Yes, I am arguing that Miley Cyrus’s MVA performance is a good thing. Yes, I’m writing this without sarcasm (although most would assume that was the case). And no, I’m not suffering from a recent head injury… although one would assume I’d have to be. My first impression was probably a lot like yours: “Huhn… I’m neither impressed nor attracted to this. The only thing that would make this worse is if instead of Miley Cyrus it was Roseanne Barr grinding and twerking on stage and wearing the skin coloured bathing suit thing.” Blurred lines? (title and lyrics of the song Miley performed) No; there is no blurring here… although, maybe the song is sarcastic… or refers to the state in which you have to be in order to move like her: I can’t walk in straight line. I will confess, that part of me actually wishes the girl who played Fat Amy in Pitch Perfect replaced Miley for the role because at least she would’ve made it funny.
The reason why I’m arguing that this performance is a good thing is because I’m trying to train myself to stop being so negative and critical and to see the good in life. All things have a good and bad side. Thus, this week’s blog is a very practical exercise that I’m doing to help myself and role model for you a tool for learning to enjoy life more: seeing the good. Most people in our society are really good at finding what’s wrong, but I’m trying to train myself to see what’s right. I hope you’ll consider doing the same… unless you’re one of those people who inherently see the good… I hate you… shoot there’s my negative critical side. I mean… I want to learn from you and not hit you… I mean I want to want to learn from you and not hit you. I’m still learning how to be positive.
Without further ado, here is my list of why I appreciate Miley’s performance:
- It reaffirms that I have good taste in singers/musicians because none of the ones I respect were part of this performance (sorry that was a little critical, but I’m still warming up).
- It gives old people like me a chance to continue the long tradition of looking down on the next generation for being over sexualized and lacking boundaries (sorry, still warming up, but I’m getting better)
- Since I didn’t find this attractive it proves that I’m not a total perve… or at least as bad as I could be (see, I’m getting better).
- It makes me very grateful that she’s not my daughter (sorry Billy Ray).
- In an interview she said that this proves she is just doing what she wants to do. Thus, this proves the danger of always getting our own way. Sometimes our way is… dumb.
- It teaches that you can be slim and in good shape – Miley is in excellent shape; she’s been doing her cardio and cutting out the carbs – and still not be sexy; sexy is different (sorry Miley).
- This makes us re-evaluate the notion that to be attractive you need to be “confident”. Miley is definitely confident and sells her role as the “nasty” girl, but what’s attractive is restrained confidence: I’m happy with who I am, but I don’t need to act like a childish prostitute for attention (this is a positive thing because I’m sure Miley was trying to teach young girls messages like this through reverse psychology)
- This is a good teaching tool to point out how you want to be noticed: for positive or negative things? Miley’s performance shows a lack of integrity and self respect, but she’s attained a lot of publicity for it. Is it worth it in the long run? (That’s still positive)
- I give Miley credit for being able to jump into the role as fully as she did. That would take a lot of courage and confidence… or having itching powder in her underpants to make her move like that, especially against a guy like that (this was very positive… the first part is anyway)
- It’s a reminder that Miley may be doing the actions, but this was choreographed and approved by a bunch of people before the event and thus prompts the question: who is more to blame?
In all honesty, I believe this performance is evidence to the fact that Miley’s probably very broken, insecure, and sad behind the scenes… or she’s a complete and utter spoiled brat. I’m leaning to the former rather than the latter since I’ve found misbehaving is more to do with an emotional response to something rather than the person simply being a bad person. Either way, her performance happened and will be soon forgotten. Fortunately, no matter what you think of the performance lessons can be learned from it.
This week may you start to see the positive as much and if not more than the negative.
Rev. Chad David, Emotional Sex, emotional tune up