On Sunday night, Wes Craven, the horror auteur who gave us “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and other classics, passed away.
At the same time the world heard this tragic news, a figure more terrifying than Freddy Krueger was all over MTV.
That figure, of course, is Miley Cyrus. Cyrus arrived to the 2015 Video Music Awards in clothing that barely hid anything. She showed off a nipple on live television. Her performance alongside an army of drag queens put the term “sexually-explicit” to shame. (RELATED: Miley Cyrus Flashes Her Nipple On Live Television)
It’s fair to say that music awards shows now exist solely to troll middle America. Witness the 2014 Grammys, which featured a large-scale gay marriage ceremony. This year’s VMAs just took the trolling up a notch, thanks to the help of the performer formerly known as Hannah Montana.
It’s easy to dismiss the former Disney star as just another purveyor of shock value for sales. But when you overlook the nipple pasties and bizarre get-ups, you actually have a singer whose views and behavior the left takes seriously.
Two years ago, Cyrus made headlines when she twerked on everything at the 2013 VMAs. Critics mainly from the right condemned her behavior as demeaning, but the female star found a few defenders on the left.
An article published in The New Republic derided Cyrus’s critics as slut shamers while Twerkghazi as a defiant act of empowerment. A columnist for The Washington Post concurred with this assessment.
In 2014, The Huffington Post declared Cyrus a “feminist icon” for her unapologetic display of female sexuality — which apparently means baring all and grinding on an old dude’s junk while the nation watches.
And many outlets loved the singer’s May 2015 comments in which she outlined her contempt for social conservatives, her libertine advocacy and revolt against her “conservative-ass” parents.
There’s even progressive fans of her campaign to “free the nipple.” Because “women’s breasts are not the problem. Sexual objectification is the problem.”
Call it prudery, call it intolerance, call it what you want — there’s something profoundly wrong going on here.
Pre-Twerkghazi, Cyrus was known to most people as the sweet Disney star behind Hannah Montana. Montana was depicted as a wholesome, all-American girl who loved her family and expressed Disney Channel-appropriate views. Now she’s the embodiment of cultural nihilism.
A major part of Cyrus’s appeal is how she completely inverts the old image of herself. She defies the wishes of her more conservative parents in favor of a lifestyle most Americans would disagree with. While we do live in a free country, that doesn’t mean the entire country should have the lifestyle forced down its throat.
But Cyrus’s left-wing fans love her for her ability to do just that.
The message expressed by Miley Cyrus and her progressive fans echoes the words of 2 Live Crew: you can be as nasty as you wanna be — and no one has a right to criticize you for it.
While some elites contemplate legalizing prostitution and Cyrus romps around on our TV screens, people who disagree with America’s cultural transformation are finding themselves no longer welcome in the public square. Take for instance what happens to those poor souls who refuse to bake cakes for gay weddings.
Americans’ love of liberty is being directed away from protecting free speech, religion and culture to ensuring that everyone cheers on the latest degradation. You’re free to do what you want, as long as what you want isn’t associated with the bad old days of Western civilization.
The temptation to dismiss Cyrus as another pop culture sideshow is strong, but ultimately wrong. She represents more of our current culture than some conservative critics would like to believe and is championed by progressives for this very reason.
For what we watch and listen to reveals much about ourselves and the values we aspire to.
And if Miley Cyrus is an icon, then what kind of nightmare are we living in?