Unlike many other 20-somethings (curious 30-somethings, desperate 40-somethings, and Betty White), I didn’t actually watch the MTV Video Music Awards live, which should surprise you because I had planned out an epic set list for *NSYNC. ...Please don’t ask me my feelings about their performance; my inner eight-year-old will never be too old for immaturely slamming the door in your face.
On my casual Internet surfing the next day I couldn’t get escape all the articles about Miley Cyrus’ performance with Robin Thicke. I read all the rants, accusations, exercises in devil’s advocacy, and threatening letters from all three die-hard “Achy Breaky Heart” fans before I decided I needed to see this reputed ratchet hot mess for myself. It didn’t disappoint.
I saw some creepy teddy bears that gave me a Toy Story 3 Lost-o’-Huggin’ Bear vibe. I spotted Miley in a onesie and with those weird pigtails typically reserved for infants who can’t swat their mothers’ idle hands away. I saw sad attempts at twerking. I witnessed Robin Thicke rush on stage right after his shift at Foot Locker ended.
While I was watching, all kinds of alarms were going off in my mind. The racist undertones, the sense of superiority and delusions of grandeur that come of being a white girl who can’t dance (I speak from experience), the objectification of oneself and the derrieres of others, and where the blurred line of infidelity is drawn (I think Paula Patton could take Miley). Perhaps what was really truly tested above and beyond all those was my gag reflex. All things considered, I was surprised how harsh some writers, bloggers, and tweeters have been about the whole incident.
Let’s be honest for a second: how much do we all really care about music videos, beyond bitching that MTV doesn’t play them much anymore? Sure, some uncannily turn out exactly like we planned when we first heard a song or they get us riled up because they offend our principles or they give us a girl crush we didn’t know we had (you win, Selena Gomez), but the VMAs has a reputation for being a controversial show—that’s how it gets the hype it does every year. Let’s face it: the VMAs make the Grammy’s look like the Granny’s.
I’m not suggesting that gives artists the license to be offensive, tasteless, or self-indulgent, and there are plenty of ways to put on an amazing show without going the scantily-clad twerking route, but we’re a culture that communicates in GIFs. A certain amount of this exhibitionism for its own sake is to be expected because we encourage it.
Generating these op-ed pieces and Twitter rants is exactly the kind of reaction MTV wants to encourage. They’re subliminally planting the seed of, “Good golly, remember when Miley wore that heinous outfit and twerked against an elongated (in more ways than one) Robin Thicke? How could they top that next year?!”
Even beyond that, when did we start holding MTV, musicians, bands, and singers accountable for being beacons of morality? They’re human beings just like any of the rest of us, and sure, maybe they should be a little more sensitive since they have millions of Twitter followers emulating their every move, but is it fair for us to put that pressure on them when we ourselves are guilty of marginalizing someone, somewhere, sometime, even if it’s just among our BFFs in private?
I didn’t like Miley’s performance. It made me feel like I had hepatitis and briefly made me look into becoming a Puritan, but despite that, at no point did I feel compelled take her aside and scold her. I brushed off the spectacle in the same manner I’d brush off a girl in a bar acting out because she had a few too many appletinis and thought she was doing something cool. I don’t think that makes me a part of the problem, or someone who’s insensitive. The MTV Video Music Awards is not my moral compass, and while you’re entitled to get up in arms about anything you choose, for this latest celebrity debacle, I’m embracing the philosophy: consider the source.
