Via Sullivan, Ross Douthat discusses the Miley Cyrus “controversy” that I fortunately have missed out on until now:
I agree with my fellow moralistic scold, Rod Dreher, that the MSM handwringing over how Miley Cyrus’s handlers should have known better than to let the fifteen-year-old pose for the Vanity Fair photo that she’s now apologizing for is more than a little ridiculous; the whole thing looks like a staged controversy, not a real blunder. If you’re trying manage a transition from tween sensation to alluring grown-up star, doing an artsy, sexually-suggestive photo shoot and then hastily apologizing for it seems like a brilliant career move – you reap the benefits of the Vanity Fair treatment while simultaneously distancing yourself from it. And I also agree with Poulos that the photo in and of itself isn’t problematic. You can make perfectly tasteful art, as he says, from the “worshipful celebration of the fecundity of the pubescent female body.” The problem comes in because we inhabit “a culture in which ‘worship’ seems to mean corrupting unceremoniously and kicking to the curb.” One day you’re posing for Annie Leibowitz; the next you’ve ended up in the Britney-Lindsey-Paris circle of celebrity hell.
A few thoughts:
1.) I have no idea who Miley Cyrus is. None. Zero. Saying the name does remind me of that awful Billy Ray Cyrus song from the early 90’s we were all cursed to hear over and over and over again. But other than that, I have no clue who she is, nor do I think I care.
2.) I can’t be the only person on the planet who finds nothing “sexy” about that photograph. If I had seen it in a magazine I would have thought it was some kid in one of those “Got milk” pictures as I flipped past it.
3.) I am not completely sure, but I think congress attempted to pass a law a few years ago that would land you in jail for using the phrase “the fecundity of the pubescent female body” online. I believe the Supremes shot it down, however.
Consider this an open thread.
*** Update ***
Via the comments, I see she is in fact the daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus.
No good can come of this. I remember a joke about Achy Breaky Heart- something about three people being executed, and they were all asked their last wishes, one asked for a big meal, the second asked to hear Achy Breaky heart one last time, and the third, upon hearing the request from the second condemned person quipped, “kill me first.”
Billy K
This should make for good thread.
Bucky
It’s Hannah Montana, and I agree I don’t get the photo at all. I don’t think it’s that revealing, and when you combine that with the fact that they sell skimpy hannah montana bikinis, this seems just a little weird.
Dantheman
Clearly you don’t have pre-teen girls, as Miley Cyrus is the star of the most popular cable show for that demographic, Hannah Montana. She plays your average high school student by day, rock star by night.
frogspawn
Will all fecund pubescent female bodies now be required to wear a burqa when going from the shower to the dressing area? Is a simple towel that may leave the back exposed no longer sufficient? Who defines “fecundity”, anyway, and what is the baseline?
eastriver
You’ve honestly never heard of Hannah Montana? (Admitting to having heard of it isn’t the same as admitting to liking it, watching it, or admiring it.)
Hannah Montana is huge for a certain section of young girls. American Idol huge. (You’ve heard of that, right JC?)
Other signs of impending fuddyduddy-ness are 1) telling youngsters to stop playing in your yard, 2) telling the youngsters to turn down their dagbursted music, and 3) thinking of people in their 20s as youngsters.
MBunge
It’s not that the picture’s sexy, it’s that it’s a topless 15 year old girl covering herself in a sheet. I think the ick factor comes less from the image and more from an unconscious recognition of what had to happen to make the image a reality. Who the hell said “Hey, I think Miley should take her shirt off for this shot”? How long did this girl have to sit there covering herself up like that while they took the shot? That sort of thing.
Mike
t4toby
I have young girls. I know of Hannah Montana more than I wish.
That being said, it is not the worst kids show on Disney by a country mile.
What? The photo?
Meh.
empty
LOL. Really.
John Cole
The name sounds familiar. Might be one of those things I just filtered out. I know I have never seen it on television.
The Grand Panjandrum
Pop culture is pop culture is pop culture. Blech.
On the other hand did you get your Hillary Deathwatch Widget? All the kewl kidz have one! (I immediately thought of Myiq when I saw it.)
b. hussein canuckistani
I am so proud of my 12-year old daughter, who lectures her friends about Miley/Hannah being a a corporate-manufactured talentless hackette, and instead listens to my Clash CD’s and my wife’s Aretha CD’s.
Xanthippas
Ha. I hadn’t made that connection yet.
Billy K
Communist!
Sell-out!
Should Know Better
Eh, the photo is essentially innocent but obviously meant to be suggestive; a tastefully naked girl in what looks like bedsheets.
Context is king, there’s a reason a negligee and a bathing suit cause different reactions in the viewers mind.
But yeah, tempest in a teapot and everyone got what they wanted out of it.
nightjar
uhhh, Well, yea, absolutely, me too. She does look older than 15 though. All that free fecundity, I guess.
The cruelty, oh the cruelty.
ThymeZone
Well … Number one, I saw a Hannah Montana video a couple months ago while channel surfing, and my first, last and only impression was that she is a tremendously talented kid. And she seemed to be having a lot of fun.
Number two, while I find nothing offensive or titillating about the famous photo, which I had never seen before now, I am struck by the amount of outrage it seems to be attracting. I heard a lengthy talk about it on radio yesterday. The gist was, this awful self-serving photographer Liebowitz (I think it was) talked the girl into taking off her shirt and doing a few of these poses for the camera during a shoot. And … kaboom, parental outrage, which I can sum up with this paraphrased blurb from one mother of some kids who are Hannah Montana fans:
Oh noes! We thought she was the clean one, the one who wouldn’t turn out to be like Britney! How can they do this to us!
Okay, my take on that was, look, when you have a cynical huge rich corporation treating kids as “products” in a silly industry like kid entertainment, anything can and will happen, and the idea that anyone owes anything to these parents is just horse manure.
And, the photographer who talked the youngster into the shirtless photos should be criticized for taking advantage of the situation for her own purposes. I don’t think the kid is equipped to make the judgment of whether this is a good idea, and this is why people should not make an industry out of celebrity children.
Just one person’s long-winded opinion.
Wilfred
The kid is 15 years old; all that is solid melts into air.
jon
She is, in fact, the daughter of that hack. You could look it up, but why bother? Oh yeah, because you sort of asked. Anyhow, manufactured outrage blah blah Britney in a schoolgirl outfit blah blah Liv Tyler in another schoolgirl outfit blah blah whatsername waxed her cooter blah blah Hermione didn’t blah blah blah, et cetera.
Halteclere
I did not want to see that. Because of:
A) I’m already sick of this story,
B) I can’t stand the vacuous cult of celebrity,
C) I have good friends whose children are about that age,
D) I had a friend who kept a “countdown to when the Olsen twins would turn 18” which was uncomfortable (he was in his early ’30’s).
E) There was not point to this picture except to generate shock and talk, and I want no part of that conversation (see A and B).
libarbarian
I wonder if they have any idea how many webcams of teens masturbating are online?
The goods are covered. Fair ball.
Laertes
This isn’t about a teenage girl’s exposed shoulder. It’s about reinforcing the victim status of the sort of self-styled “common man” who derives much of his sense of self-worth from feeling looked down upon by supposed coastal elites.
“Oh, them fancy city-folk with their photographers and their fashion magazines don’t understand us wholesome heartland folk. Why, they don’t think nuthin’ of printin’ child por-NOGraphy. Those champangne-swilling latte-sipping ivory-tower eggheads think that right and wrong is just for us rubes…”
Feh, says I. People who desperately want to be offended will always find a way. Goddamn sissies.
Denny
John,
Re: item number 1 – Miley Cyrus is in fact the daughter of Billy Ray, who also plays her father on the Hanna Montana show. I just thank my lucky stars that my 10 year old daughter isnt a big fan of Hanna Montana.
Dr. Squid
Saying the name does remind me of that awful Billy Ray Cyrus song from the early 90’s we were all cursed to hear over and over and over again.
She’s his daughter. Which means we still have to see his mug all over the teevee screen, now sans mullet and avec soulpatch.
Laertes
That might have been the aim of the Cyruses, but I hold Vanity Fair to be largely innocent of shockmongering. They’re always running glamour shots of pretty celebrities, and often more revealing ones than this, never so far as I can recall generating much controversy.
You get to be big enough, you get your picture taken by Annie Liebovitz. In a sane world this would be about as controversial as their Katherine Hegel shoot a few months back. Only in hindsight can it seem obvious that a tame and not-very-revealing photo of a 15-year-old singer/actress could generate a big (fake) stink.
w vincentz
Back in the early 1900’s, Edgar Degas caused a scandal when he made beautiful bronze sculptures of early teen ballarinas. Some are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, where they are on exhibit.
Oh…and the Miley photos, smart career move, and yet another “distraction” to take the populace’s minds off much more important topics and cogent events.
Dr. Squid
We thought she was the clean one, the one who wouldn’t turn out to be like Britney!
You didn’t see the “Britney gets a new look” episode of South Park, did you?
Cris
Not a coincidence, as Miley is Billy Ray’s daughter.
Fun fact: Billy Ray’s cousin is Scott Phillips, who makes films that are much more interesting than Hannah Montana.
les
Worse than you thought, John. She’s the (not untalented) vehicle by which Billy Ray resuscitated his thankfully dead and rotting career. He even gets to play her Dad on the Disney TV series.
TheFountainHead
Laertes nails it. Clock it, tag it, bag it.
Zifnab
So, I was hoping around various slate bits and found this.
Chinese Underwear Ad. Girl, about age 12, in a bra and panties on full display, complete with little Mickey Mouse mittens.
Dear Religious Right: No one cares what you think, they just want your money. You’ve already bedded the seven headed Whore of Babylon so quit pretending like virginity suddenly matters.
The Grand Panjandrum
TZ: I would bet the deed to my well fortified compound out here in the high desert that her agent and her dad were well aware of the Liebowitz portfolio. Annie took the very famous photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono in bed, and those sort of photos are a quite prevalent and well known part of her work. I’m pretty sure she didn’t take advantage of anyone. If anything I suspect this was a premeditated move on the part of her agent and her dad. (i.e. its time for “Hanna Montana” to grow up just a bit) If Cyrus were just some cute teenage girl with no agent and parents with no experience in the entertainment industry an argument might be made, but this is really just some media savvy folks getting extra PR mileage out of this non-event.
nightjar
So that must be why he allowed his 15 year old daughter do these photos. And this is supposed to be almost topless I’ve been reading about. Nothing but money grubbing publicity from daddy all the way thru Vanity Fair.
dbrown
Lets see – someone who wrote an unknown book with the tile ‘Alice in Wonder Land’ had a hobby which Alice was his principle subject (but not only) – fully nude photo’s of the (under twelve) females in various positions. The parents where always asked and usally present (or so it is said.) Yes, back then no one thought anything of such ‘non-sexual’ photo’s …(since it was that of a child, hence, it couldn’t be sexual … .) I just we have realized that such photo’s aren’t so harmless. Does that mean that we should bane all ‘Alice in Wonder Land’ books, movies and photo’s?
Zifnab
Ironic, because at age 16 they were full-on jail bait. At age 22, they could be stand-ins for the homeless or stick figures.
At least the Olsen twins give you a legitimate reason to lust after teenage tail. Apparently, after you turn 18, Hollywood eats you alive and vomits out a decrepit husk. So get’m while they’re fresh.
Cyrus
I haven’t been this embarrassed by my name since… well, since “Achy Breaky Heart” was on the radio. Argh.
I mean, seriously. As a kid, I hated my name. Billy Ray didn’t help, but it’s simply a weird name when as I teenager I just wanted to fit in, it lends itself to weird nicknames, my last name is also unique and is pretty long too, etc.
After high school, though, I warmed up to my name. It makes a good conversation starter. If someone mispronounces it — my last name especially — it’s very likely that they’re a telemarketer and therefore can be ignored. Unique is good.
And now, here comes Billy Ray’s bastard spawn. Fuck.
Idiotic
THIS IS ALSO EXCELLENT NEWS!! FOR HILLARY!!
Dreggas
Just to add to the Ick Factor, Bill O’Reilly wants to have a “conference” about this photo. I even heard they are giving away free falafel.
Dreggas
I saw a t-shirt that said “I f’ed the Olsen Twins before they were famous”
Halteclere
Very funny! And very true.
TheFountainHead
Indeed.
Quoted because it will never get old.
Svensker
I’m so out of it, I thought Hannah Montana was an actual young starlet.
JR
This isn’t just a teenage star trying to transition: the “Hannah Montana” franchise is likely to be one of Disney’s biggest moneymakers this decade. Every part of Disney’s corporate structure is in some way involved in the franchise. There’s a feature film shooting now, albums, a sold-out concert tour, more merchandise than you can shake a gold-plated stick at…she’s likely to make her first billion faster than the Olsen twins did, and from a business perspective she can (and likely should) hold off a few years before trying to transition markets. Disney stands to lose a veritable shit-ton of money if this doesn’t die down, and they’re probably the ones forcing her to act contrite.
This is how a manufactured scandal should look, but I think the timing indicates this was unintentional. I think maximum impact would come about two-three weeks after the film’s debut next year if that was the plan. But what do I know?
Barbara
The whole point is to wring your hands about our decrepit morality as you simultaneously if subliminally think about sliding your hand underneath that sheet. That way you get to be titillated by girls too young to touch without feeling (or being) too guilty, unlike those Dateline NBC schlubs who think they really do get to eat the cake.
Okay, I’m a female, but this picture looks a little too much like she was surprised by a photographer while waiting in an exam room to see the doctor to be truly sexy.
This is standard Vanity Fair stuff — they’re the ones who put a nude and pregnant Demi Moore on the cover of their magazine.
w vincentz
Does Miley have any connections with the fundamentalist Mormon polygamists in Texas? Is she “spiritually married”?
Pregnant?
Tim (The Other One)
I don’t see a flag lapel pin !
Martin
My 7 year old daughter has no idea who she is and we’re working hard to keep it that way (her talent is insufficient to make up for all the wrongness that follows). So far, we’ve managed to shut down every commercial incursion to our household (10 yr old son as well). In fact, we now have kids that actively reject social fads and have never requested anything for Christmas (we give, but they don’t ask).
Hannah Montana tickets were running well ahead of the Rolling Stones last year. Three figures was the norm, some over a grand a seat. The Stones sold well, but they would have been better off appealing to 6 year old girls.
As a coastal elite I look at the picture and imagine some photographer trying to suggest that my daughter take such a picture at 15 and it reminds me that I haven’t sharpened my shovel recently.
Laertes raises a good point, but I think the main reason John isn’t offended is that it’s just a fancy little sister picture to anyone in West Virginia.
dbrown
From ‘Salon’, is a picture (http://thesuperficial.com/2008/04/hulk_to_billy_ray_cyrus_this_i.php )of Hulk Hogan putting sun tan loation on his daughter’s biki covered bottom … and people talk about Hanna and her father? I don’t think it is wrong per say but why all the hype about Hanna?
Dreggas
It’s the piercing on her right nipple.
John Cole
I hate to break it to some of the perverts up thread lusting after the Olsen twins, but most women under the age of 25 don’t know what they are doing in bed.
Women over the age of 30 are really a much better option. Trust me. It took me a while to figure this out. Not to mention, women over the age of 30 have some actual life experiences and have something interesting to say. You are going to spend far more time over a fifty year relationship talking to your wife at the table than you are looking at her ass in a nightie. Choose wisely.
Randall
She looks good and can afford the bodyguards to keep away people who get the wrong idea.
Dreggas
All joking aside, John is right. When I was in my teens the girls my age (and now any under it for the most part) don’t know shit from shinola when it comes to doing anything in bed, then again my tastes require a person to have gone around the block a few times.
TheFountainHead
I don’t think anyone was talking about having an actual conversation with the Olsen twins, John…in fact, verbal forms of communication were probably not part of the plan at all.
John S.
Which was shot by the same photographer.
Zuzu
Annie Leibovitz is a brilliant photographer. One of her more recent VF spreads featured the Queen of England in full regalia:
QE II
From the look of these pics, Miley was havin’ a good ol’ time, and since both her parents were right there, it doesn’t seem like she was “talked into” anything:
VF photo shoot
(Ick alert: Billy Ray appears in all his Whiskey Tango glory in a few shots. How can all that fancy hairstylin’ make him look like he’s still sporting a mullet?)
Cain
It’s hidden, look hard. Er.. sorry, didn’t mean to be suggestive.
cain
Zuzu
PS, I realize TZ was just talking about the media take on it.
I turned on the news last night, and there was the local news crew interviewing little four year old girls and their mommies down at the mall. Seriously.
Downpuppy
15 year old country singers of old?
Mindy McCready banging Roger Clemens.
Loretta Lynn, married with 3 kids.
Tanya Tucker, terrorizing Nashville.
& this girl is what? Getting her picture taken by a famous photographer. Geebers. Remember when you were a kid, say 7, wandering all over? Nowadays people filp out when an 8 year old wanders off in a store.
Children are not babies. Teenagers are not children. Let it be!
Halteclere
My wife has been pissed ever since at every pregnant woman who thinks that it is “artistic” to get a nude picture of themselves.
Brachiator
There is a particularly vacuous LA Times story on this by Mary McNamara that seems to vacillate between defending edgy artists like Annie Leibovitz for whatever she might do and trotting out the typically cynical reporter spin of “in for a penny, in for a pound,” i.e., once you agree to become a marketable celebrity, then you lose any right to dignity (Miley Cyrus’ Vanity Fair photo risks her squeaky teen image)
And although the media has attempted to turn this story into the typical narrative of sophisticated media types vs conservative yahoos, a new story I saw last night was much more simple and direct. A number of mothers whose daughters were fans of the show were shown the “controversial” pictures. They didn’t want to burn down “liberal” Hollwood, nor did they get into drawn out philosophical discussions about art vs porn. Nor were they going to forbid their daughters from watching the Hannah Montana TV show or going to the concerts, etc. They weren’t mindless zombies of the Religious Right spouting nostrums about the naked baby Jesus.
The mothers shown were sad, dismayed and as protective of Miley Cyrus as though she were their own daughter. They didn’t feel that the photo shoot was either appropriate or necessary.
Hollywood doesn’t appear to know what to do with teen actresses except to Pussycat Doll them up or mock them if they grow up and look like a real woman with a real woman’s body (e.g., the pointlessly unflattering photos of “Ghost Whisperer” star Jennifer Love Hewitt).
The worst of it is that the “entertainment shows,” and an appalling number of so-called fans and viewers will take an obvious delight if these young women fall apart on camera or even flame out entirely. I recall that one of these programs showed “exclusive” footage of a clearly incoherent and distressed Anna Nicole Smith who had shown up to do publicity for clothes or perfume or something. No one had the decency to get someone to help her.
So if mothers and others are reluctant to see Miley “sexualized” for entertainment purposes, it’s not hypocrisy or prudery, merely common sense. They have seen how these things often work out, and it’s never very pretty.
Halteclere
Hell, I find that most everyone under the age of 30 don’t have anything interesting to say, and I’m still a couple years away from being 40. Of course I’m sure most people under the age of 30 would find me as uninteresting.
Notorious P.A.T.
What do you mean, it’s not sexy? She’s semi-undressed, right? And the human body is filthy, sinful, and evil, right? What more need be said?
scrutinizer
That was a nice photoshoot. Liebovitz is amazing.
For my money, the tanktop/jeans combo was far more alluring than the sheet thingy, which is such a cliche.
Oh, the phony controversy? All about the bucks.
AkaDad
This is how I got the nickname, Professor.
nightjar
Let’s see. WAY oversize photo, Probably last thread of the day. Form of torture?
Jon H
Looks like a vampire girl. ala Kirsten Dunst in Interview
w vincentz
Looks like Brooke Shields in “The Blue Lagoon”…without the water, substitute satin shawl.
Remember “Pretty Baby”?
Same story, different year.
Sasha
It saddens me to realize that, somewhere, a grown man is whacking off furiously to this picture.
b. hussein canuckistani
I think the shovel is a nice “common man” non-elitist touch. But they’re really only good for the local teenage horndogs. For adults messing around with your 15-year old, you need something heavier – I’m thinking blowtorch and pliers.
cbear
Yeah, me too.
BTW, anybody seen myiq in the last few hours?
Krista
Plus, speaking as a woman over 30, we tend to have a much better idea as to what works for US in the sack, which means less guesswork for you. And we also tend to be a lot less self-conscious, resulting in a slightly more…adventuresome nature (and none of this “I don’t like that position ’cause it makes my boobs hang funny. Oh, and can we turn the lights off?” bullshit).
cbear
Additionally, I demand that Senator Obama immediately reject, renounce, denounce, decry, and de-ball, each and every grown man who has jacked-off, will jack-off, or are thinking about jacking-off, to that picture.
Laertes
And, of course, women over 30 look like women over 30. That’s a feature, not a bug. I find that the older I get (pushing 40 now), the more everyone ten or more years younger than me looks the same age. Take Ms. Cyrus, for instance. She’s 15? I believe it. And if the young lady in that picture told me she was 22? I’d believe that too.
Scary.
cbear
I find your thoughts and comments quite intriguing—please continue (for as long as you want to, dont worry about time)………
4tehlulz
Psshh. In Japan, she’s an old hag.
t jasper parnell
This is an excellent point. Sex ought to be a collaborative enterprise, or rather, good sex is a collaborative enterprise.
gypsy howell
.
Congratulations. You get to keep the ranch. Mommy & Daddy Cyrus were not only aware, they were actually on the shoot. VF has a spread (no pun intended) of the whole thing. Several of the photos shows Miley draped suggestively against Billy Ray. I actually find those a little more… icky.
So yeah, totally calculated.
But ultimately, who gives a shit.
scrutinizer
Well yeah—but not everyone has your amazing rack.
D. Mason
Wasn’t there some other controversy with this girl a while back when some “racy” cell phone photos got leaked out? Aside from being inevitable, this scandal is just silly, color me unimpressed.
Krista
True.
AnneLaurie
Think of her as Annette Funicello, Mark 42 — Disney’s latest very successful flesh-product walking the fine line between Little Girl Fantasy and Creepy Male Obsession. The one time I was exposed to the ‘Hannah Montana’ show was at the home of some insufficiently distant relatives in that portion of the Heartland(tm) where no social interaction can be conducted without a television blaring in the background. It didn’t surprise me that the little girls honed in on the HM theme song, but I hadn’t expected the two 14-year-old boys to abandon their gameboys and focus on young Miley with their mouths hanging open and their eyes slightly glazed.
Actually, the first time I saw Teh Photo, I didn’t recognize the model but she reminded me of a young Roseanne Barr. (Look at her face, you perverts.) Of course I always found Ms. Roseanne kinda sexy, but I’m throwing out the comparison just to see if it turns off any of the creepy adult stalkers…
nightjar
A qwick question. is the /LI format
rackbutton for italics.Mary
She looks like a dainty Caravaggio.
I’m too modest to describe how incredibly awesome women over 45 are. I’ll just leave it to your collective imaginations.
scrutinizer
Maybe I’m jaded, but there’s just not all that much to get turned on about in these photos. They’re nicely done, but while Cyrus is cute, there’s just no there, there. Maybe when I was 15 I’d have found these mildly titilating, but these pics aren’t even sultry—at best, it’s a kid playing at being sultry, which isn’t the same thing at all.
scrutinizer
However, at least we aren’t talking about Wright tonight.
scrutinizer
Nope. em for italics.
Zuzu
Congratulations. You get to keep the ranch. Mommy & Daddy Cyrus were not only aware, they were actually on the shoot. VF has a spread (no pun intended) of the whole thing.
Not only that, but they got to check out the digital pics as they were being taken:
Count on McPaper to describe Leibovitz saying she was sorry that people misinterpreted the picture … as an “apology.”
D-Chance.
So Disney is angry that a mag is taking advantage of and making money off a 15-year-old girl… the same 15-year-old girl THEY’VE been taking advantage of (and made BILLION$$$ off) for the last few years?
Sounds like one pimp cursing out another pimp, telling him that the whore in question is “his” property.
nightjar
Thanks!
myiq2xu
Obama is ther political equivilent of the “Achy Breaky Heart.”
Overnight sensation, eventual shame at knowing all the moves (and embarassing photo with a “Billy Ray” mullet)
Wait for it.
jake
That’s it? From the screeching I thought the poor thing was wearing nothing but maple syrup and a strategically placed banana.
Maybe if I understood how is this different from a fashion shoot which might contain a girl of about her age, wearing about that much I would join the screaming.
Oh wait, with the fashion shoot we don’t know the girl’s age. “Honest officer I thought she was 18!”
DougJ
I just hope that Vanity Fair doesn’t shoot any provocative photos of Douthat or Sully. I’m not sure America is ready for that kind of back hair.
D. Mason
Wow! You must not know very much about 14 year old boys. Also I assume that what you meant by “young miley” was “attractive T.V. starlet their age”
Krista
Anybody here good with Photoshop? Seeing Sully’s head on Miley’s body would entertain me to no end.
A Different JC
Am I the only one who thinks that the photo actually looks like the beginning of “Zombie chic”? Ick. She looks necrotic, not sexy.
DougJ
I was thinking the same thing.
DougJ
One thing we can all agree: this controversy is bad news for Democrats. Nothing drives conservative voters to the polls like outrage over semi-provocative photos of teen stars.
Have Hillary and Obama denounced and rejected both Miley Cyrus yet? If not, why not?
jake
Spork, meet eyes. Eyes, spork.
A Different JC
Wow. Myiq2xu, you are truly a troll’s troll. To paraphrase the fictional Patton, you are one magnificent bastard. To turn a flagellating conversation about a media firestorm over concocted trivialities into an attack on Obama… bravo!
Genine
I’ll be 33 this year and I can attest to that. Though I’ve always been adventuresome, I’m a lot less self-conscious and I know what I want (which I’ve learned many men find to be a relief). And, like you, I still have a nice rack.
Besides, in my twenties, I was a complete idiot. I still do stupid things on occasion, but now I KNOW I’m doing stupid and/or silly, instead of thinking I know everything and all I do is perfect.
As for the Miley Cyrus photo, I don’t think it’s sexy or suggestive at all. It looks kind of weird to me, actually.
DougJ
I feel like I’m watching the Oxygen network here, Krista and Genine. What’s next, a sing along of “Respect”?
DougJ
I agree with you, though.
nightjar
I can do a little, but wouldn’t want to give myself nightmares ,or anybody else for that matter.
Phoenician in a time of Romans
fecund pubescent female bodies
WTF?
I know what a fecund female body looks like, thank you – it’s anywhere from the late twenties to 40, it’s rounded with big hips, noticable tits and a bit of a belly, and it tends to be associated with a tired look, a ready smile and needless self-consciousness about itself. It’s sexy.
It is not pubescent.
BAH
That photo reminds me of someone…just can’t quite place the washed out pale face…
Miley Jackson
Original Lee
That photo actually looks to me as if Leibowitz was trying to reference the poster for Les Miserables (the musical).
John Cole
Commenting as John +6, I think I need Genine’s phone number.
That is all.
FS
I know how you feel.
To this day, I still have never heard the song “Achy Breaky Heart.” Just to let you know, it took about 20 years before I finally heard “We are the World.”
Honestly, I don’t understand it myself. Maybe it’s that I don’t have cable TV or that I live in the midwest.
The Other Steve
That picture is creepy.
Dennis - SGMM
In two or three years she’ll be appearing on TMZ and DListed. Disney will have a new child/product by then and the cycle will repeat itself.
Zifnab
Pedophile comments or GTFO. We’ve got no room for politics in these here parts. Only bears.
Dude, whatever works for you, old timer. I will continue to lust after my 20-something female friends with wild and reckless abandon. The set I’ve sampled – while rather limited in scope – has yet to leave me disappointed. Maybe our generation is just less inhibited. Maybe West Virginia girls need a little time to ripen on the vine. Maybe the I just knows how to pick who go crazy in the sack but eventually leaves me for that all-star volleyball player Todd with his god damn washboard stomach and spikey hair that thinks he’s all tough shit cause he drives a motorcycle and gets paid by the truckload as a male model DAMN YOU TODD! Either way, I’ve seen very little reason to jump the gun on the whole dating over 30 game. But that’s just me.
Johnny Pez
“Because America loves hot white jailbait ass.”
priscianus jr
No, you’re not the only one. I’ve been wondering about this myself. It’s a nice picture, but (a) it’s not sexy and (b) she ain’t showing NOTHING !!!
Dennis - SGMM
I’d guess that the MSM is hyperventilating over this because no attractive young white woman has had the decency to disappear recently.
wasabi gasp
Looks like a kid sitting on an examination table looking at her doctor as he asks if she’s allergic to peanuts or bee stings or something.
Zuzu
Fixt.
racrecir
That picture is creepy.
It made me think of Linda Blair in The Exorcist. I half expected the photo to come alive, her head to spin around and vomit to spew out of my monitor. Hopefully, I’ll get better when the election is over.
Dave_Violence
Only because I have a young niece, do I know who Hannah Montana is. I’ve seen the show a couple of times, and have two observations: 1) It’s boring and stupid – about ten levels below “Saved by the Bell.” 2) I’m relieved that I’m physically attracted to Viki Lawrence’s character instead of any other characters on the show (whew!). Meaning: I’m attracted to adult women (and she’s not bad for a broad what, pushing 65?).
What bugs me about these photos is that Miley Cyrus looks like a little kid trying to look like an adult. Some teens can pull it off (Christina Ricci – possibly), that is, they look older than they are, but in the this case, she looks younger and it’s disturbing. I don’t want to look at that photo, I turn my head from it.
Now, this:
Are you a plumper? I really dig plumper gals over 30…
jones
None of that stops you from violating copyright laws and posting the image, unattributed. Nice work, fuckstick. Trolling for child porn surfers? Asshole.
jon
Jones, you really can’t read can you? Unattributed? Dude, it’s fucking listed as the work of photographer Annie Liebowitz and as something that appeared in a periodical called Vanity Fair. Did you want a bibliography using APA style?
Nice work? Well, yeah.
Trolling for child porn surfers? Dude, if you could just happen across child porn, this would be a different world. An even more awful one than you can imagine. Real child porn is the documentation of the sexual abuse of a child. This photograph is no more child porn than an advertisement for girls swimsuits at Old Navy in your Sunday paper. Maybe you can whack off to it, but I don’t think that’s the criteria for saying something is child porn. I can happily say I’ve never actually seen any child porn, and I’m glad.
Asshole? Projection. Look it up.
scrutinizer
Snork. Listen, you young whippersnapper, I did things back in the late sixties and early seventies that kids today just dream about doing. In fact, I’m still doing most of them. It just takes longer now.
You know, as I’ve gotten older my “hotness” window has certainly expanded on the top end, but I can’t say it’s contracted all that much on the bottom end. I mean, kids under 20 look unfinished to me now (although some are still quite attractive), but over that? No problem. ‘Course, upper limit on hotness extends to women in their 60’s or better. If I wasn’t in a relationship now, and looking for another one, I’d be going for older just because shared timelines mean you don’t have to explain so damned much. I still have to do that with my wife, and she’s only 10 years younger than me.
El Cid
Why aren’t we hearing yet what Rev. Wright feels about this photo, or whether the photo will appear in any location simultaneously with Bill Ayers? Sean Hannity Must Know!
Krista
Oh suck it up, Princess. :)
El Cid
Can someone knowledgeable find the Renaissance-period painting which has a cherub or a mistress pursued by Zeus which this photo seems to entirely capture?
Dantheman
I have trouble believing with all the complaints about Billy Ray Cyrus’s masterwork, no one linked to Weird Al’s putdown of it.
Vlad
She looks like she’s about 12 years old.
12 years old and starring in a J-horror movie, thanks to the lighting.
b. hussein canuckistani
I’ll cast a vote for over-30 women too. If you have to listen to ’em jabber to keep ’em happy, it’s worth finding ones who have something interesting to say. :-)
Genine
Aww, you sweet-talker, you! Keep it up and you just might!
Err….
No pun intended.
Dreggas
Critiquing the photo. On the upside it brings out her eyes, which are quite lovely but the amount of red lipstick is a distraction. Otherwise the photo is tasteful but in general not really all that titilating
Commenting on the general gist of the conversation. I am dating someone younger than me right now, while it is fun to introduce and teach people the many facets of my lifestyle and such it can be quite irksome. That’s the reason I always preferred older women (including dating someone twice my age when I was 20). I prefer someone who knows what they want and will take it vs. someone who almost ranks as pure and innocent simply because all they know is missionary.
Of course my current gf is quite a surprise in that she knows a lot more than she lets on, she is just shy about it.
Egypt Steve
Someone above said:
“It’s not that the picture’s sexy, it’s that it’s a topless 15 year old girl covering herself in a sheet.”
If she’s “covered,” why do people keep describing her as “topless”??? Sure, underneath our clothes, we’re all naked. But this is not a topless photo. Period.
Gregory
Cyrus wrote: After high school, though, I warmed up to my name. It makes a good conversation starter.
Two words, my friend — The Warriors. Can you dig it?
I actually took my daughters — 8 and 6 — to the Hannah Montana concert movie. I agree with ThymeZone — she *is* talented, and she *did* seem to be having a lot of fun (and good Ford, what 14 year old wouldn’t?).
But she had enough costume changes that, no matter how skilfully edited the concert film was, the notion that Miley Cyrus isn’t used to disrobing in the presence of adults is ridiculous. She’s far too carefully marketed for Liebowitz’s photo shoot — which, yes, simply means that you’ve truly arrived — to have been anything other than intentional.
Plus, it’s her bare back, for crying out loud. Get a grip, people! Sheesh.
jake
Don’t tell the TalEvangicals or they’ll be screaming for mandatory concrete casings to protect the children.
4tehlulz
>>Get a grip, people!
Noted without comment.
Scrutinizer
Except, you know, for the comment that said you weren’t commenting.
slag
You’re not the only one. I had no idea who this was either. And still couldn’t care less. Unless she was slipping memos to John Yoo under that sheet, that is.
4jkb4ia
I think I’m glad I shut up.
A student at Stern College with interesting things to say This may be no more than wish fulfillment because at her age I was applying to the thriving Jewish communities in Northfield, Minnesota, Grinnell, Iowa, and Oberlin, Ohio. Got turned down by all of them.
(I got to be this stupid because I allowed myself to become lazy and arrogant.)
4jkb4ia
No kidding! If you have trust, regard, and esteem, you can have a good marriage.
MNPundit
Actually, in terms of ticket sales and demand no one has been as popular as Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana since Elvis.
Zuzu
I knew she reminded me of somebody !
LiberalTarian
Me too. Her face is all swollen, and it looks like she is sick.
She looks like one of those girls in the old romantic paintings–a fey Victorian.
Our culture is seriously screwed up if old dirty men are getting worked up over that picture.