Dear Miley Cyrus,
I am writing this letter on behalf of women everywhere. I
know you must be thinking, “This girl is highly presumptions, writing a letter
on behalf of all women, most of whom she has never even met.”
Well yes Miley, that is a reasonable call for you to be
making, however I can (fairly accurately) assure you that the majority of women
and I are on the same page re: your recent vagina grabbing, camel toe inducing,
old man grinding antics.
Also, 15 people ‘liked’ my recent Facebook status that said,
“Miley – STOP IT,” and you simply cannot argue with that kind of social media
response.
Anyhow, Miley, beautiful, talented, daughter of an at best B-list
country music star, Miley, I am not going to publicly berate you like that mean
old Sinead O’Connor did about how the whole world “doesn’t give a fuck about
you.” I care about you, as do a lot of the women I have recently discussed you
with and here is why:
You are talented, confident and successful in an industry
that is cut throat, horribly sexist and highly competitive.
However, watching you ‘twerk’ all over a (married) man who
is best known for a song that features some serious
rape lyrics and giving yourself a front wedgie (or a fredgie as I now refer
to it) is making me feel physically ill (and squirm thinking about what it
would actually feel like pulling a leotard that far up my clacker).
I get that you are trying to break away from the cookie
cutter image that was so precisely created for you and forcefully enforced onto
you back in your Hannah Montana days.
I get that you are only 20 and you have probably been
surrounded by people a lot older than you who are rich and drunk off power and
the overly sexual attention money and power usually bring along with it.
I get that you have just broken up with your long-term
boyfriend and you are trying to work out who you are and where you fit in this
messy and complicated society we are currently inhabiting.
What I don’t get, is why you are constantly shoving overtly
provocative, offensive and at times nauseating images of you gyrating against
goodness knows what in our faces every other day.
I don’t get why your now infamous tongue is always hanging
out the side of your mouth like you have just downed a bottle of Tabasco sauce
with two packets of Whizz Fizz mixed in it.
I don’t want you to get me wrong, in no way am I a prude, in
fact I was recently out at a pub so late, that the lights came on and the
barman asked me and the other stragglers to leave! (Crazy!)
I am all for expressing your sexuality and being open about
who you are and what you want. I am all for shoving societies fucked up ideas
of what is ‘sexy’ and what is ‘beautiful’ out the window of a moving car.
What I (and the women I am writing this letter on behalf of)
are not for is watching a beautiful, young, talented women throw away
everything she has worked for by licking industrial demolition equipment
whenever the opportunity presents itself.
I know you "don’t want to be a role model" and "can’t help what
people think of you" but Miley, you are a role model, you are one of the very
few young women in the extremely privileged position of being a role model.
You have the opportunity to show young women how to be a confident,
self assured young person in a world cluttered with deep seeded sexism and what
is almost an epidemic of female body issues and self-doubt.
But you’re throwing it away; all so you can make headlines
that will drive up the sales of your upcoming album.
So Miley, to summarise, I care about you, women care about
you, but you need to start caring about you, because whether you like it or not,
you’re a role model to our girls and you’re letting us all down.
Kindest regards,
Bec Hagan (and women everywhere)
