According to pictures posted by ‘ENT Lawyer’ on Crazy Days and Nights, we can now view 15-year-old teen icon Miley Cyrus, better known as ‘Hannah Montana’, in some pretty seductive photos. As if we would want to. The National Ledger describes the images as racy, pouty and the picture URL bar is listed as ‘miley-one-step-closer-to-porn’. I can’t say for sure if it is really Miley or someone who looks like her. Either way, it doesn’t much matter.
For those who may not know of the Hannah Montana craze, let me surmise from my own 9-year-old daughter’s voice. She is the hottest thing to hit the Pre-Teen (italics mine) culture since … I don’t know who. Unfortunately, Hannah Montana/ Miley Cyrus is 15 and her biggest and target audience is 9- to 10-year-old girls. Apparently Miley is only interested in rich little 9- to 10-year-old girls. When Miley visited the VanAndel Arena, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, near our hometown of Grand Haven, Michigan, the tickets sold at a bargain $400- $2,000 a seat. (My first car cost me $250). But I digress.
Now we have always been assured by Miley and her dad, Billy Ray Cyrus, a star in his own right, and co-star on Hannah Montana, that ‘this is fun for her ( you think?) and that he ‘would stop the whole thing if it wasn’t fun anymore’ (interview on ET). Well I think Billy Ray may need to wake up to the fact that Miley (Hannah) is not 9 or 10. She is 15 and as such just old enough to start an online journal of her own. 14 is the official age. And what Miley wants to put on her Myspace is not pictures of a little girl icon.
I also have a 17- and 15-year-old son who frequent online communities. As a parent who keeps an eye on what is going, I can tell you that I have often glimpsed pictures of ‘so and so’ (all good boys and girls that we know) boys with no shirt on and young girls in very seductive poses, seeking attention and affirmation. I warn them all the time as a parent and teacher not to post these pictures; it’s a pedophile’s Sears catalog, I remind them.
But there is something about this age; 15 seems to be the ‘big age’ for Myspace. It’s kind of a ‘rite of passage’. I would think as a mother and student of psychology that Mylie needs her ‘rite of passage’ more than anyone. Look at all the grief and pressure that child stars face; some we’ve even laughed over. (Dickie Roberts, Former Child Star,Top 100 Child Stars) What I am saying is that Miley is the normal somewhat insecure 15-year-old on Myspace, tentatively posting seductive pictures of herself, hoping for approval. I am not endorsing this behavior. There is very little in teen behavior to endorse. I am stating unequivocally that I understand (and well remember) it.
I found it interesting that before our 17-year-old found out who, how old or what ‘Hannah Montana’ is, he quipped, upon seeing Miley Cyrus, ‘wow, she’s hot.’. And to a 15- to 17-year-old boy, her real target audience she is. She looks very similar to the other ‘pouty, come-hither’ faces I’ve seen on Myspace. But the problem lies again with adults. We allow and even encourage our daughters to adore and emulate this persona (if the purchase of $400-$2,000 Hannah Montana show tickets are any indicator) who is herself only a child and vulnerable to the vanities of our culture. Look at all the children we’ve sacrificed on the altar of showbiz and ultimately greed?
Should we boycott Hannah Montana? Not if we are only going to replace the child with another misnomer. We need to get serious with ourselves, our children and our entertainment industry. I’ll end with one final comment. There would be no such thing as child porn if there were no pedophiles who demanded it.
