View From the Phlipside - Miley Cyrus

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, Radio, the Movies and more.  I love them and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View From the Phlipside.

It was about two years ago that I went after Billy Ray Cyrus and his ex-wife about their decision to let their daughter, pop star Miley Cyrus, pose for some rather racy photos for a major magazine.  Miley was only 15 at the time and the poses, while showing relatively minimal amounts of skin, were pretty provocative.  Letting a 15 year old be shown in that manner, in bed apparently covered only by a sheet, struck me as irresponsible and not at all helpful for young women already facing too many challenges on how they are supposed to look and behave.

So when I saw a report in the New York Times that talked about her new video that used terms like “fetish gear” for costumes and cages for settings I thought here we go again.  Then I looked at the video for “Can’t Be Tamed” and thought “Yeah, so?”.  By today’s music industry and video standards the costume and dancing is amazingly modest.  You have to have some pretty narrow definitions of fetish to qualify Miley’s Bird Woman costume as anything approaching kinky.

Here’s the reality.  Miley Cyrus stands at the most difficult point in the career of any teen pop star.  The point where they have to move from being a teen star to an adult performer.  It’s a transition that has put more than a few teeny bopper star’s careers on the rocks.  Is this video pretty racy for Hannah Montana and any of Hannah’s youngest fans?  Sure.  But this isn’t Hannah Montana people.  Hannah is a character played by Miley Cyrus.  The run on that show is set to end this year and she needs to move on.  This video is a very modest step away from the teeny bopper and into the adult Miley world.  Trying to force her to spend the rest of her career doing material appropriate for 12 year olds is insane.  Miley is growing up and her career is growing up too.  The video really bothers some parents however so this may be good news for them.  Miley is planning on stepping away from her music career for a while to focus on movies.

So no, I’m not really all that upset about this latest Miley video.  If I were her parents and advisors I’d be a lot more concerned about the video from last summer showing her dirty dancing with her 44 year old producer at a party attended by some Hannah Montana aged fans.  Some parents yanked their kids out of the party after seeing that.  In that case I don’t blame them a bit.

Call that the View From the Phlipside.

"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010