Let's Talk About Miley Cyrus' Parents

I'm maybe the only realist here. I refuse to be the one whining and complaining because the world is mean and people do inappropriate things and Disney is breeding a generation of untalented hack tweens but oh no Vanity Fair "sexualized" one of them and now we're going to light our torches and storm the publishing headquarters and turn Annie Liebowitz into a villain because how could she do something like that.

Welcome to the real world. The real world is full of competing interests. Vanity Fair wants to sell magazine. Annie Liebowitz wants to take photographs and create art. Miley Cyrus wants exposure/money/name recognition for something other than being the latest in a long line of Disney protégés.

Miley Cyrus has parents. She is fifteen years old. Her parents are still largely a part of her life. Are we seriously believing that neither Miley Cyrus nor her parents saw any of the pictures before Vanity Fair went to print? Really? When Annie Liebowitz photographs you, she does it with a digital camera. You get to see the pictures after she takes them.

Additionally, when Vanity Fair dressed Miley Cyrus in a sheet and tousled her hair, none of her caretakers thought maybe the photographs were going to be suggestive? Are you kidding me? Miley Cyrus is fifteen. She's not four. She knows what it means to be sexual. I'm assuming we all remember the pictures on her Myspace where she's pulling up/down her shirt. I make very valiant attempts to not know things about Disney stars, and even I've seen pictures of Miley Cyrus in her lime green bra.

Come. On.

When I was a "tween," I tried to leave the house in slutty clothing. I failed. Because of my parents. Teenagers know what sex is. They're insecure. They want to fit in. They try every way possible to be "cool." Now, granted, the situation is different when Vanity Fair is the party sexualizing you, but the role of the parents doesn't change.

Don't blame Vanity Fair or Annie Liebowitz. They're doing their jobs. Blame Miley Cyrus' parents for failing to keep their daughter from jumping on the bandwagon of Disney superstar turned slutty Disney superstar twat.