Miley Cyrus is not Hannah Montana. I don’t know what our first clue was but the Video Music Awards on MTV, held Sunday, Aug. 25, finally settled any dispute.
We have finally awakened to find Amercia’s favorite darling, Hannah Montana, has been swallowed by another entity called Miley Cyrus.
It is not the first time Miley has done something like what she did at the awards show. Post Hannah Montana, she came out with a provocative music video but we still wanted to believe in that sweet innocence. She wore some short shorts but we were not worried. It was a summer music video. It was a party anthem. Yes, but it was about a “Party in the USA”. The girl was just trying to show a little patriotism. She had a part in a Charlie Sheen TV show. Maybe you might have heard of it, “Two and Half Men.”
Yes, that might have been so, but we said the girl was just trying to diversify her acting portfolio. There was that video of her with the bong. Yes, we acknowledged that, but who hasn’t had some fun in their youth? Bill Clinton smoked some…he just didn’t inhale. Then there was the hair cut. No, the girl was fine, she rocked that look.
But now she is twerking. Twerking with Robin Thicke.
Let me tell you a story. There once was a girl called Miley Cyrus. In 2006, when she was only 11, she auditioned for Disney. Disney makes stars, but I think the appeal for the girl, that little girl was that Disney makes more than stars. It makes princesses. I think Disney did succeed in making her a princess. There have been other shows like “Lizzy Maguire,” “That’s so Raven” and “Good Luck Charlie” but Miley, I think was a true Disney princess, appropriated for the times. The princesses of today are TV stars and Disney turned that little girl into Hannah Montana – a teen superstar.
Miley is neither the first nor is she the last Disney star who stirs this kind of controversy. Remember Britney’s meltdown. Miley’s haircut was tame compared to that. Britney went bald. Not that there is anything wrong with baldness. Bald rules except on Britney Spears. She went to rehab more times than there are Geico commercials about lizards.
The same goes for Lindsey Lohan. And all the stuff you saw on stage at the VMAs, Christina Aguilera has sort of done it. It is all retro.
Having said that, give me Taylor Swift any day. Good old wholesome American girl. So what if she writes a song after every break up? What girl doesn’t? It is just that she is got the lyrical chops to do it.
How come boy stars behaving badly never registers shock. It is always the girls. Justin Timberlake was on the Mickey Mouse club. I think there was a Super Bowl and something something with Janet Jackson a few years back, yet it was all Janet’s fault.
Nobody gasped at the loss of innocence and yearned for that sweet little boy they once saw on Disney. I can tell you this, it reminds me of a double standard we have back at home in Kenya. When a woman sleeps around, she is at fault. When a man sleeps around, he is a bull that is to be commended for trying to extend his family tree. Even though, I am a Belieber, I think the Justin Bieber is headed in a direction where the fans of days gone by would not recognize his future self.
The line that separates celebrity and heroes has considerably been blurred. Who is your hero a child might be asked. A legitimate answer might be Amelia Earhart or Jesus Christ – even Captain Kirk or Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer. However, we are growing up in a culture where the answer to that question usually comes back in two words that no parents would ever want to hear from their little girl: Kim Kardashian.
Even scarier words come in the form of Paris Hilton, if you still remember who that is. Both are famous for being famous – and other things. Little children grow up. Some grow up to be astronauts that go to the moon and stars. Some will even end up on death row. Some just grow up to be pop stars.
And one day when you actually see them on VMA you realize they have grown up so fast. Sunday was America waking up to realize that little George Washington decided that telling lies was actually cool and cutting cherry trees was even sexier.
