davidsmeaton.com

Miley Cyrus is no doubt america’s next big thing. she works for disney’s most popular show, she has a recording contract and million dollar book deals. she’s definitely on the way up … and she’s only 15. add to that the simple fact that vanity fair has always flirted with controversy when photographing famous women. the two combined is a recipe for america’s usual overreaction to anything provocative.

obviously, i’m talking about miley’s recent vanity fair photo (left) in which she appears topless. the photo has caused an enormous shitstorm in america. admittedly, does have a hint of sexiness and suggestiveness to it. however, before we start calling for witch hunts, crucifixions and testing to see whether she weighs more than a wood duck (if you don’t get the reference, i’m not explaining it), let’s look at this in a realistic context.

first, let’s point out that she had disney’s approval for the shoot. disney are known for being conservative (the uber-conservative kind) and they had no issues with her posing in vanity fair. if disney had a problem, they would have forbidden her because miley’s contract would preclude her from any activities that damage disney’s reputation. second, let’s also keep in mind that miley had her parents on the set the whole time … vanity fair released photos of the shoot and there’s clearly nothing sinister happening. third, she is one of many young stars who have addressed the issue of teen sexuality.

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in 1978, brooke shields starred in ‘pretty baby‘, a story about prostitution, when she was 12 years old. the main character is a mother, a brothel madam, who sells her daughter’s virginity to a client. the movie included nude scenes of shields, which did cause controversy. the movie is available, uedited, on dvd. when brooke shields was 14 (only 2 years after ‘pretty baby‘) she performed nude again in the movie ‘blue lagoon‘. this movie took full advantage of her sexuality and contained full frontal nudity of shields and co-star christopher atkins. they spend the second half of the movie having sex and swimming naked.

brooke shields wasn’t the only one to bank on her pubescent sexuality. jodie foster was 13 when ‘taxi driver‘ was released. although it contains no nudity, she did play a 12 year old prostitute opposite robert deniro. ‘bastard out of carolina‘ is a 1996 film about a 10 year old girl being raped. there’s no sex or nudity and it doesn’t glorify sex or rape, but it was banned in canada (later overturned). natalie portman got her start playing a 12 year old girl who seduces a professional hitman in ‘leon‘. her relationship with leon is quite suggestive and she wears revealing clothes in a number of scenes.and it’s hard to ignore other movies like the remake of nabokov’s ‘lolita‘ starring dominique swain. she was 15 during filming and she is portrayed in a very sexy way. some scenes have partial nudity, although it’s believed that a legal aged body double was used.

jane march played a teenage girl in ‘amant l‘ where she appears nude in sex scenes with a much older man. the movie ’splendor in the grass’ and the play ‘the killing of sister george’ also deal with young teen sex and nudity, despite both being written in the early 1960s. dakota fanning (starred in ‘i am sam’, ‘man on fire’, ‘war of the worlds’ and ‘charlotte’s web’) appeared in GQ magazine when she was 8 (wearing a singlet) and in vanity fair when she was 12. fanning is the same age as josephine.

finally, there is no counting the number of ‘legal’ child porn sites … in the guise of modeling sites like ’sweetagency’ and ‘playtoy’ (a rather sick twist in the nude magazine ‘playboy’) … i’m not linking to the modeling sites, you can find them yourself.

my long winded point is that miley hasn’t really done anything wrong. at 15 she probably considers herself a sexual young lady and her relationship with disney means that she wants to break the shackles of being a ‘good girl’ all the time. this isn’t difficult to understand, britney spears, lindsay lohan, christina aguelira, and countless other teen stars have gone through the same thing.

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but that doesn’t stop people from going bat shit crazy whenever a teenage girl even shows the slightest hint of sexuality … and there’s no real need to relive the whole “janet jackson nipple” drama again. talk about dumb fucking ignorance!

let’s be realisitic, a teenage girl in a provocative pose is the last thing people should be worrying about … the last time i ranted about this i got on my high horse, saying that americans were more worried about a pair of boobs in the movie ‘300′ than they were about all the ultra-graphic violence.

well, it’s happening again:

let’s end all the wars around the globe. let’s feed poor nations, fight aids, end poverty in our own countries, fix the health system, crack down on political and corporate corruption, and stop the trafficking of hard drugs. when all those things are done, then come and tell me your opinions about a half naked 15 year old girl.