Over the past two weeks, Sinead O’Connor has been reaching out to Miley Cyrus in an attempt to save Cyrus from being sexually exploited. Many former fans of the TV show Hannah Montana have expressed their concerns for Cyrus over Facebook and Twitter with hashtags such as #prayformiley. Even though Cyrus said she was a devout Christian when she entered the spotlight, I thought she was after what the world had to offer.
When she went on her first concert tour, she earned millions of dollars. After she finished the tour at the age of fifteen, she posed for Vanity Fair with a sheet covering her chest but exposing her back. When I was 15, I would have been too scared to pose in such risqué photos. Months later, Cyrus started dating a man five years her senior.
When she was seventeen, God blessed her with a role in a Nicholas Sparks movie. There she met her former fiancé Liam Hemsworth. At the time, there were rumors circulating that Cyrus would soon be attending PLNU. I personally applied to PLNU without even knowing about those rumors. Just months before her 18th birthday, Cyrus started straying from her good girl image.
Soon after, fans quickly started defending her until it got to the point where Disney said enough is enough and ended the Hannah Montana series. About the same time, Cyrus started smoking and drinking. Now Cyrus has strayed far away from her former Disney Channel persona and Christian faith.
Over the past year she has done things that most people would consider risqué. About a year ago, she started twerking and created the hashtag #MCtwerkteam, setting an example for at least 31 of the students of Scripps Ranch High School who made a viral twerking video. According to writer Anna Breslaw, the thirty-one students who participated in the twerking video got suspended and had some of their privileges taken away such as prom and walking at graduation. As someone who knows students at Scripps Ranch High School, I think that it is important to set an example for them, knowing that they may imitate my behavior.
Cyrus’ new songs “We Can’t Stop” and “Wrecking Ball” have suggestive lyrics such as, “Shaking it like we at a strip club,” “We all so turned up here,” “bout’ that life,” and “All I wanted was to break your walls.” Cyrus tried to make history at the VMAs when she danced inappropriately with Robin Thicke: a married man.
I am worried that Miley may be doing risqué things now just to have people pay attention to her. According to Huffpost Celebrity, Hemsworth, who had been with Cyrus for three years, said that he had enough of Cyrus’ attention seeking behavior. In Cyrus’ most recent music video “Wrecking Ball”, there are a few times when she is seen wearing no clothes.
Altogether, I think that we should look up to responsible adults who practice what they preach as role models and not idolize our peers as if they know what is best for us.
Grace Gaines