By Lisa DiCarlucci
A recent photo shoot involving Miley Cyrus has become the latest scandal in young Hollywood. This past week, Cyrus, better known to some as “Hannah Montana,” was chastised for a particular photo where she was covered in just a sheet with her back exposed.
The photo was taken by renowned photographer, Annie Leibovitz, for the June issue of “Vanity Fair,” and was revealed only days after photos of her in her bra were found on the Internet.
Cyrus’ publicist issued a statement saying that she was “embarrassed” by the photos and alluded to the fact that they did not turn out as she had expected them to.
“I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be ‘artistic,’ and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed…. I never intended for any of this to happen and I apologize to my fans that I care so deeply about,” said Cyrus, age 15.
Representatives of “Vanity Fair” have responded to this statement by saying that both Cyrus and her parents saw the photos while on the set and gave positive feedback about them. It seems that all parties involved were well aware of the circumstances of the photo shoot and some poor decisions were made on all parts.
The fact is there is no reason a 15-year-old girl should be sexualized with her parents’ consent. This is a young woman who is looked up to by girls as young as four or five and one has to wonder what kind of message it sends when their favorite starlet is featured in such a way in a magazine geared towards an adult audience. In the article Cyrus is also quoted as saying that “Sex and the City” is her favorite show. “I love it,” she told the magazine.
People wonder why young girls have such a skewed sense of self and what to look for in a role model and this seems to make it quite clear. This past year, Jamie Lynn Spears, the 16-year-old Nickelodeon star got pregnant, while her big sister had more stints in rehab than the amount of men who have spent a night in Paris (Hilton, that is).
Lindsay Lohan snorts coke, bared it all as a pseudo-Marilyn Monroe and got arrested twice in 2007 alone. These club hopping, promiscuous, barely legal (if at all) girls are what today’s young women aspire to be like. And it’s pretty troubling. Their scandals overwhelm the news media and can easily share the same page in the newspaper as the war in Iraq or the 2008 elections.
These celebrities are given attention and young girls are given the impression that what Paris and Nicole did at the clubs last night is equally important to world politics.
Cyrus is the most recent and probably least troubling of the bunch to fall into this media frenzy, but it just goes to show that even Disney Channel starlets aren’t an exception to the rule.
In a sexually charged, drug and alcohol, media-obsessed culture, young girls are going to need all the help they can get to make it out with their heads on straight.