How do you explain the "Miley Cyrus Vanity photos" to your kids?
April 29, 2008 by Grace Ibay
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
This is a little bit off-topic for Kids Health Notes, but just a little bit, as you’ll see.
Wholesome teen celebrity and Disney sensation Miley Cyrus (aka Hannah Montana) had a controversial photo shoot with Vanity Fair magazine, showing her seemingly topless, covered only with a sheet. PLUS, photos of her surfaced on the web, including some of her on a boy’s lap, and in a kissing-pose with a female friend. Miley herself had apologized for the photos, and said she was embarrassed and ‘let her fans and herself down’.
My friends who have tween children had a heated discussion about the Miley photos. Some were turned off because she is only 15 years old, and these moms were upset that she broke her wholesome image. Some were shocked that her parents and whole family were there during the Annie Liebowitz photo shoot, and allowed their daughter to pose topless. Other moms however reasoned that she was ‘clothed’, and the photos were artistically done. Besides, teenagers experiment with taking saucy photos of themselves and their friends, that these parents said these are normal for teenagers to do. Well, the other camp is outraged that teen celebrities are sensitizing our children into bad sexual decisions later on life. Parents also talked about the influence of the internet. Maybe Miley and her friends didn’t mean for these photos to be made public, but one click and it is.
WHAT DO YOU SAY?
If you’re child saw these pictures of ‘Hannah Montana’, how do you deal with it?
Discuss below.
OK…I’ll bite and make the first comment. I don’t think the pictures were appropriate. She is 15. Not 25. Not even 17-18 and ‘on the verge’ of being an adult. Certainly Annie Leibowitz does stunning, artistic work. But I don’t think this type of ‘artistry’ is right for a young girl….expecially one who makes her millions with a squeaky clean image and parents who are constantly talking about how they protect her from the Lindsays and Paris’ of the world.
Miley apologized. I don’t think she needs to apologize. I think it was her parents’ and her handler’s responsibility to protect her from something like this.
As for the other pics on the internet of her and her boyfriend….I don’t think she needs to apologize for those….they strike me as a 15 year old posing for the camera. Sure she shows her tummy, sure she shows her bra strap…but it seems like she is just a 15 year old wanting to grow up.
As compared to the Vanity Fair pics….where she looks like she just rolled out of bed…and not in her pjs.
OK..I’m done.