The Wrecking of Hannah Montana

There have been a lot of good articles written in the aftermath of the Miley Cyrus VMA performance. From likening it to minstrelsy to being the epitome of the YOLO movement, there are many interpretations out there. I keep reading about it and thinking about it, and now I want to add my two cents, building from a discussion with my esteemed advisor a couple of weeks ago. To oversimplify, there are ways in which people enact change. There are those who are strategic and others who are revolutionary. [For a more articulate look into this, see my advisor's write-up.]
And the reason for this fast blog post is to say that Miley was revolutionary. And like all the revolutionary women before her, she has largely been rejected in the media.
The latest image from her newest video is proof of this-- a revolutionary wipes off the previous expectations and conceptions. They reject the past entirely. Which is why many in America are so dismayed with Miley's current performances.

This week:

circa 2009 

It is most definitely a class and a race and a gender issue. Miley was a white girl, raised in the south, by her upper-middle class family. She enacted wholesome family values on her show Hannah Montana, and especially in the movie we see deep ties with country music. I firmly believe this is why people are so distraught over the ties to "black" twerking. Or "urban" music. Or her short hair and barely-there clothing.

Miley has shed entirely her childhood image. And whereas some say Brittney did it more successfully, I would say Brittney was more strategic. This is a natural stage of growing up, exploring your identity. And celebrities will obviously act this process out on a larger stage. I think where we should be concerned is not the new source material for their identities, but rather the growing number of girls who are acting out upon "growing-up" for for no apparent reason or logical-thinking whatsoever. Selena Gomez's latest album was simply her attempt to be sexier. Add to that, and perhaps more distressing, is Miley's explanation for her VMA performance:

"We're three days later and people are still talking about it. They're over-thinking it. You're thinking about it more than I thought about it when I did it. Like, I didn't even think about it 'cause that's just me."

A revolutionary wrecking ball. Destroying previous pop-princess personas one thoughtless performance at a time.