Skip to content

The best of media slut shaming

Posted in Uncategorized

Gird your loins, dear reader. Last night, at the VMAs, a young, blonde white pop star did something raunchy.

That has never happened before.
It has never happened before.

If you haven’t seen it, or for some reason you can’t get enough of “Can’t Stop,” you can watch Miley Cyrus’s performance, which people “Can’t Stop” talking about (see what I did there?) at MTV.com.

Let us never forget where we were the night we saw Miley Cyrus inexplicably air guitar to a drum solo.

So, what I saw on the screen was a young white female pop star appropriating elements of black culture badly in order to break out of a painstakingly Disney-crafted image she’s never going to fully escape. But apparently, the media saw something entirely different.

NBC saw a raunchy sex explosion that threatened to tear apart marriages and make innocent fifteen-year-olds cry.

HuffPo saw a husband and father sexually violated. (Never mind, of course, that the husband and father in question wrote a song about getting a woman high so she would lower her inhibitions to have sex with him, and dedicated not one, but two videos to nude/scantily clad models spelling out the size of his penis with mylar balloons).

People magazine doesn’t know what twerking is.

CBS news doesn’t know what a lap dance is.

And Fox News goes for the good old fashioned women-in-competition angle. But let’s keep in mind, Fox News is also running a story about Ricky Skaggs on their entertainment front page. Really, really think about that. It’s a miracle they even know what the VMAs are.

I took to twitter in the dead of night to air my grievances. It went like this (the tweets are chronologically reordered for non-twitterholics):

miley tweet 1

miley tweet 2

miley tweet 3

miley tweet 4

miley tweet 5

miley tweet 6

miley tweet 7

miley tweet 8

miley tweet 9

miley tweet 11

miley tweet 12

Then tweep @Its_Britney made my birthday, Christmas, and Festivus by sharing this. It truly must be seen to be believed.

It’s wrong to criticize Miley for acting sexually suggestive at an event that thrives off the hyper-sexuality of pop music. If you want to focus on the fact that Miley continues to appropriate black culture, use people of color as accessories, and doesn’t actually know how to twerk, then be my guest, those are legitimate gripes. I mean, Katy fucking Perry showed up with a grill last night. This is a thing. This is happening. But don’t tell me that it was somehow wrong of Miley Cyrus to get up on stage and grind with a guy who wrote an entire song about wanting to turn a “good girl” bad with his magical cock.  Because I’m not buying that double standard for a second.

Did you enjoy this post?

Trout Nation content is always free, but you can help keep things going by making a small donation via Ko-fi!

Or, consider becoming a Patreon patron!

Here for the first time because you’re in quarantine and someone on Reddit recommended my Fifty Shades of Grey recaps? Welcome! Consider checking out my own take on the Billionaire BDSM genre, The Boss. Find it on AmazonB&NSmashwords, iBooks, and Radish!

77 Comments

  1. I didn’t watch the VMAs but apparently I should have. I heard about this on the radio this morning, though, and my first thought was “meh, she’s creating a clear break from her Hannah Montana personality, what’s the big deal?” Silly me, forgetting that since she’s comfortable using her sexuality in her performances she must be a slut.

    I had no idea Miley’s butt could break marriages up. Must be one of those “with great power comes great responsibility” things.

    August 26, 2013
    |Reply
  2. […] Jenny Trout says all the things I was biting my tongue on last night when reactions to the VMAs started to scroll across my Twitter and Facebook feeds. Explicit language ahoy! […]

    August 26, 2013
    |Reply
  3. Louise
    Louise

    Many of the comments I have seen are mostly focusing on how absolutely ridiculous she looked when what I’m assuming she was going for was sexy. I was closing my eyes in second hand embarrassment for her, she just needs to stop trying so hard.

    August 26, 2013
    |Reply
    • ITA, most people are actually pretty tired of her and especially her tongue.
      Her new persona feels desperate and fake, mixed up with some legitimately annoying “wild teen” stereotypes.
      I don´t know if this is her or her publicist speaking when she acts like that.
      Anyhoo, as she is a former child star who was exploited from a very young age (remember the infamous Vanity Fair cover?) I just wanna hug her and give her some hot chocolate and then tell her what´s what.
      She just seems so immature…

      August 26, 2013
      |Reply
    • Ella Bella
      Ella Bella

      One of my friends is a die-hard fan of her and feels like she made a mockery of sexual women for attention, and that’s why she’s mad at Miley. Miley didn’t come across as someone enjoying her sexuality, but instead as someone objectifying herself and trying to put on an act for attention, like someone co-opting sexual positivity for her own gain. Also there are some things we aren’t allowed to do in public like have sex or pee, and when someone does those things publicly, or pretends to, especially for personal attention, it comes off as raunchy.

      The people claiming to be raped are sexually violated are just plain stupid though.

      August 26, 2013
      |Reply
  4. I popped on Twitter and it was “OMG, MILEY!”

    After enough of people freaking out, I googled to see WTF, and thought, “Really, people? This is what you’re upset about? She’s 20, not 12, and it’s a music awards show. She’s not the first young singer to act sexy or simulate sex onstage.”

    August 26, 2013
    |Reply
  5. Louise
    Louise

    I read this somewhere about VMA’s:
    White men run the show, black men play support, all the women get mostly naked, and black women get to hold up the bottom of the objectification pile.

    August 26, 2013
    |Reply
  6. I was reading the comments (Yeah, oops) on some media site and people were commenting that they felt violated and raped. RAPED? REALLY? There are not enough words for how angry that made me.

    August 26, 2013
    |Reply
  7. Katie
    Katie

    What confused me about the whole thing is that the song she sings doesn’t seem to fit with what she was doing on stage. That, and the bears. Seriously, wtf was with those things?

    August 26, 2013
    |Reply
    • Bree Breezy
      Bree Breezy

      Seriously. Also, were they Pedobear?

      August 26, 2013
      |Reply
  8. A Ninny Mouse
    A Ninny Mouse

    What I’ve heard about it is that she just looked ridiculous and that’s why people are laughing. For the record, I truly think Paula Patton has nothing to worry about from Miley. I’m sorry, she’s /Paula Patton/. There’s no competition. And yeah, the cultural appropriation is starting to piss me off. If you’re going to do it, make it work. You can’t expect respect for someone else’s thing if you look like you don’t even know what you’re doing.

    August 26, 2013
    |Reply
    • lauraqofu
      lauraqofu

      One would hope that the marriage between between Robin Thicke and his wife (as with ever marriage, one hopes) is based on more than “Oh, you’re hot.” “Yeah, you’re hot, too.” “Let’s rub our naughty bits together.”

      I’m not impressed with someone who would marry that sexist SOB, to be honest. I don’t care how pretty he is, or how blue his eyes are.

      August 27, 2013
      |Reply
  9. Thanks Jenny for your post! I couldn’t agree with you more. If anything, I thought the men were worse last night. Some of their lyrics were disgusting.
    What I think is Miley can’t get ahead if she stays in her good girl status. She needs to do something drastic. Now she will grow her hair out, get classier and sing differently. It’s the business.

    August 26, 2013
    |Reply
    • I kind of hope she doesn’t. I think her short hair is fierce as fuck. She owns that look.

      I could do without the tongue thing, though.

      August 28, 2013
      |Reply
      • Renie
        Renie

        Yeah, it’s weird maybe, but I was more bothered by the fact that it appeared her tongue was trying to escape her mouth than anything else in that particular performance/

        September 23, 2013
        |Reply
  10. Ilex
    Ilex

    Have you seen the Mod Carousel gender-swapped version of Blurred Lines? It won’t make you feel any better about Miley Cyrus being slut-shamed, but it will put a better image of that song in your head, promise.

    August 26, 2013
    |Reply
    • Do you have a link for that? I could use a good laugh, it’s been a long day.

      August 27, 2013
      |Reply
    • Ilex
      Ilex

      Thinking about the Mod Carousel version of the song, it’s occurred to me that while the video really works, the song lyrics remain just as problematic from the perspective of a woman singing them to a man … “she was close, tried to domesticate ya” sounds pretty misogynistic. This song is just yuck all around.

      August 29, 2013
      |Reply
  11. My only problem with what I watched of the performance at MTV.com (somehow I managed to totally not know about the “horror” until this morning) is that it visually looked bad. Dancing teddy bears while wearing a teddy and desperately trying to appear like an adult rather than Hannah Montana doesn’t work for me.

    August 26, 2013
    |Reply
  12. Melodie
    Melodie

    See, I didn’t see it as sexual at all. The act wreaked of desperation, of wanting to be seen as more “adult” but she can’t pull off that particular image. The awkward tongue lolling, the crotch grabbing, it screamed of her trying to shock, desperately trying to shock people to be relevant again and I guess she got her wish because it’s all people are talking about today.

    The fact that people are shocked about how sexual she was acting angers me more than her performance because it wasn’t that sexual and it definitely wasn’t shocking. Have we not seen countless teen starlets do this charade before? It almost never works for them either and they always look ridiculous. If they want to earn respect as adult artists, then they need to simply just be true to what they are, or maybe write about their struggles to break free from their childhood. I’d actually find that a hell of a lot more interesting than the usual over-sexed party girl schtick they ultimately all fall back on. But, sex sells.

    August 26, 2013
    |Reply
  13. Violet
    Violet

    Her performance was offensive in that it does appropriates black culture, and Miley always seems to combine childhood images (teddy bears and, another time, an ice cream van) with sexuality which I find DISGUSTING and not remotely sexy, although she certainly isn’t the first to do this.
    I have no problem with her displaying her sexuality, but I absolutely hate Robin Thicke’s song- it completely promotes rape culture.

    August 26, 2013
    |Reply
  14. Soandso
    Soandso

    I agree completely, although I had no idea that butt-shaking was such an integral part of black culture.

    August 26, 2013
    |Reply
    • A Ninny Mouse
      A Ninny Mouse

      See Josephine Baker.

      August 26, 2013
      |Reply
      • Soandso
        Soandso

        Josephine Baker was a terrific woman. However, even if Miley emerged in the famed banana skirt and did a rendition of her Folies Bergere performance, it would probably be intended as a tribute, not as an “anything black women can do, white girls can do cuter”. It’s merely a dance move Cyrus thought was sexy. You could say Baker derived some movements from belly-dancing, the oldest form of dance known today, and would you call that appropriation? Dance is a universal delight, meant to be experienced and shared. To slap down labels like “only African-Americans can do hip hop, only Middle Easterners can hip shimmy, only white guys can do the Cadillac Ranch” is so pointless. We’re not going to break down barriers if we keep slapping more up. There are definitely things that can be appropriated, but dance is meant to be shared. What do you think?

        August 26, 2013
        |Reply
      • Soandso, I think if she was just “twerking,” then it wouldn’t be such a big deal. It’s the fact that she is kind of basing her image around “Look at me, I hang out with black people! Look, black people in my video! Look, I was twerking at a rap concert!” This is a really good interview with a professor who studies race and cultural intersection about the Miley thing: http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/miley-cyrus-needs-to-take-an-african-american-studies-class

        August 26, 2013
        |Reply
  15. My problem with Miley’s performance wasn’t the mere fact of the raunch. It’s that she looked patently unconvincing and not at all sexy doing it. You may have seen me compare it on Twitter to a drunk-ass trailer park mom stripping at her teenage son’s birthday party. Also, Robin Thicke makes me ill at the best of times, so that didn’t help.

    August 26, 2013
    |Reply
  16. Duckie30ca
    Duckie30ca

    Anyone else not know what twerking was?

    Anyone?

    Just me?

    Ok then…

    August 26, 2013
    |Reply
    • Serenity
      Serenity

      I’m still not sure what twerking is, or who Robin Thicke is.

      August 26, 2013
      |Reply
      • Don’t worry my serene, ducky friends, that just means you have decent taste in music. As for the twerking, I didn’t know either, but I’m a dance snob, so, for better or worse, if it was invented after 1800 I wouldn’t know.

        August 27, 2013
        |Reply
    • Ilex
      Ilex

      I had to Google up twerking to figure out what it is, too. Seems to me I’ve seen a lot of it in Caribbean music videos, and we mix it in with winin’ in my Zumba classes and have done so for a few years. So now I’m mystified as to why it’s such a current hot/dangerous thang.

      August 27, 2013
      |Reply
      • Duckie30ca
        Duckie30ca

        Aaaahhh! I get it now! I’ve taken Zumba classes…apparently I’ve “twerked” without knowing I was doing so…

        August 27, 2013
        |Reply
    • Jemmy
      Jemmy

      I have no clue what twerking is and I plan to keep it that way I think…..

      August 27, 2013
      |Reply
  17. I would generally agree with you, but I have to stand up for the guy on this one. He’s just standing there, she’s the one shaking her ass in his crotch, licking his neck and touching his pelvic area with a huge foam finger. Again: he’s just standing there.

    And FYI: the new trend, this “twerking” is not new. At all. And it’s not from “black culture”, it’s latin culture. Have you heard about “El meneaito”? Well, this is it. It started like this:

    1989, that’s when it was released. It’s from Panama (of course people used to shake their butts before that too, but this kind of coreography was born then).
    Since that things escalated to Apretaito (Azul Azul, from Bolivia) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ9vEj0SidU and “La Bomba” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4PxGZYleO8
    Mayonesa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zgmOnmT0k8 (Chocolate, Uruguay), Laura http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqyG5a23lBs (Damas Gratis, Argentina), this particular song is about a girl called Laura who dances in a particular way (you go down, down, down, and then back and forth, back, and forth, so we can see your G string).
    This is “cumbia”, then, along came reggaetón, the first worldwide known song was Gasolina, by Daddy Yankee http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwtNfVHuDhI
    And with that the “perreo” (that comes from the word “perro” which means dog), that became mainstream, here you have an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMkb5tXJJlU
    I’m from Argentina. And yes, we do dance like that, and yes, we do it in clubs and discos, also, partys (there you have Sweet sixteen, here we have “los quince”). This is completely normal, sometimes we put a bottle on the floor and dance going down until we reach it with our crotch. Hey, I do that when I’m drunk! It’s fun, you should try it, ha.

    August 26, 2013
    |Reply
    • The most watched show in argentinian TV: Bailando por un sueño (sort of our version of dancing with the stars): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0PqDs1Owxs
      That’s from 5 years ago, that’s a very famous model here, Rocío Guirao Díaz. So, yeah, “twerking” has been around for quite some time, we call it “perrear”.

      August 27, 2013
      |Reply
  18. I wasn’t upset by the fact that Miley Cyrus was being sexual and using sexuality in her performance.

    I wasn’t upset. I was disappointed, though.

    Disappointed in the terrible job she did of twerking, disappointed in those bizarre dance moves and that tongue thing. I was disappointed in that she somehow managed to do sexuality without eroticism.

    If you’re gonna do something, try to do a good job of it, I feel.

    August 26, 2013
    |Reply
    • Lisa
      Lisa

      Agree.
      I also think the furor surrounding it is absurd.

      August 27, 2013
      |Reply
      • I agree. Really, the proper response in my eyes is less “Outrage” and more “Oh god this” and quietly shuffling this under the carpet while pretending it never happened (But again, the part that offends me is the lack of eroticism and actual… I dunno…. good performance)

        August 27, 2013
        |Reply
  19. Neurite
    Neurite

    I see they’re still singing that song. I tuned out for a while after one of the more recent verses, “a married man got sexually involved with a much younger actress in a movie he was directing, i.e. someone he was in a seriously unbalanced power relationship with, and of course that’s all that bitch slut Kirsten Stewart’s fault”.

    This, truly, is the song that never ends.

    August 27, 2013
    |Reply
  20. So out of curiosity, this afternoon I watched a clip of Miley’s VMA performance. Here’s my problem with it: a lot of women do similar dance moves at awards shows, concerts, and so on, but they are well choreographed and seem like a natural expression of the music. Her performance seemed forced and awkward. I don’t think it was a bad performance because it was raunchy, I think it was just a bad performance in general.

    She did a dance a few years ago to Can’t Be Tamed that worked out much better than this one did.

    August 27, 2013
    |Reply
  21. Cherry
    Cherry

    ok, firstly, I had to watch the video muted and it is hysterically funny that way.
    secondly, what the hell is up with the teddy bears and the teddy bear bodysuit thing? And a foam finger? In what universe would that be a good idea? it was just a terrible performance as a whole. The “sexual” parts just seemed weird, but much less weird than the rest of it. And only Robin Thicke could make a Beetlejuice suit not cool.
    thirdly and most importantly, that “sacrificial slut” tweet you had on the end there is so true. The VMAs are a slut-shamer’s paradise. Everyone female is expected to wear skimpy clothing and dance sexually and then blamed for doing it.

    August 27, 2013
    |Reply
  22. All I can really add to this is that apparently Jaden’s look of distraught confusion was actually caught during Lady Gaga’s act, not Miley’s. So…there’s that?

    August 27, 2013
    |Reply
  23. Hollywood is full of equally insane people, who envy each other every moment of attention and criticize each other self-righteously like they mean it.

    August 27, 2013
    |Reply
  24. What in the blue fuck was that?? That was a terrible performance! The teddy bears creep me out and it seemed incredibly forced and not well rehearsed (because this stuff is rehearsed, you know, he was completely aware that she would be shaking her ass in his crotch)
    The most offensive thing to me was the ‘rimming’ and slapping of the fake butt. It was so obviously an exaggeration of a black woman’s behind.

    August 27, 2013
    |Reply
  25. Flo
    Flo

    I’m just shocked to find out that MTV still shows enough videos to have an awards show………….

    August 27, 2013
    |Reply
  26. I was horrified by the VMAs as a whole. Even those in the audience couldn’t stop rolling their eyes. It looked like it wasn’t planned and thrown together at the last minute. The only good performances were Kayne and Justin Timberlake, both of which I felt were class acts. Everyone else acted like they had no idea what was going on, no direction in the least.

    Or maybe I’m just too old and the wrong audience for the VMAs?

    August 27, 2013
    |Reply
  27. Jenny
    Jenny

    So I didn’t see this, but generally I’m fully on board with the “enough slut-shaming” sentiment. However, I have a problem with your last paragraph. Writing an awful song doesn’t mean a man deserves to be sexually violated. Mind you, I doubt he _was_; as Seanan Mcguire wrote in her commentary on the same thing (http://seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com/529445.html), presumably it was part of the performance, was rehearsed or at least discussed, and he was on board with it. But I read that last paragraph as saying, “Don’t criticize Miley Cyrus for doing this thing because the guy totally deserved it.”

    August 27, 2013
    |Reply
  28. Jellyfish
    Jellyfish

    I’m pretty horrified by the slut-shaming too. Heaven forbid a young woman should act sexual in a way that would have been inappropriate a decade ago, when the media decided it owned her. It’s like the whole world is that asshole dad who always “jokes” about how he’s going to shoot anybody his little girl brings home.
    The cultural appropriation is really icky though. The word “twerking” is from New Orleans bounce dancing. Bounce rap is an underground style heavily associated with Southern queer and drag culture (“sissy bounce”) and the Magnolia Projects in NOLA (“gangster bounce”). Miley’s also totally weaksauce compared to pretty much any local dancer. Seriously, she knows nothing, like Jon Snow.
    Big Freedia the Queen Diva will explain!

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWzVWIW0cFE?feature=player_detailpage&w=640&h=360%5D

    If that link doesn’t work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWzVWIW0cFE

    August 27, 2013
    |Reply
  29. Eh, personally I don’t watch the VMAs and my 12 & 14 year old kids probably couldn’t name the majority of people on them (thank goodness!). I did watch the full performance after all the talk, and wow, not good. I couldn’t care less how sexual Miley wants to get, but it was cringe-inducing embarrassing IMHO. Seriously, she looked like a cross between Gene Simmons love child and a woman in need of a vat of Vagisil. My motherly instinct wants to roll her eyes and tell this poor girl “yes honey, that’s a vagina, and we all know you have one. You can stop now.”

    My 12 year old girl’s reaction? She didn’t watch the VMAs but zealously reads the news sites. “WHY is this on the front page? There’s all this stuff going on in Syria, Fuk-fuka-Fukushima, and THIS is on the front page? Why would anyone my age even pay attention to her?” (She’s not quite your normal 12 yr old…)

    August 27, 2013
    |Reply
    • ElBandito
      ElBandito

      ‘Seriously, she looked like a cross between Gene Simmons love child and a woman in need of a vat of Vagisil’

      Right, one, that’s the most apt description I’ve ever read about this! And two, your teenagers totally kick the asses of all the prejudice the media has on their age group. Obviously your kids know better than the entire staff of every news channel on what should be on the actual news and what shouldn’t.

      My own teenage sister doesn’t even know what the VMAs are, but we were remembering back to when Britney Spears first came out (she was five at the time, and became a young fan)–and how she was still 17 when she did the ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’ music video (you know, showing a girl in a fetish school outfit, prancing on a bed while being surrounded by frail old men). And somehow people forget about that while nowadays, the news are gasping bout a 20-year old has-been who’s only claim to fame was being a star of a mediocre TV show.
      It’s like we still think that Miley’s underage, though she obviously isn’t, and has only come to act like any over-compensating clubber.

      August 28, 2013
      |Reply
  30. Carrie
    Carrie

    I don’t agree even a little bit. There’s a difference in being sexy and being Nasty. What she did was nasty. The kitty rubs were every 3 seconds. When she walked, her latex panties were SO tight they squeezed her but in an extremely unflattering way. Even the camera’s stopped focusing on her at one point. All the dude did was stand there and sing. It’s not like he can tell her to back off while they’re on stage, Literally the first thing he did when he got off stage was tweet something about positive about the performance – which tells me he’s overcompensating and trying to hide the fact that it bothered him. I bet that was all his publicist too. I get Miley trying to shed her Disney image but then don’t dance around with freaking teddy bears. If she wants to do that she needs to take a page from Selena or Taylor’s book, not Tara Ried or Lynsay Lohan. I don’t even feel sorry for her, if she really didn’t want to get up on stage and do that dance then she wouldn’t have. She deserves to be the butt of jokes, maybe if enough people say the same thing she’ll rethink the path she’s on. I’ve never seen a guy get on stage and dance like that, if or when he does you can”t bet I’d be saying how disgusting and vulgar he is. And the funny part, if it was Lady G that got up and did that dance, I’d be saying the same thing – it doesn’t matter that it Miley or she used to be Hanna Montana, she’s just nasty.

    August 27, 2013
    |Reply
    • “all the dude did was stand there and sing” … his song about how his magical penis turns women into sluts, that had a video full of naked women. And you think the performance bothered him. Okay.

      August 27, 2013
      |Reply
      • Carrie
        Carrie

        Watch the video again – look at his reaction when she rubs him with the foam finger. He shrugs at her – like what the hell are you doing. And who said he even wrote the song himself. He really does just stand, if you watch close when she rub herself on him, he leaves a space between her and his junk. He’s a happily married man that just had a baby. Where as Miley and her fiance are fighting right now – this was no doubt a stunt to hurt him or get his attention.

        August 27, 2013
        |Reply
      • Carrie
        Carrie

        P.s.you must not have ever listened to Blurred Lines because no where does it say anything about a magical penis. Maybe you’re referencing a different song or just repeating the wrong information someone else said, I don’t know but it’s not correct. And, there is one line that slightly refers to pot and it says nothing about getting her high to have sex. “Baby can you breathe? I got this from Jamaica.” At least read the lyrics before you comment like you ‘know’ what you’re talking about. The video is irrelevant because we weren’t watching the video or disusing it. The last music video I bothered watching was NiN -closer and nothing is weirder then that. So, I don’t do music video’s anymore, they’re dumb. Music is about the music, attaching a video on to a song only ruins the story you create in your mind when you hear that song.

        August 27, 2013
        |Reply
      • Okay, Carrie, I’ll break the lyric down:

        Baby can you breathe? I got this from Jamaica (They’re smoking pot)
        It always works for me, Dakota to Decatur, uh huh (He’s been able to use pot to get chicks into bed all over the country)
        No more pretending (No more pretending that she doesn’t want to have kinky sex with him, because as the chorus has explained “knows you want it”)
        Hey, hey, hey
        Cause now you winning (The prize of having sex with Robin Thicke)

        One could argue that the song, if worded slightly differently in this verse, was about a guy praising his girl’s open and uncompromising sexuality. I’ve seen one blogger suggest that rewording a single line (“That’s why I’m gonna take a good girl”), the rest of the song wouldn’t seem so aggressive. In fact, I have no doubt that this was the intent of the song in the first place, it’s just that the wording comes across dodgy. If y’all had come in here with an argument like that, I would have entertained that notion. But here are some missteps in the argument, and since you were pretty harsh laying yours down, I’m gonna be pretty harsh laying mine down.

        1. Whether or not Robin Thicke wrote the song is not relevant He put his name on it. He is willing to take it out in public and profit from it. He is the person receiving credit for the win, so he also must accept the criticism.

        2. Gauging the reaction of the performers on stage while they are performing is asinine. This would mean that every reaction we’ve ever seen on the VMA stage has been 100% authentic and should be taken as such. If that’s the argument you want to go with, fine. Let’s see where it takes us.

        3. The video is not relevant. See also: #1. The video is the way the artist and people connected with the label chose to interpret the song visually. This is not 1984. The music video is not some brave new world that artists are trying to navigate. Robin, T.I., and Pharrell are not newcomers to the business. If they did not wish to be in a music video featuring naked/half-naked models fawning on them, they have the clout to say, “No, I don’t want to be in a video featuring naked/half-naked models fawning on me.” They did not.

        4. Whether or not Robin Thicke has recently reproduced is not relevant, unless you truly believe that a person becomes pure of word and deed merely by becoming a parent. If this is the case, I can provide plenty of examples to the contrary.

        5. Whether or not Robin Thicke has recently reproduced also has no bearing how he does his job. Many artists continue to produce risque content and performances even after having children. If you’re so concerned about his wife and family, why aren’t you decrying his choice to produce sexually themed songs and videos? Could it be that you’re more eager to demean a female performer than a male performer?

        6. Whether or not Miley Cyrus is single or in a rocky relationship has no bearing on how she does her job. Or are you suggesting that if they were both in committed relationships to other people, her grinding would have been okay? Because a single woman who behaves in a sexual manner– which, as a pop star, is a very large part of her job– is a homewrecker out to fuck anything she can back her ass onto?

        7. If Miley wants to shed her image by wearing unflattering latex pants and basically causing everyone second-hand embarrassment with her lackluster performing, that’s her own business. She does not owe it to you or anyone else to squeeze herself into the “good girl” mold of Taylor Swift (whose songs are noted for misogyny and whose image relies on the damning of “bad girls” by people like yourself) or Selena Gomez (who I got no beef with). Celebrities make their living appealing to a fan base. No one celebrity will ever be the one every single person in the world likes (unless that person is Ellen Degeneres). If you don’t care for how Miley presents herself, fine. Don’t buy her albums. But don’t you dare try to tell me or anybody else that your insistence upon policing another person’s sexuality is okay because of some arbitrary “nasty” threshold you’ve invented.

        8. Are you and Robin Thicke mind melded, and that’s why you can read between the “Blurred Lines” of his tweets? (see what I did there?)

        9. You realize that Robin Thicke can probably defend his own virtue, right? And that if he hasn’t made some kind of statement indicating otherwise, he probably knew what was going to happen in the choreography they rehearsed before the show? And that if he felt violated, he could easily say so with little to no damage to his own reputation, given the negative reception of the performance?

        Own the fact that you are slut shaming, folks. If you’ve got the ovaries to call another woman that you don’t even know nasty and criticize her body simply because her overt display of sexuality didn’t appeal to you in the exact way you would have liked it to, have the balls to admit that you’re slut shaming.

        August 27, 2013
        |Reply
      • Carrie
        Carrie

        I never called her a slut. A slut would be someone who has sex with multiple partners with no regard for herself or her partners. I have no idea what she does behind closed doors nor do I care too. But, she is Nasty. And there’s is no guarantee everything we saw was rehearsed. What irritates me is everyone is saying what a bad guy he is. None of us actually know him from what in other about his personal life he seems like an all right guy, naked chicks in music videos or not. Where as Miley is extremely open with her personal life – EXTREMELY. Her fiance told her to stop tweeting about their relationship or he was going to ends things. When she was on the red carpet during the pre-show she was excited about her performance. She had no shame whats ever about what she was doing. So, 1. its not slut shaming if the person in question doesn’t give a rats behind and 2. As long as someone acts like a nasty chic in heat – rehearsed or not, people are going to talk. And please, if its not written in black and white, don’t interpret the song because songs can be interpreted differently.
        Baby can you breathe? I got this from Jamaica (Will you cough or can you smoke this. This pot is the good stuff from Jamaica – I assume that means that’s where the good stuff comes from.)
        It always works for me, Dakota to Decatur, uh huh (It always gets me high no matter where I am.)
        No more pretending (No more pretending that she doesn’t want some weed, since that’s what the last two lines are talking about doing.)
        Hey, hey, hey
        Cause now you winning (Now you’re having a FREAKING AMAZING time – you must not be familiar with the terms fail, epic fail, win/winning or epic win/epic winning.)

        See, if you wanna look for something Nasty, you’ll find it – doesn’t mean it’s there.

        August 27, 2013
        |Reply
    • It seems to me that your definition of “nasty” is simply “thing that I do not like”.

      I simply fail to see how you can argue that he was repulsed by the (clearly rehearsed because ALL these shows are rehearsed) performance on stage, but he is not similarly repulsed by the video he made with multiple naked women gyrating around him.

      There were two people in that performance. Miley is the one getting all the headlines and the derision. And it wasn’t. Even. Her. Song.

      August 27, 2013
      |Reply
      • Carrie
        Carrie

        Making a video and acting are two different things versus preforming live and not being in character. I guess you didn’t rewatch like I suggested, but about a second or two after she rubs the foam finger on his body he lifts his hands up, elbow high and shrugs his shoulders slightly. Then when she starts walking and he’s following behind her, the expression on his face is priceless when he sees what the bottoms did to her booty. I watch people, it’s what I do and I’m extremely good at it. My other point because it seems this is being made into a it’s not fair for women thing. So, if she rubbed up on a girl or me, I’d be just as disgusted. Doesn’t matter that it was a guy or that she is a girl. If he did the same exact dance as Miley, while it’d be pretty freaking hilarious, it’d still be Nasty. And no, nasty is not just something I didn’t like. I’d say by my terms it’s the opposite of sexy or just horribly horribly gross. If the outfit (the nude latex one) would of been different, her stage presence and her gestures, the performance wouldn’t of been half bad. I didn’t like enjoy seeing Lady G in a thong either but compared to the kitty rubs it was tame. Not that I wanna see Lady G’s booty but at least her bit on stage was entertaining. Lady G knows how to shock without being nasty. Does she push boundaries, yes – but the way she carries herself is what makes all the difference. She also knows her body and how to make it move so it looks visually appealing , Miley does not.

        August 27, 2013
        |Reply
      • I guess maybe you missed in your astute observation of a scripted performance that Robin Thicke has not said one negative word about it since. In fact, “That was dope,” he tweeted after leaving the stage. “Shout out to @MileyCyrus ” (ABCNews.com)

        August 29, 2013
        |Reply
      • @Carrie:

        “I guess you didn’t rewatch like I suggested, but about a second or two after she rubs the foam finger on his body he lifts his hands up, elbow high and shrugs his shoulders slightly. Then when she starts walking and he’s following behind her, the expression on his face is priceless when he sees what the bottoms did to her booty. I watch people, it’s what I do and I’m extremely good at it.”

        On the subject of body language: most people here are of the opinion that Miley’s whole performance looked extremely awkward and unnatural. Might this just possibly be a sign that Miley DIDN’T REALLY WANT TO DO what the choreographers asked of her?

        I just don’t get it. Awards show performances are PLANNED AHEAD OF TIME. The dancing is choreographed. The costumes are picked out. And yet people are blaming Miley for this whole thing as though she spontaneously came up with the entire concept all by herself. Nobody’s asking why the choreographer or costume designer made the choices they did. Nobody’s wondering why Robin Thicke didn’t go “Hey…it’s kinda sketchy that my duet partner is almost naked and grinding up on me while I’m standing around fully dressed…can we maybe do something else?”

        Nope. For some reason this is all Miley’s fault. How dare she do what the VMA people asked of her? How dare she be young and rebellious and maybe not too tuned into feminist issues yet? BURN THE WHOOOOORE!

        August 30, 2013
        |Reply
  31. Louise
    Louise

    I feel kind of bad with all the Blurred Lines hate going on but I have no issues with Robin Thicke and Blurred Lines. I always understood the song to be about the girl who’s proper and a ‘good girl’ in public who turns into an animal in the bedroom (which a lot of men like) and who wants a man who can do dirty good with her. As I can relate to this and do like men who are on the same level with me sexually (hair pulling, I dig it) etc. I know I want it. And the whole big penis thing, I always thought that was just a joke I never took it seriously. I’m not sure how else to take this song? To be honest this could be me changing some lyrics round and singing it to my BF. What am I missing about these lyrics that is upsetting people so much? (The video is weird though, but I pretend the video doesn’t exist.)

    August 27, 2013
    |Reply
    • Yeah, I thought the big penis thing in the video was funny.

      August 27, 2013
      |Reply
    • The song is actually talking to a married woman and saying that her husband is trying to quelch her sexuality.

      August 30, 2013
      |Reply
  32. Alex
    Alex

    I hate the idea of “cultural appropriation”. What is it but a racist claim that your skin must be this dark before you’re allowed to perform a particular form of art?

    No, the worst thing about this is that’s too easy to imagine her waking up the next morning with a bad hangover and the question, “Oh God, what did I do last night?” It had that sort of feel to it.

    August 29, 2013
    |Reply
    • “Don’t do it if you’re not x culture” is an over simplification of appropriation. Cultural appropriation doesn’t mean “don’t do this if you’re not this race.” Cultural appropriation is what happens when the origins of whatever culture lines are being crossed are obscured or changed for the convenience of the people doing the appropriation. Using Miley as an example, Miley is all about “twerking.” She’s not actually twerking, she’s just shaking her butt around and calling it twerking. Since she’s white, she gets the attention for doing it, and she becomes the face of twerking in the public eye. Now, twerking is no longer a “black thing,” it’s a “Miley thing.” It’s most associated with a white person who refuses to acknowledge its origins and becomes defensive when they’re pointed out to her. It doesn’t matter where it started, it’s now most closely associated with a white pop star. That’s appropriation. Not just, “You can’t do this because you’re not black.”

      Staying on the Miley theme, she’s made comments about wanting a “black sound” or image. Rather than inviting black artists to perform in her videos with an equal billing, she copies black artists. To say her her sound, hair, clothing, and image were “inspired” by Rihanna would be more generous than saying she directly ripped those things off– “We Can’t Stop” was written for Rihanna, but she turned it down. This would just be copycatting, if she was doing it to another white artist. But it’s safe, because overall, we don’t care if white artists take from black artists without giving due credit. That’s appropriation.

      August 29, 2013
      |Reply
      • Jessica
        Jessica

        I get what you’re saying here Jenny but I dont know anyone who doesn’t know that ‘twerking’ is a ‘black thing’ or more appropriately ‘not-something-white-people-are-known-for’. I think for culture appropriation to exist in any form it needs to have a bigger impact than just miley ‘twerking’ and more people doing it, ya know? As someone up there pointed out they know the dance from their latino origins, so who knows where it came from really. I don’t see what miley is doing as a big deal I just think she’s doint it badly and is really over doing it. It just really detracts from her overall intentions. And she has colloborated with black artists such as will I am and I think shes recently colloborated with other dark skin folk from what I saw on her twitter recently. And I personally do believe that Miley does give the ‘phenomenon’ due credit, I think shes very much aware of its origins. However I think she just tries to hard, which comes off as being insincere and by using twerking as a means to rebrand herself as a device I think it could potentially be damaging to that type of dance and those who can actually do it well (not that I think its anything awesome to cry home about-kinda grosses me out actually).
        I guess I agree with you but I don’t think its an issue of culture appropriation, its an issue of miley trying to rebrand herself and using typically associated ‘black things” to do it.

        August 29, 2013
        |Reply
      • I don’t think she did it on purpose, but Miley took something that takes a lot of skill and made it a caricature of itself. She also picked what she wanted from black culture so she can pretend to be black without actually dealing with the consequences of being black.

        August 29, 2013
        |Reply
      • Alex
        Alex

        “She also picked what she wanted from black culture so she can pretend to be black without actually dealing with the consequences of being black.”

        She is not pretending to be black. Doing something invented by a black person is not pretending to be black. If a black man produces an impressionist painting, we don’t accuse him of pretending to be white (and if you do, you’re a horrible racist jerk).

        August 30, 2013
        |Reply
      • Alex, you’re missing a huge point here. If we lived in a world where the actions of a white artist and the actions of a black artist were viewed in an equal light, you’d have a point. But we don’t live in that world. You’re assuming things from a “post-racial” standpoint, and our society doesn’t work the way you’re describing.

        August 30, 2013
        |Reply
      • Alex she is trying to be black. Shes always talking about being ratchet and she has her “black friends” around all the time. She even said she wanted a black sound.

        August 30, 2013
        |Reply
  33. Omg I love you. Hardly anyone saw what I call a minstrel show. And you know I’m mad that now everyone thinks that what she did was twerking. I didn’t find her dancing sexy or anything. I’m just disappointed in Robin Thicke so not even going to talk about it.

    August 29, 2013
    |Reply
  34. Does anybody want to talk about the fact that she can’t fucking sing? Neither can he, come to think of it.

    August 30, 2013
    |Reply
  35. Bear in mind I was watching a crappy YouTube video of it on my phone but….

    What I saw was a young woman trying to look younger (as in child-like) with the teddy bears and what looked like her hair in little pig tails grinding all over an older man.

    September 2, 2013
    |Reply

Leave a Reply to elijahbradley Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *