Since Sunday the internet and general american world has been in a tizzy over the MTV VMAs.
I want to address this as delicately as possible without alienating people who might have different views from me. First and foremost I am not conservative in any sense of the world. I believe in live and let live. I have posted on personal social media my thoughts on Miley Cyrus as a whole, and the performance in general.
But this is more than that.
I am a feminist, thus making this a feminist beauty blog. So I really, really felt that this was something I needed to address. On top of that, I am a fat-positive blogger- more on that later.
I don't care what you think about Miley Cyrus.
I care about why you think it.
If there's one recurring theme that I have seen ALL over the interwebs, it's this: sexism rooting in slut shaming.
Statements such as:
"She had potential to be classy, now she's trashy"
"She's trying so hard to be a mature woman but that's not how women behave!"
"Disgusting"
Here's where I have a problem with all of that :
It's not a woman's job to be classy.
That's right, repeat after me. It is not a woman's duty to be 'classy'.
It does not make you less of a woman if you are not 'classy'.
It does not make you less of a woman to perform in your underwear.
It does not make you less of a woman if you make provocative gestures.
I understand that lewd gestures and sexual images might make some people uncomfortable. My question to those people is: Why are you watching MTV??
MTV has quite the reputation for being filled with sexualized images and mature content.
Why did you expect anything else?
But the biggest part that I have a problem with is the deafening silence I hear about Robin Thicke.
Robin Thicke faced some flack when he released his hit song "blurred lines", a song that, at best, is a little creepy, and at worst, advocates rape culture.
Literally the only thing I have heard about Robin Thicke is that he looked like Beetlejuice.
& as true as it is, how is that the only thing people have to say?
When Miley shook her ass against him (a dance move that you can find in any high school prom- I promise you), everyone has expressed vehement disgust against her. Yet not a peep about him.
Funny how that works, isn't it?
This saddens me most because all of this backlash came on Women's Equality Day.
You cannot make this up, people.
I saw some of the most disgusting sexist comments on a day dedicated to women being equal to men
What the actual fuck is up with that?
Women will not be equal to men until the male singers in that performance were held to the same responsibility she was. Women will not be equal to men until they can wear what they want without it throwing the whole world into a tizzy. Women will not be equal to men until the fact that they danced in a provocative way doesn't land the FRONT PAGE of CNN.
I saw no equality in the criticism of Miley Cyrus- just blatant sexism.
The second issue I have with the whole thing :several advocate groups are up in arms about the commercials used in the program: specifically, a condom commercial.
I feel like my friends and I were the only ones who were absolutely disgusted by the Kia Soul commercial.
In case you missed it: the commercial shows the KIA cute cuddly hamsters obsessively working out in all different ways, then arriving at a red carpet event - the MTV VMAs perhaps? in suits and guess what! Now they are skinny!
Yes they took the adorable chubby HAMSTER spokesmen of Kia and turned them into "suave" "sexy" (??they are hamsters.) skinny 'famous' people (hamsters?) all in the name of the slogan: total transformation.
It was immediately apparent that this was just another way that the media had turned to fat-shaming. They took hamsters, an animal that by default is 'chubby', and turned it into a sickly thing that wouldn't be possible in nature (not that a hamster driving a car would occur in nature but I digress).
The thing that puzzles me the most is, where is the outcry here? Parents want to cry out about condom commercials...yet a commercial that glorifies obsessive workouts is A-okay?
Here's the thing: obsessive working out is a form of bulimia. True story. And kids these days have self esteem that's in the shitter, as evidenced by the studies suggesting a good portion of kids have dieted in elementary school.
That's not cool.
If you think that those kids won't pick up on the undertones of that commercial- you're wrong.
They are taking it to heart.
They are developing eating disorders due to commercials like these.
And I am outraged that not more people are outraged.
I have a lot of opinions about the whole situation but I chose to only try sticking to the ones that were relevant to this blog. I encourage RESPECTFUL discussion in the comment section and will engage in all types of conversations. Please leave a comment with your thoughts. Hopefully you took more from this article and your comment won't be about Miley, or her outfit. It will be about feminism and fat-shaming, and your opinion on the two.
Follow your bliss,
Ember Darling
