Miley Cyrus, "Incest" & America's Culture War
There's a shot showing Miley lying entwined
with her dad in a pose suggestive of two lovers
She’s wearing low-cut jeans with her midriff exposed
He’s wearing a dark strappy T-shirt. There's an
incestuous feel to it. Nice fathering there, Billy Ray
How incestuous is this?
Miley's "Incestuous" Relationship with Daddy
Miley Cyrus appeared in Vanity Fair magazine in a sultry shot. She is pouting seductively at the camera, with her back naked and her front covered by a sheet she is clutching.
She is 15 years old.
In commenting on it, a lot of people have used the word “inappropriate.” As a father, I’d call it weird.
There is another shot that’s downright creepy. It shows Miley lying entwined with her dad in a pose suggestive of two lovers.
She’s wearing low-cut jeans with her midriff exposed. He’s wearing a dark strappy T-shirt. The picture has an incestuous feel to it. Nice fathering there, Billy Ray.
Everyone involved has tried to defend it. The photographer, Annie Liebowitz, who I usually admire, says it’s a beautiful shot, blah, blah, blah.
As for the entwined pose, some say dads all the time lie that way with younger kids. True. But not with a 15-year-old daughter.
Now that the publicity has been bad, Miley Cyrus says she’s embarrassed. Her father says none of it was meant to be sexual.
But some commentators have suggested it may well have been premeditated as a way for Miley to start appealing beyond the ’tween audience and position herself to be a racier star in the years to come. Who knows?
What I do know is that it’s hardly a surprise to see the early sexualization of another underage starlet. These days, most of them end up doing it.
Miley Cyrus: The Battle between 'Carnality' & 'Decency'
The so-called Culture War is still unfolding in the United States. And that's a good thing.
How do I know the War is still under way? I watch The View. If you want to know what they're talking about in the U.S., you check out The View. Seriously.
You can have your Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, your Bill O'Reilly and your Wolf Blitzer ("This is the Situation Room." "We're in the Situation Room." "We're following this story in the Situation Room.").
The reality is that your best bet for taking the pulse of America is checking out the topics begin discussed by the women on The View.
Anyway, yesterday I watched The View. What were they talking about? Miley Cyrus, that's what.
In case you've missed the most important news to emerge from the U.S. since The 9/11 Commission Report, Miley is apologizing in advance for some photos of her in the new issue of Vanity Fair. She's mortified, apparently.
Said photos, which are all over the Internet, were taken by the seriously overrated Annie Leibovitz and picture the 15- year-old clothed only in a bedsheet, her hair artfully arranged in to what might be called "bed head."
Miley's people and Disney are now blaming Vanity Fair and Leibovitz. The magazine is denying anybody was duped or exploited.
Quite possibly, there are some of you who are clueless about the existence of Miley Cyrus. In a nutshell, she's the star of a Disney Channel TV series called Hannah Montana.
The show is synopsized thus:
"After moving from Tennessee to California, Miley Stewart (Miley Cyrus) does everything she can to fit in with her new classmates and live life like a regular teenager.
"Of course, there is one small problem: Miley also happens to be international pop sensation Hannah Montana. Regular teenager by day, superstar by night, Miley struggles every day to keep her secret under wraps."
In Canada, Hannah Montana airs seven days a week on the Family Channel. The Hannah Montana character is also a real signing star with legions of teen and "tween" fans. Hence the fuss.
This is brilliant stuff. It's one of those insights into U.S. popular culture that comes along and accidentally reveals everything, just as Miley Cyrus accidentally fell prey to the nefarious ways of a celebrity-obsessed magazine.
You see, just as Hannah Montana is about a young woman leading a double life, the entire U.S. culture is double-sided and double-faced. A great deal of the American popular culture is vulgar to the point of being skanky.
Simultaneously, a great deal of the U.S. expresses outrage at this state of things and cries out for a return to wholesomeness.
This tension - at the heart of the Culture War - is actually the engine that drives U.S. popular culture. You can call it hypocrisy, but it isn't. It's part of the eternal duality of the culture - the friction between carnality and decency.
It's everywhere. If you haven't heard, the genial nitwit now in charge of programming at NBC recently announced that the network would be designating 8 p.m. as Family Hour.
That means no rudeness in shows airing at 8 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Good luck with that. There will always be somebody to argue that they are shocked and appalled by something on network TV.
Already, the Parents Television Council has been outraged by some vaguely racy stuff on 30 Rock and My Name Is Earl.
On The View yesterday, the five lady co-hosts were kept busy debating the possible shock that would ensue once Miley Cyrus's fans get an eyeful of her in the sultry-but-arty photos. The hand-wringing was in overdrive.
A little later, along came actors Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco to promote their sitcom Big Bang Theory.
Galecki was asked his opinion about the Miley Cyrus issue. He response left the co-hosts taken aback: "I saw all this news coverage and I figure this is a great day. The war must be over."
It's a good line, but he's talking about the wrong war. The Culture War continues, as it always will. It's the American way.
