Miley Cyrus a.k.a. Hannah Montana
The Associated Press

The public image of Disney pop sensation Miley Cyrus could change after the June issue of Vanity Fair hits newsstands.

Featured Topic | Posted 9 weeks 3 days ago

'Hannah Montana' topless in Vanity Fair: Art or exploitation?

If "Hannah Montana" wasn't a television show directed at kids on the Disney Channel, this could be the wacky premise for an upcoming episode: The tween pop sensation goes to a photo shoot, gets talked into taking some "artistic" pictures with a famous celebrity photographer, and the next thing she knows, the country is going nuts over topless pics appearing in a big-time magazine.

Did Miley Cyrus, with the help of a controversy-courting publication, just deliver a blow to the Walt Disney Company’s billion-dollar “Hannah Montana” franchise? Oh, Hannah, how will you get out of this scandal?

Parents reacted with shock and outrage at the news of Cyrus, 15, appearing touseled and half wrapped in a bedsheet in the new Vanity Fair. Cyrus, whose core audience is girls ages 9-14, released a statement saying she was "embarrassed" about the pictures. But in the Vanity Fair piece, she said the photos were artistic and "not skanky."

Is kids' entertainment becoming oversexed and oversold? Is Miley Cyrus becoming another Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan? Or is the media turning her into one? What can parents do?

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Ben likes: Miley gets Lohanned

James Poulos/The Postmodern Conservative

The innocence factor can't but plummet under conditions like these, because the beauty that makes Miley's picture possible and that makes this commentary possible is manufactured; yes, she herself has something to do with it, but hardly all and probably not most. So what we are worshipping turns out to be less Miss Cyrus' marvelous fresh fecundity and youthful radiance and more the erotic appeal of a giant confection. In an earlier era, this picture would in fact be a painting of a nameless young girl, and it would be a work of art. In this era, it's a brick in a long, high wall.

Pity. I've argued before that our problem isn't honoring the sexual power of young women, it's in aggravating that power for the purposes of dishonoring it. Miley's evocative portrait alone doesn't contribute to this problem. But the premise of the picture, and so much of what brought it into being, does. So people decry its classic pose and echo of nobility while smiling away at this getup. Tell me: which is cheaper?

It's going to take a long time to untangle the psychosexual web this culture's woven. Maybe forever.

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Joel likes: The "Hannah Montana" virginity debate

Thomas Rogers/Salon

It has never been easy to be a child star, but as an article in Thursday's Globe and Mail argues, today's teen actors are facing increasing scrutiny about their sex lives. It points to the media's fascination with the romantic lives of, among others, Emma Watson of "Harry Potter" and "Heroes" actress Hayden Panettiere as evidence of our growing obsession with teen stars' virginity. The article suggests that this development came in the wake of "Olsen Twins Countdown" (the Web site dedicated to counting down to the "Full House" stars' 18th birthday) and Jamie Lynn Spears' recent pregnancy. But it may have more to do with the fallout from her older sister's early branding strategy. As the recent (jaw-dropping) Rolling Stone profile of Britney points out, in the late '90s, manager Larry Rudolph turned her supposed virginity into a key part of her marketing plan -- as the "teenage Lolita of middle-aged men's dreams."

Spears was paraded around talk shows, discussing her virginity and, as the profile suggests, laying the groundwork for her eventual collapse. Jessica Simpson developed a similar look-but-don't-touch persona, and as they reached stratospheric popularity, Spears and Simpson managed to be both wholesome and sexualized -- a dichotomy that made it acceptable for prepubescent girls to show off their stomachs, and may have set a dangerous precedent for a new generation of teen stars whose entire life, including their sex life, has, without their consent, become a part of their public persona.

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Where do you stand on this issue?

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Thoughts

tastefully done

Submitted on May 1st, 2008 by Anonymous

they're artistic. this is not porn. calm down.

Who cares...

Submitted on April 29th, 2008 by Anonymous

Who cares if someone wants to take there clothes off. Atleast she had something on her! Its not like none of you people have back either! EVERY one has one so get over yourselves and let the girl live how she wants to live she may be famous but that doesnt mean its ANY of your buisness anyway!

So heres what i say

stop taking this as a big deal and get over it everyone has a back and everyone has seen one before whats so diff about hers?

NOTHING so get over it!

Yep. Big Deal..

Submitted on April 29th, 2008 by Chuck_Johnson

Anonymous,

I've never had a drop to drink in my life and the amount of time in hours I've spent playing video games can be counted on one hand. I've also never had acne.

I understand why so-called adults find it disturbing, but simply talking about this gives her the attention she wants. What are we doing to do? Arrest the person who took photos of her?

Losers looking for Cheap Thrills

Submitted on April 29th, 2008 by Anonymous

What this really is, is pathetic and creepy. It is a pathetic loser bunch of Hollywood wannabes and suck ups and ugly celebrity photographers who can't achieve anything akin to real eroticism in their own lives, ogling and fawning over 15 year olds and wishing to live vicariously through them. It's a kind of virtual invasion of the body snatchers. We focus on the young and beautiful (who, in reality, know nothing about what is truly erotic) because we think that if we were only possessed of that youth and that beauty our pathetic and unerotic lives would suddenly improve. We watch them fall with glee as they become as pedestrian and grotesque as ourselves. We ignore the beauty of true eroticism that involves the mind and the spirit of a person far more than a tight body and glowing skin--which, after all, is only the promise of something potentially erotic, not it's fulfillment. But most of us are caught up in that longing of our youth . . . that promise never, actually or really fulfilled. Most of us only know disappointment so we look back to that time and remember the hope, all the while mistaking hope for reality.

Minor issue

Submitted on April 29th, 2008 by rom12921

Parents are responsible for minors. Although I personally found it distateful, the decision really belongs to the parents.

Wish & Chuck. Of course everybody grows up having sexual feelings and becomes sexually active. Seems like you are stating the

I'm with Chuck on this. And

Submitted on April 29th, 2008 by wishnevsky

I'm with Chuck on this. And chuck was not born when i had my last kegger. Annie L. is the most respected portrait photog in the business, Cyrus' dad was right there, no exposure of actual nasty breasties made, big deal.

Little Miley Ray is aging out of her Hannah Montana gig in any case. Kids grow up and turn into (gasp)sexual adults. Emma Watson of "Harry Potter is doing the same thing. The question is, are they smart and well managed enough to not crash and burn?

For kids coming out of the Disney organization, the track record is not too good here, but whether it is bad management, genetics, stress from being a star, "Rock and Roll Syndrome," whatever. Time will tell.

Miley Cyrus only plays Hannah Montana, she is not her in reality. She is a singer and actress with a career to manage. How will she do? We'll see.

Good luck kid. Don't take your clothes off in public unless you get paid for it, what i say.

...Big Deal?

Submitted on April 29th, 2008 by Anonymous

Chuck, maybe when you no longer have to use acne wash every night you will understand why the adults in the world find this disturbing.
Why don't you stick to keg parties and video games and let the big people deal with the real world?

Eh.. bigger fish to fry

Submitted on April 28th, 2008 by Chuck_Johnson

Yes. She's naked. Big deal.

Maybe if we didn't freak out so much, children wouldn't rebel so much.

Chuck Johnson is a student at Claremont McKenna College. Feel free to contact him.

Sexploitation at its worst

Submitted on April 28th, 2008 by chief28.ret

There is no excuse for this! She is 15 years old, celebrity not withstanding, and still a child. The parents, managers, and editors have no excuse. What is Daddy going to do when she ends up like loser Brittny? What shameful sexploitation...money and marketing, welcome to the continuing saga of pathetic Hollywood.

Protect, don't exploit

Submitted on April 28th, 2008 by Ben

I'm noodling something longer on this topic, but a friend of mine -- the mother of just the sort of young girl who would be a Hannah Montana fan if they had cable -- e-mailed with a pertinent comment:

"I blame her father. He was there, right? People do weird things for money. She will probably be destroyed by all of this. I would not let my daughter anywhere near this kind of atmosphere now. People used to bug me about getting (my daughter) in print ads or commercials and we pursued it to the point of getting photos and an 'agent.' I went to a few auditions and, while there, looked around. No. No way.

"Beautiful daughters need to be protected. Not exploited. Childhood fame today is not the same as it was for Shirley Temple. It can't be."

HANNA

Submitted on April 28th, 2008 by Anonymous

Why is Vanity fair not being investigated for child pornagraphy??????????
This is assanine!!!!!!!!!
She only did what the Vanity people told her to do. They have some Vanity.