If you’re a parent of a 12-year-old girl, you don’t need to be told what was wrong with Miley Cyrus appearing in Vanity Fair wrapped in a satin bedsheet, shoulders and back bared. You already know that popular culture pressures kids to grow up fast, fast, fast. And now you have Exhibit A: A national magazine sexes up a 15-year-old girl and takes photos of her. With her parents’ permission.
Miley, the idol of preteens and the star of Disney Channel’s “Hannah Montana,” has apologized for the photos. But she’s the only one in this thing who has no culpability. She’s 15, and had a lot of adults telling her this was all a great idea.
“Annie [Leibovitz] took, like, a beautiful shot, and I thought that was really cool,” Miley says in the magazine. “That’s what she wanted me to do, and you can’t say no to Annie. She’s so cute. She gets this puppy-dog look and you’re like, O.K.”On the cover of Vanity Fair is a teaser headline: “Miley Cyrus takes off.”
Then came the outrage from parents of Hannah fans. And the apology from Miley. And the backtracking by Disney, defending a $1 billion franchise.
And still, the blow-back shows no sign of easing. That’s probably because parents feel betrayed. They had bought into Miley — some scalping tickets for $500 or more for performances. They had found a wholesome image for their girls. They appreciated a TV show where they could leave their kids unguarded and not be faced with uncomfortable questions afterward. The Miley photo shoot betrayed that trust.
Now what? First of all, this might be a good time to talk to kids about the difference between real life and what Hollywood churns out. They could mention that Miley’s a girl, just like them, and she makes decisions, some good, some bad. Getting tarted up to look a lot older than 15 is one of the latter.
Miley’s not the first to cross the line. Remember a 15-year-old Brooke Shields and the infamous campaign for Calvin Klein jeans? (“What comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.”) That campaign also drew outrage for its suggestiveness.
Yes, this will eventually blow over. Miley will grow up. So will her fans. Miley and her parents obviously are angling for a career beyond the ephemeral ‘tween idol. She’s even writing her memoirs — yes, that’s right, her memoirs — a landscape of an undeniably amazing life as seen from the vantage point not too many years removed from preschool. Talk about wanting to grow up too fast.
That’s the most regrettable part of this.
One day, not all that long from now, “Hannah Montana” will be just another television icon in reruns. Millions of girls will tuck away their memories of an innocent interlude between childhood and adolescence, before a complicated adult world intruded.
Our children grow up. It happens fast. We just wish that everything they saw on the screen didn’t tell them they should have grown up yesterday.
