Miley Cyrus - Tongue-Tied: Feminist Statement or Sexual Objectification?

To start this off, I'd like to say that I have no real opinion of Miley Cyrus. I watched a few episodes of Hannah Montana while I babysat my younger sisters, I've seen a few of her movies, I've heard her music on the radio and in clubs. I've never been much of a fan or a hater of her work. She's an entertainer and boy does she love to entertain.

For the past couple of years, Cyrus has gone through a number of image changes. That's to be expected of a young woman discovering who she is. It must be difficult to do with everyone scrutinizing her every move in the media, speculating who's controlling her drastic image change. What many are calling her latest 'stunt' is her video submission to Pornhub sponsored NYC Porn Film Festival. It's actually nothing new. The video has been around for a while now, it was shown in the background of her Bangerz tour. It's a beautiful video, with striking cinematography courtesy of director Quentin Jones. Simon Leahy, a founder of the film festival, has praised Miley's entry as "a pop take on S&M," and adds that that Cyrus is "starting to become more of a contemporary artist."

However, while it was reported that the film would be shown at the festival, it has been removed from the lineup of the festival. Organizers also apologized for any confusion regarding the lineup and purpose of the festival, saying their goal is to push every event “beyond prescribed norms.” Maybe Miley is too mainstream for them...While a two-minute version of the clip was released online last year, the submission to the Pornhub-sponsored festival would have been twice that length.

So, like with any half-way controversial story in the media lately (*cough Elastic Heart *cough), people are seeing this as a rampant visual representation of oversexualized objectification of women in the music industry. To those people, I respectfully disagree. A spokesperson for the festival stated: “We hoped the film...would create a bigger discourse around art, sexuality, gender and pornography,” and I believe that it has the potential to do just that. Cyrus has proven time and time again that she is 1) proud of her body and 2) loves showing it off and 3) is having fun.

Why should we demonize her for using her body the way she wants to? It's her body, she should get to do what she likes with it. To be honest, if any leaked nude photos of her were leaked, would anyone even bat an eyelid? No, because she has taken complete control of her body. Maybe she's just looking for attention and maybe that's not as big of a deal as people are making it out to be. She is using her body how she wants to, in that view this video is a feminist statement. Does that mean that people won't get off on it, or see her as solely a sexual object? Maybe not, but do you think Cyrus really cares what we all think? She's out to enjoy herself and I say more power to her (plus, she can't stop and she won't stop). I love the video (bar the cross-tapped nipples, that's just a personal preference on my part). I think it's a beautiful piece of art. But, this is the internet so let's hear your opinions on the matter...