Slut Shaming Agogo

So Miley did what young pop stars do on the VMAs. She danced provocatively in very little clothing. She shoved the fact that she has adult woman parts in our faces and made no apologies for it. Back in the early day of MTV, Madonna did this, humping the floor in a wedding dress. Brittany Spears did this when she was about Miley's age and trying, as Miley is, to break free from her Disney image. At one point, Madonna and Britbrit even kissed on stage. That was a different performance, of course. During all of them, people were shocked and outraged.

You know what shocks me? Some of the comments I've heard in reaction to this. "If she was my daughter, I'd grab her by her hair and beat her for acting like this." "I'd yank Miley off that stage and put tape over her mouth." "Someone should slap her for acting this way."

Do you see a pattern here? People are promoting violence as a measure to curb her behavior. It's interesting and more than a little disturbing that many of the same people who demonize other cultures for their restrictions of women's behavior and insistence on modesty are basically condoning that behavior when a girl has the audacity to go far enough to offend them.

When anyone tried to call people out on these statements, they often defended themselves by speaking about how Miley is a role model and they don't want their own daughters thinking this kind of behavior is acceptable. The language people use to talk about this is always telling. "I don't want my daughter to sell herself so cheaply." "I want her to see more value in her body than this."  As always, people, even without really admitting it to themselves, still view women's bodies as a commodity to be bought and sold.

I'm not a Miley fan. Her music is too McPop for my tastes so I didn't see her performance as all that wonderful. However, the role of pop music in our culture IS to make people rebel. It is to provoke. It is to push the limits. It is to make parents get upset and freak out and feel like the whole world is coming to an end because someone acted TEH SEXEH on the television. So, in that way, I have to commend Miley for continuing the long held tradition of getting parents's collective panties in a twist.

As for everyone else, I would like for you to ask yourself why you feel so much violence and anger over a girl's awkward sexy dancing. I think you should think about that for a long while and what it means in terms of how you view the worth of the women around you, and how you view your own.