Miley Cyrus and our fascination with teen sexuality
A recent Associated Press article talks about actress, singer and songwriter Miley Cyrus and her “controversial photo” at age 15 in Vanity Fair as presenting “a great opportunity for parents to discuss how seemingly innocuous photos posted to a blog or social networking site can be misinterpreted.”
“Miley has said she is ‘so embarrassed’ by the photos and has apologized to her fans. But it may not be that much different from what regular girls are already putting up on the Internet, says M. Gigi Durham, author of The Lolita Effect.
“It is pretty routine these days for girls to post provocative pictures of themselves online,” she says. “The sexual objectification of young girls is so normal in today’s media environment.”
From Miley Cyrus: A Cautionary Tale.
But acclaimed author Germaine Greer points out in an article of hers, “Kate Moss has been able to earn millions only as long as she could continue to project the body image of a 13-year-old. The appeal of her nude portraits derives from the heart-breaking curve of her narrow hip-line and the tautness of her barely perceptible cleavage, not to mention the sulky innocence of her unfocused gaze.
“The icon of the 34-year-old mother qua 13-year-old virgin is even more disturbing than the sexy image of the 15-year-old Cyrus, because it is so much rarer and weirder.”
Greer continues, “Sexually knowing 15-year-olds are normal. No matter how much energy Disney – which makes the TV show Hannah Montana, in which Cyrus stars – might put into denying the obvious, 15-year-olds are sexually aware.
“Any schoolteacher coping with a heaving mass of 15-year-old women knows that whatever their tribal culture or their religious affiliation, they are fascinated by sex. Girls’ magazines pay lip service to health and friendship issues: their real subject is boys.
“We train female children to be manipulative and to exploit their sex. From the time she is tiny, a girl in our society is taught to flirt…
“One thing we know about the Leibovitz photograph is that Cyrus saw nothing amiss in clutching a satin sheet to her apparently naked bosom, and looking at the camera over her shoulder. Girls are taught to look at the world in that sidelong fashion from the time they come to consciousness.”
From We like our Venuses young, by Germaine Greer, The Guardian, April 30, 2008.
Greer’s new book is Shakespeare’s Wife.
“The girl I’m playing is an intellectual and she’s sexy and has to find a way to balance those two things.”
Maggie Gyllenhaal added, in an interview about her role in “Mona Lisa Smile”, “And those are contemporary issues that myself and a lot of my friends struggle with.” [From the page Sexuality : teen/young adult]
In her article Sex and the Highly Gifted Adolescent, Annette Revel Sheely (a counselor associated with the Gifted Development Center in Denver) notes, “Many parents find it difficult to acknowledge their adolescent’s emerging sexuality. Yet they are the very people who can be most influential in guiding their teen towards a positive adult sexuality.
“In any family, this emergence can be quite a challenge. For families with highly gifted adolescents, however, it can be especially confusing.
“Some characteristics innate to the highly gifted can complicate an adolescent’s developing sexuality. These include asynchrony (either early or late sexual development), social isolation, sensual overexcitability, and androgyny.”
But gifted or not, and whether we are adolescent or older, sexuality is a central part of our identity, and impacts how we interact with others and make use of our creative talents.
August 23rd, 2011 at 10:15 pm
Being a counselor myself, I appreciate your blog post. Thanks.