A Clearer Perspective

A smudge of red lipstick, tussled hair, a rumpled sheet covering all but a bare back. And that coy, come-hither gaze that seems to know so much more than can possibly be known at 15.

That’s the image of teen star Miley Cyrus that’s been thrown on every news talk show on every channel; the image that’s had mothers apparently throwing their hands up in despair, father’s covering their little daughters’ eyes, and talk show pundits lamenting about the sexualization of a child.

I found myself intrigued too. Me - the person that is clueless about celebrity news, could care less about Hollywood starlets, and has never watched thirty seconds of Hannah Montana in her life. Yes even I was intrigued.

Why? For the same reason we all are. Because with the snap of her shutter, Annie Leibovitz captured a frame of our society’s view on sex, beauty and women in general.

Miley Cyrus looked beautiful. I’ll say it: she looked natural, provocative, classic, and feminine. It was a sexy picture, maybe even a little provocative, and that’s okay.

When the controversy broke I thought back on myself at 15. It is young age, but not that young. It’s right at the borderline of maturity, a year away from being 16 and the independence of being able to drive, and three away from moving out of the house completely. It’s an age when you begin to consider the meanings of the words beauty and femininity, and when you begin to emerge from childhood to see yourself in that light.

I think that when fifteen-year-old girls can realize that being sexy is being artsy, it is being mature, and it is being mysterious, that shows precisely that they are growing up.

My greater concern in the Miley Cyrus saga is the smaller, related story, and the one that’s been least addressed. It’s those other pictures of her; the amateur shots of her that got leaked out on the Internet of her in her underwear pulling up her shirt, laying on some guy’s lap with her stomach exposed, and another pulling down her shirt to show her bra.

That’s where my concern comes in; when a 15-year-old who’s apparently a role model to thousands takes pictures of herself that are so casually trashy.

The Vanity Fair pictures are certainly provocative. But Vanity Fair is known for being provocative magazine, and it’s certainly not read by the average Hannah Montana fan.

The leaked Internet photos of Miley, however, speak to a different issue. Besides being trashy (and they would be at 15, 25 or any age), they also speak to a different issue where being sexy isn’t being taken seriously enough in our society any more.

Annie Leibovitz at least portrayed those elements of womanhood, femininity and sexuality in a wholesome, tasteful sense, even if her subject was perhaps a little too young to make that kind of bold statement.

But what Miley Cyrus did on here own when she snapped cutesy little shots of herself in her undies was far, far worse; there she perpetuated the casual, immature image of female sexuality that can be found on hundreds of MySpace pages, Facebook profiles, and amateur blogs the Internet over. It’s for that – and not a dab of red lipstick and ruffled hair – that I scold her.