What follows is not political at all, but sometimes you just have to comment on the more pervasive internetz events.
I’m neither warped, a paranoid reactionary, or guilt-riddled but I can tell you that I thought this post was perfect in its argument strategy.
People often forget that in artistic endeavor everything is intentional. Yes, there is no explicit nudity. Yes, there is Vanity Fair’s typical gray filter they use to convince us that their pictures are “artful.” Yes Miley’s hair is swept forward in an attractive and not-necessarily-erotic way. But she is naked and her nakedness is shielded to the viewer by means of a sheet. Why a sheet? Was a sheet the only prop that Vanity Fair had handy, or does the sheet represent something? What could a sheet represent? Well, it is quite obviously evocative of a bed…(that is, it evokes the image of a bed in our minds). What is the goal of placing Miley in a bed? Is it to conjure up images of sugar plum fairies? Innocent dreams? Daddy Billy Ray tucking her in at night to keep her safe? Because, I should probably remind you, she’s naked.
Why (why oh why?) is Miley naked and wrapped in a sheet in Vanity Fair? And the answer is two-fold: to sell more copies of Vanity Fair and to sell more of whatever Miley Cyrus does: songs, shows, concerts, posters, etc.
And…er…when you deliberately use erotic pictures of underage girls to sell products it is quite definitely–that is, by definition–child pornography…and kind of like child prostitution.
I guess.
I guess you could also argue that the picture is actually artful. Not just in the deliberate use of those strange white, gray, and red tones that Vanity Fair has been running into the ground over the last few years but also in terms of shading, tone, texture, line, etc. on the basis of which photography is judged. Since the picture has artistic merit, by a separate calculus, Miley and Vanity Fair are in the clear. But even artistically one cannot escape the blatantly sexual nature of the photo. The tussled hair, the sheet, the bright red lipstick…Miley isn’t just being treated like a whore by the Annie Liebovitz, she actually looks like a recently worked-over working girl.
What I like most about this photo shoot and the uproar it seems to be causing is that Miley’s dad, he of “Achy Breaky Heart” fame, King of the Mullets, was not only present, as Vanity Fair’s public statement claimed, but actually took part in the shoot. The pictures of the two together make them look like a romantic couple rather than father and daughter. Or rather, they look like both given her lusty countenance and his trailer park chic. It’s just flat incestuous from beginning to end. Most of the uproar is centered on pedophilia, which makes some sense, but really, I’m focusing on the more sinister taboo here.
