Miley Cyrus meet Marcia Brady
July 23, 2009
by Amy Siskind
|This piece is cross-posted from The Huffington Post.
Miley Cyrus in ELLE
I feel a conversation coming on. Yet again.
I’ve already had way too many conversations with my daughter well before the appropriate age. How many more times will the actions of our teenage tv stars prompt discussions on topics well before their time?
Miley Cyrus, aka “Hannah Montana” of the Disney Channel, is in the news again. Click here to see the Miley Cyrus that our young children see on their early evening tv shows. Barely recognizable to the “slutty and ready” version of Miley in this months ELLE.
I already had to have “the discussion” with my daughter last year when Miley posed in Vanity Fair. Miley said the Vanity Fair spread embarrassed her. Well as a mother, it embarrassed me that I had to discuss her pose with my then 10 year-old daughter who was quite curious why a star like “Hannah Montana” would want to do such a thing.
And its not only Miley. My daughter has other teen role models like Jamie Lynn Spears from the tv show Zoey 101 on Nickelodeon. Jamie Lynn got pregnant last year – which led to another premature discussion with my daughter about teenage sex and pregnancy. Oh and now we get to discuss Jamie Lynn’s decision to not marry her boyfriend. To say nothing of the conversations I have had to have about Jamie Lynn’s older sister Britney regarding drugs and mental illness.
Which makes me wonder – what ever happened to Marcia Brady? I grew up watching the Brady Bunch and Gilligan’s Island. When stars like Marcia had dramas in their personal lives, those dramas stayed in their personal lives. And on air, the Brady Bunch girls were such goody too-shoes that I could only aspire to be that well behaved.
But beyond the premature discussions, the ELLE photo reveals a much larger problem: the sexualization of our teenage daughters. Our daughters are growing up seeing their teen idols judged as sexual objects. How does a parent possibly explain to a teenage girl what the ELLE photo means -and DON’T tell me they won’t see it – they will – it’s called the internet.
What are these teenage role model demonstrating to our daughters? That a girl’s value is not derived from studying so she can attend a prestigious university. Or derived from practicing an instrument so she can perform in the Philharmonic. Or derived from playing team sports so she can become a professional basketball player. No. The glamour is in being scantily clad and becoming a sexual object.
This infuriates me as a parent – as well, I imagine, it does for millions of mothers and fathers in this country. How are we supposed to raise our teenage daughters to have a positive self image when the mediums around them reflect back this sexual imagery? Who is letting us down here? Disney and Nickelodeon for allowing their teen stars to appear in this manner? Vanity Fair and ELLE for encouraging underage girls to pose in a compromising position? The parents of the stars?
When do we as parents collectively put our feet down and say enough! Sexualizing our teenage girl sells, but we’re not buying it!!!
Because the tragedy is that we are raising a generation of girls that view themselves as sexual objects. And so, should we be surprised by these statistics:
- 1 in 3 female teenagers in a dating relationship has feared for her physical safety;
- 1 in 2 teenagers in a serious relationship has compromised personal beliefs to please a partner; and
- 1 in 5 teenagers in a serious relationship reports having been hit, slapped, or pushed by a partner.
Of course we should not be surprised. We are teaching our daughters that their self worth is solely derived by how they look and how scantily clad they can dress.
Where, oh where, is Marcia Brady?
Funny, I was just thinking about the Disney Channel. One thing that disturbs me in connection with what you said, is how many of the girls on Disney are dressed like 30 year old women who work at Conde Naste. They all seem to have very expensive looking hair dos. Some of them wear stilletos. Expensive looking and trendy silk tank tops. The girl from “Sonny” is always dressed like a chic thirty something. This used be just the case for models. 13 year old models have been long portrayed as twenty somethings and etc. But now it is our young actors who are being sexed up and aged up. And young female actors have way more influence over young girls than anonymous young models. This is definitely a serious problem.
Oh, and the young brother on Hannah Montana? Just gross. He’s presented as an ugly yet studly 12 year old boy who is always sexualizing girls 4 – 8 years older than himself. He doesn’t need good looks or a great personality. Just conniving to get hot older teen girls to give him the attention he wants. What a male fantasy to present to young boys and young girls.
Miley Cyrus is a television staple in our household. My daughter and I enjoy watching Hannah Montanah and we enjoyed her latest movie. Whenever I see pictures of her out an about (thanks to a diligent paparazzi) she is always dressed age appropriately (i.e. jeans and a t-shirt). Disney dresses her in spangly tops with leggings but never in anything too revealing. Even when she is at high glamor events, she sparkles but doesn’t fall out of her outfit either in front or in back.
I don’t know who has the final say regarding a magazine photo for a spread in an adult fashion mag like Vanity Fair and Elle. I get the feeling that she, her parents, or her agent don’t. Why would she be “embarrassed” from her Vanity Fair pic if she had chosen it. For all we know she could have had 100 pics taken of her in a girly frock and 2 in a sexy pose, and the mag went for the sexy because they believed it would sell more mags. For me it is more of the pose and the “come hither” look that is distressing than her clothing. She could be wearing that exact same black dress and boots, and be in a rock “air guitar” pose and not look seductive.
Money ultimately talks and if we object to the pictures that we see of these young starlets, then don’t buy the magazines, make it known that we won’t stand for this kind of photograph of a young woman in our own ad campaign, and then buy the stuff that makes her look her age. We have to start somewhere.
[...] my daughter well before the appropriate age. How many more times will the actions of our … http://thenewagenda.net/2009/0.....cia-brady/ Daily [...]
Disturbing trend. And I think the only thing that remains to be done, at this point, is to talk-talk-talk-talk to our daughters. Tell them the truth about what is happening.
Cuz this is not only happening to Disney stars. Every young woman, everywhere, feels the intense pressure to be a “sexualized worker.” Just look at the girls behind the Panera counter, if you don’t believe me.
My own daughter is 20. She is of the generation between Marcia Brady and Miley Cyrus. Her own star eroes were Mary Kate and Ashley. Yikes! Look at what has happened to them!! We talk about it often… how focusing on only your looks can kill you.
SYD
I only have boys.
I can not imagine having to explain that crap to a daughter.It is hard enough trying to explain it to a 10 yr old boy,the what’s and why’s of how his TV show stars are getting pregnant and running around half naked.We really worry about the girls but it is the boys that are learning very bad lessons as well from these things.They are learning from an earlier and earlier age that it is okay to sexualize females and that they are only objects.
I learned two things growing up,either be pretty and a man to take care of you or work your tail off and be independent at the risk of “being alone for the rest of your life” because ” no man wants a woman like that”.
I think Amy says it so well, and just really hits the nail on the head when she says “Women’s issues are men’s issues”.
And this is definitely one of those issues.
Reallythe onlything you can doas parents is to be there to discuss these things with your children in a healthy manner.As a group we can boycott such shows making a clear statement to the companies producing these programs,the actors/actresses, and the gross mangers that allow such things to happen,that we will not fund such things.
Oh yeah and boycott and write the HELL out of Vanity Fair and Elle for expoliting a child.
Because that is what is happening they are exploiting a children for sales and for fashion.
Just gross!
Jessica,
I have a young son too and I think it is just as important that we educate our sons as our daughters. The rates are shocking and escalating. We need to raise our boys and teach them to be men, not bullies.
Exactly Amy.
And it is not just about teaching them not to be bullies.But it also falls along the line of teaching them their own self worth same as girls.
When a man respects himself and is comfortable with himself he there fore treats women (people)the same way.We need teach our boys the same lessons we should be teaching our girl’s.Self respect and self love.And images like this along with what kids talk about amongst themselves can be very dangerous to how they see the world around them.
Jessica- you are so right- as the father of two young adult boys, I see the issues from a boys perspective and it isnt pretty. Fortunately my boys have their heads on correctly but some of their friends…their fathers have dropped the ball I am afraid. If Billy Ray approved the Elle photos shame on him. As the resident guy poster here, I have got to say that the absence of a strong moral father in many homes is causing a major disservice to our young men and creating yet another generation of sexist males
Amen to this!
Leave your Response
Supporting women.
Ending sexism.
Finding common ground.
We’re in the Media »
Click to see our latest stories in the media
More Stories »Recent Comments
The Latest from our Blog
Archives
Blogroll
Find the New Agenda Online
Subscribe Entries (RSS) | Comments (RSS)
The New Agenda is a 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls by bringing about systemic change in the media, at the workplace, at school and at home. More...