naked in her latest video. I think she possibly feels great about her body, felt it would hold some artistic reference, and wanted to get naked. Isn’t it great to not be ashamed and celebrate a world where the oppression of female sexuality is not the norm any more, Miley Cyrus is a product of this new world. As I said in a tweet the day the first letter came out, sometimes it’s empowering to get naked. No matter what women do there will probably be someone out there ogling her and/or thinking she’s a bit smutty but that can’t be helped, have the Miley attitude and do what you want! Be confident in who you are and strong in the decisions you make, isn’t that a great lesson to her fans!?
The music industry has changed massively since the days of ‘Nothing Compares 2U’ and yes its highly sexualised but that doesn’t mean that the women in the industry are in any way stupid or naive to this. The music industry is a consumer market, we are not stupid, we pick and choose what we want to hear and see, we know when we are being fooled. If Miley wants to ‘Twerk’ and dance suggestively with a teddy bear while singing her latest song then go for it Miley, it ain’t upsetting me!
Adeline x
Don't Minchin It! 