What Was Really Wrong With Miley Cyrus on the VMAs

Posted on August 26, 2013 at 3:06 pm

Another VMA broadcast on MTV, another morning-after round of horrified reactions. This time, most of the criticism is focused on former Disney tween star Miley Cyrus, whose dance with Robin Thicke included the usual VMA trifecta for female performers: skimpy costumes (one ripped off to reveal an even skimpier one), lewd gestures, and raunchy gyrations.

A lot of people are fulminating about it today. Some are shocked, presumably those unfamiliar with either the VMAs or the trajectory of female tween stars who like to show everyone that they’ve grown up. It’s too bad that they so often think that means posing for what used to be called cheesecake photos and other signifiers of sexuality. Past generations gave children poor guidance by not giving them frank and honest information about sexuality and the result was guilt and repression. I am not sure the information we give the younger generation now is any more accurate. Now they feel guilty for not living up to some impossible icon of “sexiness.”

Some try to make it fit a bigger cultural picture. And there’s a predictable backlash to the backlash. That’s nonsense. She was not expressing herself. She was trying to fit into a distorted notion of what she was supposed to be based on the expectations of people who had no interest in her being herself. Just as with this summer’s “The To-Do List,” people are confusing empowerment with the acting out of externally imposed “norms” that are just as strict in their own way as 19th century strictures against any sexual contact.

For me, it was just sad. I find it hard to imagine that anyone found it sexy or entertaining. It felt calculated and desperate. There was no sense of playfulness or sensuality or pleasure.

It is painful to imagine the kind of pressure Miley Cyrus must be under as she transitions to another stage in her career. In a pre-show interview, she brought up the notorious Britney Spears/Madonna kiss and it was clear she was hoping to create that level of transgressive buzz. Instead, she must be embarrassed.

Miley’s fellow Disney alums Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato were also at the VMAs and both won awards. They were gracious and lovely. It is possible for a tween pop star to mature into a successful adult performer and still be cool.

Miley would be better off trying to follow their example than to try to be Lady Gaga, whose opening number last night should have alerted Miley to the risks of a brand based on “oh no, she didn’t!” Gaga’s 2010 meat dress was as hard an act to follow as Hannah Montana.

“Everything Else Was True” — “Catfishing” with Manti T’eo and on MTV

Posted on January 23, 2013 at 3:59 pm

Notre Dame football player Manti T’eo says that he was the victim of a heartless hoax. He thought he had a girlfriend who died of cancer. But no such person existed. Although he told people he had seen and spoken to her, it seems now as though his only contact with “her” was online.

This kind of fraud is now referred to as “catfishing,” based on the documentary that showed us a young man’s online relationship with a woman he thought was young, beautiful, and single, who turned out to be middle-aged and married. At the end of that film, her husband told a story.

They used to tank cod from Alaska all the way to China. They’d keep them in vats in the ship. By the time the codfish reached China, the flesh was mush and tasteless. So this guy came up with the idea that if you put these cods in these big vats, put some catfish in with them and the catfish will keep the cod agile. And there are those people who are catfish in life. And they keep you on your toes. They keep you guessing, they keep you thinking, they keep you fresh. And I thank god for the catfish because we would be droll, boring and dull if we didn’t have somebody nipping at our fin.

That young man was Nev Schulman, who now has a series on MTV about other “catfish” relationships. The episodes are heartbreaking, as over and over we see not just the pain of those who discover that they have been lied to, but the anguish of those who are desperate for intimacy and connection but do not believe that they can find it without misrepresenting themselves, and who don’t seem to understand that lying will just make them more isolated. “Everything else was true,” says one “catfisher,” who lied about his age, his photo, where he lived, and how many children he had.

Online relationships are inherently deceptive because we can’t help projecting more of our hopes and wishes than we realize onto the words on a screen. Parents should use the story of Manti T’eo and the “Catfish” television series to talk to teenagers about the importance of being careful.

MTV’s Movie Awards

Posted on June 4, 2012 at 9:13 am

They are brash, rude, silly, immature, and disrespectful, but the MTV Movie Awards are a lot of fun.

Over at the NPR blog Monkey See, Linda Holmes writes:

At the same time, there’s something to be said for these loose, largely fan-voted awards that dispense with awards like Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay (fans are not great at knowing what elements of a movie come from the director versus the screenwriter anyway) in favor of awards like … Best Kiss. Best Fight. And in some years, Best Scared-As-S—t Performance. (I kind of love the fact that last year, they nominated Ryan Reynolds in Buried in that category, because no, that movie isn’t great, but it’s creepy, and yes, he is scared.) And this year, they’re giving out Best Dirtbag. Well — it’s actually Best On-Screen Dirtbag. It’s probably easier to get somebody on stage to accept an award if the chyron doesn’t just say “Best Dirtbag: .”

While the Oscars are great at recognizing movies that have certain admirable qualities – distinctive and energetic acting, say, or beautifully stylized dialogue – they have never been nearly as good at recognizing the value of the entertainment side of moviegoing. They have been reticent to acknowledge on an institutional level that people go to the movies, much of the time, to experience something exhilarating. They go to laugh, to weep and swoon, to look at beautiful places, to be scared and excited and surprised. They don’t always go in order to see the most skilled artists at work. Sometimes they just want to be made to react.

It was a big year for “The Hunger Games.” Emma Stone was a highlight with her exceptionally thoughtful and gracious acceptance of the Trailblazer award and its message about blazing your own trails, and Fun. was a great choice for the kick-off song. This year’s winners are:

Movie of the Year
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1

Best Male Performance
Josh Hutcherson, The Hunger Games

Best Female Performance
Jennifer Lawrence, The Hunger Games

Breakthrough Performance
Shailene Woodley, The Descendants

Best Cast
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Best On-Screen Transformation
Elizabeth Banks, The Hunger Games

Best Fight
Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson vs. Alexander Ludwig, The Hunger Games

Best Kiss
Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1

Best On-Screen Dirtbag
Jennifer Aniston, Horrible Bosses

Best Music
“Party Rock Anthem,” LMFAO (21 Jump Street)

Best Comedic Performance
Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids

Most Gut-Wrenching Performance
The cast of Bridesmaids

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Awards

30 Years of The Best MTV Videos

Posted on August 16, 2011 at 3:55 pm

Time Magazine has a great list of the best music videos in the first three decades of MTV. It’s hard to believe now that MTV’s arrival was controversial because some people thought it would take away from the purity of audio-only enjoyment of music. It was more appropriately controversial because, incredibly, MTV overlooked black performers in its early days. But videos from the “King of Pop,” Michael Jackson, became among the most popular ever and its “Yo! MTV Raps” program was influential in the genre’s early days.

I’ve been watching MTV long enough to remember when their “we’ll try anything” attitude had them playing Madonna’s “True Blue” for 24 hours straight (as the VJ noted, it could have been worse — it could have been “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida“). That means I remember the days when it really was “music television” with music videos back-to-back.

Music videos have turned out to be as creative and boundary-shattering as the music that inspires them. Time has some of my favorites, including “A-Ha’s” great “Take On Me,” Peter Gabriel’s amazing “Sledgehammer,” Jamiroquai’s mind-bending “Virtual Insanity,” Fatboy Slim’s “Weapon of Choice” featuring a sensational dance performance from Christopher Walken, OK Go’s treadmill dance number in “Here It Goes Again,” and, of course, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and Beyonce’s “Single Ladies,” probably the two most famous videos of all time.

Here are a few of my favorites they missed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i9Mba9keHA&feature=related

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Music Television