Context: The general that lends meaning to the specific.
Yesterday, USA Today featured an article on Miley Cyrus.
According to the article, which discusses her upcoming promotional
documentary, Miley Cyrus has no regrets about the way she’s behaving
because her real goal is to make history.
“You want to make history. … Everything’s about what’s going to be the big moment in pop culture.“
Anytime you approach something single-mindedly and resolutely, there will be fall out.
In this case, Miley’s #1 context is to ‘make history’ and ‘be
famous’. That context dictates what she says, what she does, what she
considers, and how she behaves. The fallout is that Miley Cyrus’
behavior is so outrageous and not respected that she is losing her moral
authority as an artist (if she ever had it).
Her context means you can expect anything from her, as long as it’s
so outrageous that she makes history. Our behavior has to fit our
context. It doesn’t matter what people say or think, as long as Miley
Cyrus is the one in the spotlight.
With one word, Miley Cyrus deepened her individuality — and her dating pool.
“I’m pansexual,” the 22-year-old singer says in the October issue of Elle UK, on sale Thursday.
The term covers the sexual attraction to people of any sex or gender
identity. In other words, the button- and tongue-pushing pop queen’s
bedroom comes with an all-access pass.
“Calling oneself pansexual is opening up to every human possibility,” says Jennifer Bass, communications director at the Kinsey Institute, a longtime temple of sex research, in Bloomington, Ind. MILEY CYRUS PASSES LIT JOINT IN PRESS ROOM AT THE VMAS
Miley Cyrus speaks onstage during the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards held at Microsoft Theater on August 30, 2015 in Los Angeles.
(Michael Tran/FilmMagic)
Miley Cyrus speaks onstage during the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards held at Microsoft Theater on August 30, 2015 in Los Angeles.
(Michael Tran/FilmMagic)
“It’s an attempt to be inclusive and to step outside of conventional categories people are put into,” she adds.
And the fearless Twerking Girl said as much in a Paper mag interview, without using the actual term “pansexual.”
The word, which is relatively under-the-radar if you’re not a sex
researcher, sends a message as clear and direct as a wrecking ball.
While bisexuality suggests two genders, Cyrus’s latest personal label of
choice is gender-blind.
Are you straight? Gay? Bi? Questioning? Transitioning? Let’s party.
Actor Liam Hemsworth and Miley Cyrus arrive at the premiere of Touchstone Picture's "The Last Song" in 2010.
(Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
MILEY CYRUS FLASHES AUDIENCE AT THE VMAS
Cyrus is open to men (like hunky actor and ex-fiance Liam Hemsworth). And women (like stunning model Stella Maxwell,
who she’s romanced). As well as transgender men and women who may not
even identify as male or female (stay tuned). Bottom line: Former Disney
star joneses for everyone.
And, yes, pansexuality is a thing. There’s even a flag for it —
horizontal stripes in pink, yellow and blue — which has been waved since
about 2010.
The label isn’t new, but in the age of the Millenial, in which individuality looms XXL, it’s coming out of the shadows.
11 photos view gallery
Miley's outfits during the 2015 MTV VMAs
NICKI MINAJ LAUNCHES FEUD WITH VMAS HOST MILEY CYRUS
While there are no hard statistics on pansexuality, experts say a broad
ballpark figure could be between 1 and 2 percent of the general
population.
“It would be a small portion of those who might have thought of
themselves as bisexual at one time,” says Virginia psychologist and
certified sex therapist Geoffrey Michaelson.
“A pansexual might think the term bisexual is limiting and not
inclusive of their ability to have love for and sex with a transman or
transfemale. They feel open to all.”
Pansexual flag
Like Cyrus. The pop performer joins Texas legislator Mary Gonzalez, 32, who traded her bisexual label for a pansexual one three years ago.
“As I started to recognize the gender spectrum and dated along the
gender spectrum, I was searching for words that connected to that
reality, for words that embraced the spectrum,” Gonzalez explained in
2012.
MILEY CYRUS LEADS THE VMAS RED CARPET CIRCUS
Still, it’s a bold declaration by Cyrus, who’s never been shy about discussing her own sexuality going every which way.
82 photos view gallery
Miley Cyrus' most attention-seeking moments
“I am literally open to every single thing that is consenting and
doesn’t involve an animal and everyone is of age,” she said in the
summer issue of Paper, out a couple months ago.
“Everything that’s legal, I’m down with,” she added. “Yo, I’m down with
any adult — anyone over the age of 18 who is down to love me. I don’t
relate to being boy or girl, and I don’t have to have my partner relate
to boy or girl.”
In Elle UK, Cyrus says that she’s “very open” to her pansexuality. “But
I’m not in a relationship. I’m 22, I’m going on dates, but I change my
style every two weeks, let alone who I’m with.”
Indeed, change is a constant for one-time “Hannah Montana” star who
emceed Sunday night’s MTV Video Music Awards in a parade of freewheeling
— and at times freakish — outfits that screamed anything goes. Make
that, everything goes.
Stella Maxwell and Miley Cyrus. Image from Miley Cyrus instagram page.
(Instagram)
“What Miley’s saying is, ‘Don’t pigeonhole me. I’m an individual,’”
Michaelson says. “That’s part of her fantastic appeal as a person and as
a human being. She’s thinking outside of categories and bringing her
individuality to the sexual arena.
“That’s pretty good for our tolerance and our compassion toward people
who are different from us,” he adds. “Under it all, Miley’s simply
saying, ‘I’m me.’”
And she used the VMAs as a platform for others who just want to be themselves. She ended the broadcast with a performance of her new song “Dooo It!” that was introduced by a group of transgender young people.
And to anyone who thinks Cyrus’ all-inclusive sexual appetite amounts
to gluttony, Michaelson says, “She’s not being greedy. She’s just being
Miley.”
Miley Cyrus used the VMAs to announce the surprise release of her 23-track album, made with The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne. But how does it sound?
Miley Cyrus … now making sprawling and frank psychpop. Photograph: Kevin Mazur/WireImage/MTV1415
There aren’t many pop stars in the industry quite like Miley Cyrus. Namely, there don’t seem to be any former teenybopper Disney singers able to wield as much creative freedom as she does on this sprawling, 23-song album. Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz, surprise-released after Cyrus hosted this year’s MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday 30 August, completes her transformation into dual-identity star: both provocative tween idol and free-wheeling chaser of the muse.
Her fifth album presents Cyrus as the colourful, twisted and self-dubbed pansexual, the furthest removed she’s yet been from the Hannah Montana persona that made her famous. If you’re not up to speed with her latest topless Instagram selfies or various interviews addressing body dysmorphia and sexual fluidity, Cyrus uses this album to tackle the extreme highs and lows of love and death, careening from crisp synthpop and trap to a woozy, buzzing psychedelia.
You can hear lead producer Wayne Coyne’s hand all over Dead Petz. The Flaming Lips frontman shares production duties with the rest of his band, as well as hip-hop hitmaker Mike Will Made It, Cyrus’s core collaborator on her all-grown-up-now RCA debut Bangerz. The results ping back and forth between all of Cyrus’s different guises.
There are still the hints of the hip-hop and trap pastiches from Bangerz. Cyrus’s distorted voice screams: “Yeah, I smoke pot / yeah, I love peace / but I don’t give a fuck / I ain’t no hippie,” before opener Dooo It! flips from sub-bass rumbles into a boombap coda – and you can hear hints of MIA’s abrasive bravado throughout. The Floyd Song (Sunrise), written for a pet dog that died in April 2014 while Cyrus was on tour, meshes acoustic guitar, zapping electronics and warm synth pads in a way that almost sounds like Cyrus fronting a Flaming Lips cover band. This isn’t her first time working with the band, and when they co-produce they opt for full-on synthpop shimmer. They smother tracks like Tangerine in processed sounds indebted to 80s pop and the Flaming Lips’ own unhinged psychpop. Miley Cyrus: Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz album stream
You get the impression that although Bangerz was painted as Cyrus’s break from the cutesy constraints of Hannah Montana and Disney, Dead Petz really allows her to experiment. She’s making Hype Machine-ready synthpop rather than acting out a pseudo-twerking, tongue-wagging rap caricature that courts the charts. Quoting her own team of advisers, in a New York Times profile about the making of Dead Petz, Cyrus said they had “never seen someone at my level, especially a woman, have this much freedom. I literally can do whatever I want. It’s insane.”
And she’s right. This album is definitely too long, and starts to meander into bonus-track territory just over the halfway mark, but marks an important signpost in her career. It’s hard to imagine many other artists signed to Disney’s Hollywood Records label who could convincingly make music that flirts with Metronomy-style bassline riffing (on cunnilingus anthem Bang Me Box) and then sounds like Die Antwoord or a PC Music reject on 46-second interlude I’m So Drunk. Unlike Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato and other former Nickelodeon or Disney performers, Cyrus has been afforded the privilege of collaborating with producers and musicians who let her make whatever the hell she wants. Even her label, RCA, aren’t fussed. Dead Petz won’t count towards her multi-album deal with them, but they’ve happily let her skip off and do it, saying they’re “pleased to support Miley’s unique musical vision”, in a statement to the New York Times.
You may not have the patience to set aside an hour and a half for Cyrus singing about her past hook-ups, clingy lovers, and dead pet dog and blowfish – especially when this psychpop mish-mash slips close to lyrical self-parody during its most frank moments. But there’s a sweetness to her naivety. After a childhood lived in the spotlight, Dead Petz feels like the first time Cyrus has truly let her guard down in song, Wrecking Ball and all. She’s mastering her voice, belting it out on closer Twinkle Song or letting it crack with emotion on Pablow the Blowfish, and doing so on her own terms. In her corner of the industry, that’s saying something.
Miley Cyrus has revealed that she told her mum she was bisexual at the age of 14. The singer also claimed that her religious parents, who she describes at one point as “conservative ass motherfuckers”, found it difficult to accept at first.
“I remember telling her I admire women in a different way. And she asked me what that meant. And I said, I love them. I love them like I love boys,” Miley said to Paper Mag.
The Wrecking Ball star, who was breaking out as Disney star Hannah Montana at the time, added: “It was so hard for her to understand. She didn’t want me to be judged and she didn’t want me to go to hell. But she believes in me more than she believes in any god. I just asked for her to accept me. And she has.”
Back in May, Cyrus gave an interview to promote her Happy Hippie Foundation, which strives to help homeless and LGBT youth, in which she said that not all of her relationships had been “straight, heterosexual ones”.
But in this most recent interview, Cyrus explains that she is open to a variety of sexual relationships. She said: “I am literally open to every single thing that is consenting and doesn’t involve an animal and everyone is of age. Everything that’s legal, I’m down with. Yo, I’m down with any adult - anyone over the age of 18 who is down to love me. I don’t relate to being boy or girl, and I don’t have to have my partner relate to boy or girl.”
Cyrus adds that she’s had past relationships with women, but that they haven’t been brought into the media spotlight like her relationships with men.
Elsewhere in the interview, Cyrus says that she was inspired to set up a homeless charity after accepting the huge disparity between her life and the lives of others. She said: “I can’t drive by in my fucking Porsche and not fucking do something. I see it all day: people in their Bentleys and their Rolls and their Ubers, driving past these vets who have fought for our country, or these young women who have been raped. I was doing a show two nights ago, and I was wearing butterfly nipple pasties and butterfly wings. I’m standing there with my tits out, dressed like a butterfly. How the fuck is that fair? How am I so lucky?”
Miley Cyrus killed Hannah Montana using a potent combination of sexuality, foam fingers and marijuana. And it happened right in front of our eyes.
Her transformation began exactly two years ago, when she caused international outrage by twerking her butt off against Robin Thicke's crotch during the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. The performance came across as desperate, a suggestion that she was willing to do anything to break free from the shackles of her Disney-sweetheart alter ego.
But two years later, as she gears up to host tonight's VMAs ceremony, we know how wrong we were. It has become remarkably clear that Miley is much smarter than anyone initially gave her credit for.
Scott Gries/Invision/AP
She may have stuck a fork in Hannah Montana that night, but she reinvented Miley Cyrus.
Here are five things we're loving about Miley 2.0:
Ethan Miller/Getty Images for Clear Channel
She Outwitted Her Critics:
For a while, Miley's spree of candid marijuana talk, twerking and tongue-wagging gave the impression she needed to come with a permanent NC-17 warning. And we weren't the only ones who thought so. In her recent New York Times interview, Miley admitted: "People that I really loved and thought were my friends judged me for it. They were like, ‘You were on drugs when you did that performance.' I did nothing! I still don't get it."
But Miley decided to use the harsh response to her advantage: "I knew who I was, and I knew the power that I held, but I don't think I realized my full power until that show," she told the NYT. "I didn't realize I could make such a big reaction. I didn't think that many people would care. I knew I was famous, but I didn't know what that meant. Everything was coming to an end and starting a new beginning. In every way."
A friend of Miley's explains to E! News, "She has a big picture view of everything. It's all perfectly planned out. She is very aware of what she is doing and how it's going to be perceived publicly. She knows her own mind very well."
Courtesy Paola Kudacki/Paper Magazine
She's 100 Percent Comfortable in Her Own Skin (and Nothing but Her Skin):
When Miley posed for her Paper Magazine cover shoot in June, you'd be forgiven for thinking she was just trying to copy Kim Kardashian (who memorably attempted to #BreakTheInternet with her oiled-up derriere). The reality is, Miley's shoot was worlds apart. Her choice of prop (a snorting farm animal rather than a burst of champagne) aside, there was a deeper meaning to it.
She sometimes wants to look a mess. Rather than try to be traditionally sexy, she covered herself in grubby mud. The message is clear, even if the choice of body paint is not: I am comfortable with me and I don't give a s--t what you think.
It was quite refreshing, considering we live in a world where we are constantly bombarded by picture-perfect celebrities, whether it's Taylor Swift dressed impeccably every time she leaves her apartment or Reese Witherspoon working out without a bead of sweat on her brow.
"She's very real," says a Miley source. "She doesn't aspire to be a pretty princess. That doesn't matter to her. It's more important to be authentic."
Larry Busacca/Getty Images
She Knows Her Worth When It Comes to Love:
When Miley started dating Patrick Schwarzenegger, she unwittingly became a half of the hope for a Brangelina 2.0, young-Hollywood edition. Here was the bad girl snagging the clean-cut good boy. It was an unexpected union and they looked hot together, Miley being an entirely worthy member of the political dynasty and yet someone who might raise a few eyebrows among the Kennedy set.
But six months ago, Patrick was snapped living it up a little too much with bikini clad members of the opposite sex while on spring break and the dream romanceunraveled fast. Miley had enough self-confidence to know she could do better. Patrick denied engaging in any inappropriate behavior on his vacation, but...why would Miley want to even lose a night's sleep (or, better yet, a night's partying) wondering?
"She learned her lesson from previous relationships," says a friend. "Now she has a better sense of what she needs and who she deserves." Not to say that Miley's self-absorbed. "Far from it," the friend added. "It's just that she has learned to really value herself and expects the same from the people around her."
Damn straight!
Since that very public split, Miley has been linked to various people, including Victoria's Secret model Stella Maxwell. Miley told Elle UK: "I'm 22, I'm going on dates, but I change my style every two weeks, let alone who I'm with."
Instagram/Twitter
She Gets Off Her Ass and Gets Out There:
And we don't just mean she works out to maintain her ridiculous bod. At the 2014 VMAs, Miley ditched the foam finger and used her new platform to take a 22-year-old homeless man with a troubled past as her date. And when she won Video of the Year for "Wrecking Ball," it was Jesse Helt who took those tentative steps up to the podium to accept the award on her behalf.
Rather than just walk a red carpet or lend her name to something, she knows the real power of her fame and how to share it. Earlier this year she launched theHappy Hippie Foundation to help homeless, LGBT and otherwise vulnerable young people who need support to get back on their feet.
Says our source: "She is incredibly socially conscious, more so than her peers. She really does know how famous she is. Not in an egotistical way, but she knows she has a voice and is in a privileged position."
Miley is determined to use her fame for a deeper purpose. And while most of us do not have the platform she has, she is inspiring. "If I'm going to be noticed by this many people, what am I really going to say?" she explained to the NYT about her metamorphosis. "What I want to say isn't 'shake your ass.' But even if you listen to 'Can't Stop,' it isn't how I'd say it now, but it is still saying the same thing: 'I'm going to do whatever I want.' Now I know how to say that in my own words, not just in the way that's a hit."
Rocstar/FAMEFLYNET PICTURES
She Can Be Anything She Wants to Be:
Miley is the new normal. Or should be, at least. In her Paper interview, she was very clear about who she is and her philosophy that anything goes. "I don't relate to being boy or girl, and I don't have to have my partner relate to boy or girl," she said.
Instead, she describes herself as pansexual, meaning she's open to wherever her attractions lead her, regardless of sexuality or gender identity. By being honest about who she is, she is hoping she can encourage others to do the same and she's helped blaze the trail for others to do the same. She's teaching her generation that you don't need a label to have an identity and she's leading by example.
Overall, Miley is redefining what it means to be a celebrity. She is the opposite of the seemingly perfect role models like Taylor. She's raw and in your face. She doesn't have a slew of supermodel girlfriends, and she doesn't always look perfect. Her Instagram feed stands out: There are no touch-ups, her camera angles and lighting can suck. She is more interested in inserting random pictures of pizza, making her own memes and showing off the underarm hair she sports from time to time.
Growing up is hard enough, but doing it in front of the world is far harder. Two years ago, we misinterpreted Miley. We believed her outrageous behavior was a sign of being out of control. But ultimately she was more in control than we could have imagined.
And if you aren't convinced yet, prepare to eat your critical words because the pot-loving rebel who wears pasties on Jimmy Kimmel Live! is on course to become one of the most influential leaders of her generation.
