In several weeks, former child star and pop sensation Miley Cyrus will host and perform the second episode of the 39th season of Saturday Night Live. This appearance will be the latest of Cyrus’s media blitz that includes her now notoriously controversial performance at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards.
The debate about Cyrus should not be about what she’s doing right by American women. It should be about whether she’s commodifying women of color and twisting herself into another roadblock for intersectionality in feminism.
Let’s recall her performance at this year’s VMAs with R&B singer Robin Thicke. The casual racist attitude of the performance is unnerving — women of color dressed up as animals and danced around Cyrus while she sang her summer hit, “We Can’t Stop,” and twerked. Mind you, Cyrus has claimed that she’s invented this dance move despite the fact that it has been practiced for years by black artists and musicians.
On top of this, Cyrus is a propagator of a so-called ratchet culture — a lifestyle associated with lower-class people of color. Timothy Thomas, one of the songwriters for Cyrus’s most recent album, told Vibe Magazine that she said,“‘I want urban, I just want something that just feels black.’”
I don’t believe that Cyrus should be condemned for exploring her adult sexuality in front of the probing gaze of the paparazzi and mass media. However, I think it’s a stretch to assume that what she’s doing is intentionally feminist. Her behavior more closely resembles that of a toddler acting out to receive attention — not condemnable, but not particularly groundbreaking either.
In either case, how would her behavior advance feminism in a positive direction? Women are not defined by their bodies, and they should not be policed for their attire or shape. But there is a line between standing up to cultural statutes that dictate how much clothing a woman is required to wear and reacting to admittedly unfair limitations on her behavior for years as a child star. What she’s doing is not for the advancement of the female gender. It’s simply for her. How am I, as a woman, supposed to believe that any man who saw Cyrus’s performance at the VMAs is going to respect me more as a result?
Furthermore, feminism that lacks intersectionality is worthless. Cyrus treats black culture as if it is a stylish jacket that can be worn when it’s trendy and taken off as soon as it becomes burdensome. Culture shouldn’t be treated as a trend — much less when Cyrus has never had to deal with the societal burden of being a woman of color in America.
White middle-class women have been driving feminism for decades. It’s clear that Cyrus is attempting to forge a new identity for herself as a result of the confines of her childhood fame, but in order to do so she must understand that cultures different from her own are not to be used to accessorize her music or her videos. Cyrus’s appropriation for the sake of rebellion only serves to add more bricks to the wall, keeping intersectionality out of the feminist movement.
A version of this article appeared in the Thursday, Sept. 12 print edition. Kaidia Pickels is a contributing columnist. Email her at [email protected].