She’s just being Miley

Welcome to the latest installment of Former Disney Stars Gone Wild, featuring none other than Hannah Montana.

Miley Cyrus’s newest video for her single “We Can’t Stop” is her latest attempt, post Vanity Fair sheet scandal, to distance herself from the squeaky clean Disney child star image she grew up with. Admittedly, it is difficult to prove yourself as a “serious” artist or real pop star when you are known for playing a pretend one on TV. I am all for artist’s desire to broaden their audience and change their image – think Nicki Minaj’s successful foray into pop music in the last few years. Miley’s attempt to do so falls flat musically.

But this article isn’t about the music; it’s about the video (see above). In what seems to be an attempt to recreate the website Tumblr as a physical entity, we have Miley in leotards, smashing a skull made out of french fries (god bless the poor intern that had to create that thing), wearing grills, sporting a giant teddy bear backpack, girl fights in pools, stationary work out bikes, graphics from the 90s, and twerking. Oh the twerking. “We Can’t Stop” was produced by Mike WiLL Made-It, a notable hip hop producer who also produced “Bandz A Make Her Dance,” with Juicy-J – which, interestingly enough, was originally written for Rihanna. Just a little fun fact on that.

But what Miley’s doing in this song – and the video – really isn’t that rebellious. By name checking black pop culture – wearing a grill, repeating the phrase “turnt up” and “bout dat lyfe,” and twerking –  she is following a long tradition of white artists name dropping black culture to gain fame and popularity. We’re not the first to take notice. Miley is already being slammed by many feminist blogs and websites for her cultural appropriation, which is when someone takes a style of dress, or a type of performance from a minority group. The problem with cultural appropriation is when the person who appropriates it is a member of the mainstream culture and is appreciated for their “edgy” or “daring” behavior or look, while the minority culture they are appropriating it from is looked down upon for doing the same.

Example: Selena Gomez’s performance on “Ellen” of her new single “Come and Get It”, in which she dons a bindi, an important symbol in the Hindu religion. Indian writer Jaya Bedi writes: “A  pop star like Selena Gomez wearing one [a bindi] is guaranteed to be better received than I would if I were  to step out of the house rocking a dot on my forehead. On her, it’s a bold new look; on me, it’s a symbol of my failure to assimilate. On her, it’s unquestionably cool; on me, it’s…another thing that makes me different from other American girls.”

Yet, in the video, Miley hired dancers, women of color, that clearly know how to twerk and included them in multiple scenes. They are not just her back up dancers (sorry Miley, they do outshine you) but interact with her playfully throughout their scenes. So, unlike Selena Gomez’s obvious appropriation of the bindi, Miley’s is a little bit more complicated. Now, you’re probably wondering: Isn’t it okay for her to try to show her appreciation for twerking? I think so. The problem here doesn’t happen on an individual level – it’s not Miley’s fault- but on a cultural one. When Miley twerks, she is rewarded with praise by the media – like Gomez- yet, the black women who originated twerking receive no such recognition.

 

If you Google twerking, there are no front page stories on EW.com or MTV praising the skills of black women twerking. No, the articles are about Miley Cyrus. There is no media recognition or praise for black women who engage in a style of dance they created. In a on YouTube featuring two young black women that has over a million hits, the comments are largely disparaging. For instance: “if you worked and studied as hard as you shake that ass you could get out the ghetto.” Or: “these are sad uneducated people that have no idea who they are and just think they are being cool.”  When black women twerk, it is seen as indicative of being poor or low class and fulfilling negative stereotypes about black people. When Miley Cyrus twerks, it is seen as something cool.

I’m not saying this is Miley’s fault – I think that her video, and inclusion of the women who can do it a lot better than her shows an attempt to appreciate, rather than appropriate, culture. But pop music isn’t made in a vacuum and the way the video is produced makes the women look more like her accessories than her friends.

Leave the twerking to the professionals, Miley.

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Sidenote: Mashable came up with a list of their 15 weirdest moments.

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