Before I start this post, let me just say that I am a big Miley Cyrus fan. However, I am writing this post not as a fan, but as someone who is sick of living in a society that tolerates classic slut shaming and the double standards that perpetuate inside it.

First of all, the We Can't Stop - Blurred Lines performance at the VMAs: The performance was quite over the top with all the twerking, the foam finger and the excessive tongue action, but why did no one notice how Miley completely reversed the expected gender roles in society? In Thicke's video, he is surrounded by a bunch of naked girls who look like mere props as he sings "I know you want it" full with sexual innuendo. The song itself can be considered "rapey" in which blurred lines reference to "does no really mean no?" In the same sense, the lyrics remind people that women's role in sexual acts is simply as an object or a prop, and that a woman should be contented with being submissive to the man's demands. In Miley's performance with Robin, however, she completely inverted this misogynistic notion by making Robin look like the prop. During the whole performance, Robin appeared to be the back-up, and seemed so powerless as Miley danced around him, even using the foam finger to grope him. She was the one singing the lines to Robin about "trying to domesticate you", showing how women can also be the dominant one. Though the performance went too far and was over the top, Miley deserves to be lauded for being brave enough to express her sexuality and completely reverse a chauvinistic song.



Yet, what is up with all the backlash on Miley? And what's even disheartening is not a single person bothered to call out Robin Thicke on his objectification of women?


Secondly, the Wrecking Ball video: Let me just say that going nude in a music video is not anything new, as Beyonce, Katy Perry, Rihanna and many other artists have done the same. Yet when Miley strips naked in her Wrecking Ball video, people react in such a way as if it's the end of the world. I do think people are entitled to their own opinions, but I think people have become overly judgmental of the girl, missing the whole point of the video showing Miley's vulnerability. Miley being an artist deserves the right to express herself in whichever way she wants to, and no one can ever judge her for that. It's become even worse that people are calling her names like "slut" or  "whore". What pains me the most about this is that fellow women are the ones who are condemning and slutshaming her. Are misogynistic women the ones to be blamed for setting back the women's rights movement (which was formed by WOMEN as well) back a hundred years? It seems to be true that women can be enemies of themselves.

One last note:

If Miley was in fact a 20-year old man performing the same dance moves in the VMAs and going nude in a music video, would the feedback be the same?

Probably not.