After watching Merchants of Cool and learning that a stereotypical Midriff was a creation, made by marketers in order to target females that are prematurely adult, one female singer came into my mind. Miley Cyrus. Over the course of a few years, I was able to grow up alongside Miley Cyrus and see her transform from an innocent appearing southern girl, into a wild and carefree woman. As she was younger and reached her fame through the character Hannah Montana, we saw that her fans typically composed of the ages between 5 to 15. As she continued her career as Hannah Montana however, I was able to see that her popularity had declined. Today, she has made a comeback as a wild and carefree women who does not care about the opinions of others. In one of her songs she says, "Remember only god can judge ya, forget the haters, because somebody loves ya". Yes, Miley's intentional messages towards adolescence that it is okay to be unique and not to be ashamed of themselves because of societal norms is great. But, is the technique she uses in order to sell this message appropriate? Many critics have argued that Miley is the embodiment of the stereotypical Midriff. She, in my opinion, is exposing sex and drugs to prematurely adult females. This can be seen through her wild performances, her instagram accounts, her website, and all throughout the media. In her performances, she is basically nude, dances very sexually (twerks) , smokes weed, etc in order to tell young girls that it is okay to be unique. Is this really necessary? Apparently, yes. Although i don't agree with this technique, it is clearly effective with all the fame and money she is making. She is targeting girls are are maturing and are realizing their sexual desires so she tells them that it is okay to be able to express this desire.
Link to a video of her smoking a joint as she receives an award:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoF0PpgUalQ
I definitely think that Miley should have the freedom to dress and act however she wants, within of course the obvious contexts, but yes I do agree that the excessive amount of drug and sex glorification is perhaps not the best influence on younger girls. Yet, even if people do think that she embodies the stereotypical midriff personality I cannot help but notice that she is one of the few people that genuinely seem to be doing these things because she feels like that is who she is, less because of that is what society might find interesting or appealing. I think she is not very concerned about the influence that she has on young girls and more concerned with the her own age group. But, of course younger girls are going to see this and might take it the wrong way or misunderstand as something different, which can be very easily done with even older girls.
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