Some readers need to get a sense of humor! Guy Rebay always writes with a sense of mischief, so don't get it so twisted.
Does anyone posting here know her personally? Until then I won't characterize her exuberance as style but as a marketing campaign.
1
It's terrible and tragic that a cute, athletic and talented young lady should so obviously enjoy being a cute, athletic and talented young lady.
No, wait...
No, wait...
Editors: please don't approve sentences that suggest a woman's clothing invites men to touch her. Would you allow a writer to describe Kanye's ripped jeans "as if they were inviting a suburban mall cop to shoot him for resisting arrest"?
2
The article never says that it is MEN who are invited to touch Miley Cyrus through the strategically placed cutouts in her Alexander Wang dress.
2
Hey. I'm a woman nearing retirement who lived through the seventies. Though it is (sadly) behind me, I have worn clothing that, if it didn't invite men (and women) to touch me, then I was doing a poor job clothing myself because that was certainly the message I was sending. Miley is about the age I was then. Ignore the fossils and live. Your last regrets will be the temptations you sucessfully resisted.
2
And I never thought it possible that anyone from the Times would channel Humbert Humbert! But Guy has done it!
4
Guy, did you seriously insinuate that because she's wearing something you can't steer your thoughts away from slipping your hand inside her clothes? What are you reporting on after all fashion or your perverse sense of public sensational suggestion?
6
I thought it was a pretty astute insight into the emotional impact of the garment and certainly in keeping with the theme of "exuberant sexuality" in a piece devoted to Ms. Cyrus's penchant for provocative clothing.
3
I'm a middle aged woman who has seen and had a lot of sex in my life, exuberant and otherwise.
Nothing about this sequined version of Gollum says sex to me. It seems to be a desperate attempt to make money by being annoyingly tacky.
Nothing about this sequined version of Gollum says sex to me. It seems to be a desperate attempt to make money by being annoyingly tacky.
18
"Sequinned version of Gollum"--best description EVER. thank you, DR.
4
As someone who doesn't enjoy Ms. Cyrus' exuberant displays of sexuality (because of their effects on young girls, in particular), it should be noted--as my 30-y.o. daughter has shown me via several videos--that Ms. Cyrus is indeed talented, with an expressive voice and the ability to think quite clearly. While she enjoys smoking pot and using Ecstasy, Miley is shrewd and self-aware enough to likely surprise us all when it comes to staying power, the ability to adapt within a cutthroat business, and her plans for the future. She may be troubled, but she's no fool.
5
The sad thing is that Ms. Cyrus is just not aware that she is being exploited by her handlers, record label, managers, etc.. That's not a new observation, but it bears repeating. She's making a fool of herself and when she's used up, and no longer 22 so replaced by another nubile girl/woman, she may serve as a sad warning to other young women who think that increasingly outrageous, crass behavior is the path to success.
7
Lacking talent and good looks, some will do whatever they can to stay in the limelight.
7
Silliest looking things I've seen in awhile.
5
Oh please, a " lithe, boyish body" isn't post-modern or post-gender- it's been the fashion model standard for decades now and really rather sexist, if you think about it. After all, "boyish body" isn't post-gender but rather of the male gender. An immature male body was a sex object to be exploited among the powerful citizens of ancient Greece and Rome, so if anything Cyrus's image is an homage to the inequality that existed back then - and also today.
12
You are right on the money. The "lithe boyish body" -- hello! Twiggy! that was the rage when I was....eleven years old. About 5 decades ago, LOL.
It's easy to dress this way when you are petite and skinny and 22 years old (even Twiggy ended up with a curvy women's body in her late 20s). Things that would look cheap and overtly sexual look sort of innocuous on such a teenage figure -- no bulges, no sagging, no tummy, etc.
Frankly I am amazed to see this publication take Ms. Cyrus seriously. She seems like a very damaged girl, high on weed and her own ego, and most of her music is extremely mediocre.
It's easy to dress this way when you are petite and skinny and 22 years old (even Twiggy ended up with a curvy women's body in her late 20s). Things that would look cheap and overtly sexual look sort of innocuous on such a teenage figure -- no bulges, no sagging, no tummy, etc.
Frankly I am amazed to see this publication take Ms. Cyrus seriously. She seems like a very damaged girl, high on weed and her own ego, and most of her music is extremely mediocre.
10
I think she is smart. We saw Madonna do this in the 80s and shes worth half a billion dollars now.
1
Everyone interested in this young woman should remember that her decision-making brain aras are not yet fullly developed. At 30, she may well look back on some of this and cringe.
8
If you don't look back and cringe at some of the things you did when you were young then you haven't had a very interesting life.
6
Marginally talented attention seeker- will do whatever it takes to get attention.
22
That's called show business.
"Exuberant Sexuality"?
A better term would be commercial self-exploitation, to say nothing of the relentless sexualization of childhood by the fashion and entertainment industries.
To pretend that that defining young girls and women as primarily sexual objects is somehow "startling" or "experimental", ( not to mention admirable, as this column seems to imply ) is willfully stupid.
Just because Cyruss generates a lot of profit and attention from her antics, doesn't mean she's somehow contributing to society along with her bank account.
A better term would be commercial self-exploitation, to say nothing of the relentless sexualization of childhood by the fashion and entertainment industries.
To pretend that that defining young girls and women as primarily sexual objects is somehow "startling" or "experimental", ( not to mention admirable, as this column seems to imply ) is willfully stupid.
Just because Cyruss generates a lot of profit and attention from her antics, doesn't mean she's somehow contributing to society along with her bank account.
30
You make it sound as though all this is a good thing. I largely agree with most of the prior commenters, and I see her less as "exuberant" as "needy", "desperate", "lost", "searching for a purpose", "no idea what she can productively do with all her abilities", and the sort. I'm far enough away from that time of life that I can look at her and worry for her, while at the same time I am dismayed that the media world seems to be applauding her for pushing the boundaries of decency even further. I have nothing against sex, or sexiness, but as girls are pushed further and further in the pursuit of beauty, I hate to see this being applauded.
15
You are confusing her public persona with the real person. It's show business. She's playing a role.
Lacking any real talent or outstanding physical charisma, she has leveraged degeneracy to make money for herself. The downside is she is a role model now for our children. I shudder.
16
She can sing as well as Madonna or Lady Gaga.
People in show business are out to make money for themselves. Shocker.
People in show business are out to make money for themselves. Shocker.
4
Lo's of nasty snobby comments here. NYT readers at their 'moralistic' worst. In England they call it 'Pearl clutching'.
Btw She is 22 NOT 14 or 15 so she is a legal adult and not an object. Yeah she is vulgar, and we live in a vulgar society but the worst vulgarity is our politics and shallow moralyzing. At 53 I am NOT interested in Miley Cyrus in anyway and can't stand ANY of the music (rubbish) from the present century but I do find the comments about Miley (who like Snoop Dogg is more bark than bite and NOT nasty AS their image shows) say more about the nastiness in the moralists than protecting girls from our rubbish culture.
Most of the worst stuff in our culture is not shocking, just mind bendingly appalling. To those wondering what the solution is RAISE YOUR CHILDREN AND SHOW THEM HOW TO BE! Moral panic moaning about the latest strip tease artist (see 1950's pin ups, Jazz clubs, mixed race dances, Marilyn Monroe etc) is just arrant reactionary Puritanism. More Fake, look at how much better I am than they are moralism!
If you want to create a moral society VOTE for Bernie Saunders and make life more than greed for money!
Btw She is 22 NOT 14 or 15 so she is a legal adult and not an object. Yeah she is vulgar, and we live in a vulgar society but the worst vulgarity is our politics and shallow moralyzing. At 53 I am NOT interested in Miley Cyrus in anyway and can't stand ANY of the music (rubbish) from the present century but I do find the comments about Miley (who like Snoop Dogg is more bark than bite and NOT nasty AS their image shows) say more about the nastiness in the moralists than protecting girls from our rubbish culture.
Most of the worst stuff in our culture is not shocking, just mind bendingly appalling. To those wondering what the solution is RAISE YOUR CHILDREN AND SHOW THEM HOW TO BE! Moral panic moaning about the latest strip tease artist (see 1950's pin ups, Jazz clubs, mixed race dances, Marilyn Monroe etc) is just arrant reactionary Puritanism. More Fake, look at how much better I am than they are moralism!
If you want to create a moral society VOTE for Bernie Saunders and make life more than greed for money!
10
I think you are missing the point of most of the commenters. The vast majority were calling out the 'journalist' for paying any attention to Miley Siren at all. That is what is disgusting. Her antics are totally unexceptional except for being on the leading edge of pop culture idiocy attempting to pass for creativity.
9
Mind the splinter in your own eye.
4
When I was a student in the late 1960's, there was a girl in the dorm who wore something like that. Awfully cold in the Ithaca winter. More silly than sexy.
7
I'm not sure I understand the author's term "exuberant sexuality." In my day we called it cheap vulgarity. You can find this same "exuberance" in red light districts around the world. The difference is that normally those girls get beaten up and/or arrested. In this case, she gets celebrated on the front page of the New York Times.
15
Seems to me the message is to this generation: "Good luck doing any better than your parents did; better get ready to do anything, including selling yourself sexually."
2
As a former journalist, we have one BORED writer here. Hoping things work out better for you sir in days ahead. Your phrase "unashamed exuberance of sexuality' ...I would have to say 90 percent of men would call it whorin' around
16
Hmmm.....Tacky must be in the blood, and the God-blood. Put a child in front of a camera for her whole life and she only knows constant attention, and apparently needs to seek it constantly.
17
She's made a lot of money, she appears to be in good health, she appears to be enjoying life. She's a successful, independent young woman making her own choices. Why so judgmental about her?
4
The real question is whether unashamed sexuality is really such a healthy path to begin treading when you're a young girl not quite into your 'teens surrounded by Hollywood mature males.
22
Would somebody feed poor Miley, please? The main photo with the sides cut out of her dress show a painfully underfed celebrity.
If she has a good voice and a good personality (I have no idea, I haven't seen any of her performances), then she has no need to force herself to conform to someone else's ideal of what a grown woman should look like.
If she has a good voice and a good personality (I have no idea, I haven't seen any of her performances), then she has no need to force herself to conform to someone else's ideal of what a grown woman should look like.
7
You cannot dress like this, unless you have a very VERY thin, teenage sort of body. Any real womanly curves, and you look ridiculous. You have to be absolutely taut and boyish to get away with it.
1
And could we please not have a middle-aged man grovel at the feet of this young woman's exhibitionism, which was encouraged by her parents, who pimped her out for money at a very young age?
Beyond creepy.
Beyond creepy.
59
This. Thank you. Like it's edgy to compliment behavior that typifies all the worst in pop culture today. Porn inspired cheap thrills, morbid curiosity head-snap photobomb rubberneck attention grabs, and obnoxiousness of a sort that makes even Madonna and Gaga look good. It's bad enough that American culture has devolved to reward only the most egregious narcissism and wanton sexploitation, must we applaud and call it 'exuberant' also?
27
Yes! I found this sentence particularly creepy: "The cutouts in the Alexander Wang dress she wore to the Costume Institute Gala this year looked as if they were pockets inviting you to slide your hand inside." A woman's choice of clothing is never an invitation for strange men to grope her.
30
Her people sent out a press release of positive buzz in advance of the VMAs to increase viewer numbers?
4
Lest you crawl into the same cesspool currently occupied by The Daily News, I would urge your editorial staff to steer clear of articles dealing with the likes of Miley Cyrus. What's next, stories about what gives with Kim Kardashian's uterus? Please. This is not news, it's gossip. I can assure you, your readers expect more from The Times.
46
I agree. I don't spend $840.00 a year for The Times to read about trash like this......and have it applauded by Times writers. If this is the new generation the paper is courting as future readers, the Times will only continue losing its hard-earned credibility.
16
'Continue losing' being the operative phrase. I lost confidence in the 'straight' reporting a long time ago, but I still mostly liked the art and style writing- until now.
3
She is making the same mistake that many young woman do, when they discover they are sexual beings: that they are sexually beautiful in the way a performer on sexual film is. Unfortunately, Cyrus is not -- she is scrawny and nasty-looking. She needs to stop displaying herself for the sake of the public, because it's like looking at a car wreck. She's mistaking people's look of shock for attraction. People really can't look away from someone making a fool of themselves.
19
It is absolutely hilarious, not to mention ironic, that you should comment on her appearance this way while pretending to be outraged that she is exploiting her appearance.
She's famous and the money is rolling in.
It will be interesting to see where she is at 30 or 35. I suspect it won't be pretty. She is already pretty dependent on drugs! The thing that stuck with me is that she could not put her marijuana joint down, even for an interview with the national press.
It will be interesting to see where she is at 30 or 35. I suspect it won't be pretty. She is already pretty dependent on drugs! The thing that stuck with me is that she could not put her marijuana joint down, even for an interview with the national press.
1
Not at all clear that she has a "boyish body". Who told this author and the editors that large breasts are the essential prerequisite for femininity?
9
Nobody said anything of the sort. It is her body, and given we all saw her grow up on the Disney channel and in films, it is clearly her natural body.
The problem isn't that she has a lithe, slender build. The problem is that she exploits it mercilessly, and if she thinks she will always look this way. She won't -- and then what?
The problem isn't that she has a lithe, slender build. The problem is that she exploits it mercilessly, and if she thinks she will always look this way. She won't -- and then what?
1
It is mind boggling and bizarre to see any attention paid to Miley Cyrus. I think of Princess Grace of Monaco, Lee Remick and other truly attractive females from yesteryear.
The really beautiful women filled with interior grace, poise, femininity, gravitas and decorum are nowhere to be seen in today's moral morass of horror and bad taste.
Miley Cyrus, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, various Kardashians etc. are the classless types who apparently represent what a generation of young women aspire to be.
I fear for the United States of America and for all the young women growing up there.
The really beautiful women filled with interior grace, poise, femininity, gravitas and decorum are nowhere to be seen in today's moral morass of horror and bad taste.
Miley Cyrus, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, various Kardashians etc. are the classless types who apparently represent what a generation of young women aspire to be.
I fear for the United States of America and for all the young women growing up there.
19
You may want to read up on Grace Kelly and her behavior when she was very young and in the business. But then you had an army of publicists to protect you. That, along with her father, kept her dalliances out of the public eye.
Can't really make up my mind about Ms. Cyrus as I'm too old to know her music and career. But there's a part of me that thinks she has a good sense of humor, has known how to manipulate the media since she was little more than a child and is simply having fun. There's nothing wrong with that.
Can't really make up my mind about Ms. Cyrus as I'm too old to know her music and career. But there's a part of me that thinks she has a good sense of humor, has known how to manipulate the media since she was little more than a child and is simply having fun. There's nothing wrong with that.
5
Lou Good:
We see a lot of middle aged men defending young women dressing like strippers as 'just good fun'.
Interesting that.
We see a lot of middle aged men defending young women dressing like strippers as 'just good fun'.
Interesting that.
4
No one is criticizing Grace Kelly's sexual behavior - she could have done it with dogs for all I care - but unlike the stars today, the stars back then were discreet and private. It's the lack of discretion that is so distasteful.
Unashamed Exuberance?
Seriously?
Unashamed Self-exploitation is more like it.
Does anybody remember class? And no I don't mean the academic kind.
Geez...
Seriously?
Unashamed Self-exploitation is more like it.
Does anybody remember class? And no I don't mean the academic kind.
Geez...
36
The word you're looking for is hypocrisy.
Easy, shallow judgment of others for superficial reasons taken way too seriously is not classy.
Easy, shallow judgment of others for superficial reasons taken way too seriously is not classy.
4
Self-exploitation? That's close to an oxymoron, isn't it? Don't we all exploit ourselves to get what we want?