By Julian Hassan
Miley Cyrus shocked us during her VMA performance of “We Can’t Stop.” It introduced a new word, “twerking,” into the nation’s vocabulary. Yet the lyrics of the song have escaped similar scrutiny. One of the focal points of the song is the line “Only God can judge us.” Perhaps, this reassures young Americans and their parents that Miley has her heart in the right place, even though she went too overboard during her performance.
Yet what if the lyrics of the song we heard are responsible for the performance we saw? Could wholesome values or God have anything to do with the current incarnation of Miley Cyrus, which we are horrified to see? Certain signs seem to indicate they are related.
The motto of the 70’s cultural revolution was “You’re okay, I’m okay.” That was short-lived. Now, it seems the standard of the new O.K. is G.O.D.
We have seen shocking transformations of former child stars like this before and have heard all the usual arguments, but I am going to offer a new one that you haven’t heard before. Here’s the pattern: one young star after another goes from sweet and wholesome to raunchy and cringeworthy. For Miley Cyrus, the ghost of her past is Hannah Montana.
You’ve probably tried to think of what happened to Miley yourself. Here are the circulated arguments: “Fame drove her crazy”–”She missed out on a normal childhood” –“The music industry only cares about money”– “She just wanted to overcome her past.” Yet what can we make of such a desperate attempt to escape from her past? What was so horrible about Hanna Montana?
My answer is conventional morality.
In America, child stars have to be wholesome. They have to be baptized, asexual sweethearts, so that respectable, churchgoing parents will take their children to the star’s concerts, play their shows on television, and buy their products. They have to wear bracelets promising they will not have sex until marriage, like the disbanded Jonas brothers.
In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand wrote on this God-football-family mentality, “Morality, to you, is a phantom scarecrow made of duty, of boredom, of punishment, of pain.” In a recent interview, Miley said in no uncertain times that she wanted to "erase that [Hannah Montana] stuff and start over.” She must have felt wounded to the core. Did the conventional morality that Rand characterized as a “phantom scarecrow” create the boredom and pain which she must have felt as Hannah Montana?
Previous fans cannot understand Miley’s transformation. But what if the idea of Hannah Montana was just as freaky as what we saw on that VMA stage? No one seems to question whether it is okay to send the message that sex is not innocent, that “good” girls should hide their ambitions in order to be humble and keep up appearances for the sake of the neighbors.
As a TV show, Hannah Montana was all about maintaining a front, a lie, a double life. TV show Miley had to hide that she was famous from her Disney friends. Why? Although it hasn’t been recognized until now, the Hannah Montana series unwittingly dramatized a conventional moral conflict. Most Americans do hide important parts of their lives from friends and family because religion teaches that God judges those who are not humble. Yet no one questioned whether it was right to create the Hannah Montana scarecrow that pushed away Miley’s pleasures.
The scarecrow was what the world wanted to believe. It became so compelling that in 2007 Disney convened an "80-person, all-platform international meeting to discuss Hannah Montana's future.” It was in a religious, conventional world that Hannah Montana got her huge following.
What else could explain the criticism that came later?
The Culture and Media Institute criticized Miley Cyrus because she began to slough off the “wholesome” image to become “the epitome of the anti-role model for young girls.” The New York Post wrote that Miley had “duped” her fans by becoming an “inherent danger” for American youth.
The tricky wording here is a clue to the religious motives of her former adult supporters. “Inherent danger” is another way of saying sinful acts, because sin is a danger that is inherent in an act without regards for the motive or consequences of the behavior.
Nothing needs to be said here about the specifics of the VMA performance. Everyone has seen it. It is only worth mentioning that “twerking” depicts sex in a more bizarre light than most modern dance moves. It is pure physicality where you have to jiggle your butt and legs like jello with your head bent at groin level. What view of sex does this express?
It is religion that conventionally portrays sex as fundamentally indecent and lust as a purely animal function, differing only in matter of degrees. At best, moral leaders admit it is a distraction from higher meaning. At worst, it is as plain as sin. Not only does Miley accept the conventional view of sex, she demonstrates it ad absurdum on national television.
It was the scarecrow, Ayn Rand’s symbol of conventional morality, that we saw twerking on stage.
No, “We Can’t Stop” is not MTV’s version of theology. It’s Sunday School.
“This is our house.”
Aren’t we taught that the earth is a domain separate from heaven?
“This is our rules.”
And that what is Caesar’s belongs to Caesar?
“Only God can judge us” made clear that Miley Cyrus really took to heart her lessons at Sunday School. Like everyone, she is aware that religion tells us there is an afterlife, and that we are only creatures of the flesh.
And what does this make humans? “Sweaty bodies everywhere.”
Our spiritual nature has nothing to do with the party on earth. And isn’t it just Miley’s goal to throw us one hell of a party?
Critics of Miley Cyrus will stay that God is dead, but I say that God killed music.
