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 1 year 45 weeks 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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