Solomon was meant to be taken generally, not literally. And when he says there is nothing new under the sun,
we are almost led to believe him entirely – if it hadn't been for
automobiles and the internet and America. About the rest of it he was
right. You can always expect the best and worst out of humanity,
because the loves and hates of human nature have always remained the
same, which leads us to do the same kinds of things we've always been
doing. And if he was right about anything in particular, it was about
the recurring existence of Miley Cyrus.
Some
people think that Miley Cyrus is something new, and they think it only
because they've forgotten about David Bowie and Johnny Rotten. We've
already had someone who dressed like a transsexual space alien and threw
his middle finger at masculinity, and we've already had a movement of
people who were completely averse to good manners and taste. Miley
Cyrus isn't for our children, but for our parents. The difference is
that our parents had the better music.
Glam
and punk were the expressions of a '70s too intoxicated to remain
sensible, and too tired of hippie sermonizing to even pretend morality.
And before them the Indians had their cross-dressers named berdaches, and before them the Canaanites had their gay temple prostitutes whom the Israelites called qedeshim.
Gay marriage disgusted Tacitus when it was performed by Nero, and
pederasty was openly performed by the Athenians to the disgust of the Spartans, who confused everyone with their unhusbandly approach to marriage.
The
point of the matter is that bucking sexual norms can be novel only to
someone unfamiliar with history. And people are always bucking, because
the norms are eternal. Nearly every great and ancient nation's had a
generation of people who were terrible at being men and women – or
perhaps too bored with being spiritually great in general. It usually
happens after a period of safety and luxury, before they're conquered by
a nation that takes manhood very seriously – who are usually referred
to as barbarians. The major difference between the last time this
happened and the present is that today's invading "barbarians" call
masculinity machismo, and our deviants are considered by our intelligentsia not as deviants, but as moralists.
And
perhaps this is why Miley's so shocking: not because what she's doing
is actually anything new, but because she's backed by an army of
militant pantsuits who say that what she's doing is right. The New York Times has gone so far
as to call her the avatar of the post-gender generation – as if the
overwhelming majority of youngsters these days had already been polled
and said they were tired of seeing pretty girls. Of course, there are some of them who are sick of seeing pretty girls – and they are probably all ugly girls. They're the minority of our children who've been so terribly cursed with terrible taste and minimal talents that they want to be themselves without
anyone left to criticize them. And they are getting what they want –
almost. They're getting it from the authorities, from their professors,
and from the president. Whom they are not getting it from (if they are
straight) is everyone they really want to have sex with, because the
people they want to have sex with are having sex with people who are
sexually attractive.
The
reason that the "post-gender generation" is temporary (and hopefully
only a generation) is because the one thing they never should have
bucked is the one thing they did, and it happens to be beauty. There's
nothing attractive about Miley Cyrus, nothing that makes you say I want this woman living in my house with me forever.
She's already ruined her looks with androgyny and bad fashion. She's
unsuitable for any pursuit of tranquility (which every single one of us
eventually needs), useless for any kind of actual production (which most
of us are forced by circumstances into doing), and even worse for the
raising of children (which is the biological purpose and statistically
unavoidable result of having sex). And if children aren't ready to
begin searching for these qualities intently, they'll feel themselves
drawn magically to them by their guts – which are eternal, unlike the
tastes of our intelligentsia.
The
irony of the post-gender generation is that it claims to be getting a
minority out of the closet, while forcing the majority back into
another. It demands that the majority of people celebrate things they don't really feel like celebrating
– unless they have to celebrate it for the purpose of fitting in. And
this is because a person who's post-gender or transsexual has never
really left his sex. He's just terrible at being it. He straddles the
infinite chasm between two ideals, and he cheapens both of them
while getting neither. Children instinctively know this, and teachers
know that they know it – and we know this because teachers are spending a
lot of time telling children to say that they don't know it.
The
post-gender movement is against the things all generations of healthy
people have recognized as masculine and feminine, which means that in a
universal sense, it's profoundly anti-democratic. It's about pretending
the forces of nature never existed, and that all the healthy people in
fiction and in history, from the Nephilim to Lord Byron, were wrong
about their feelings. The movement isn't about the minority who wants
to wear makeup and still be respected as manly; it's about the people
who know he isn't manly and are forced to celebrate him because he
isn't. It asks people whether they would rather be "individuals" or be
beautiful – and it not only asks them to pick the option they'd rather
not, but chastises them when they refuse to conform to the celebrations
of tasteless individuality. Everyone is beautiful, they say –
especially when they're responsible for making themselves ugly.
While
it's worth mentioning that almost every valuable sermon is a calling to
either fight or employ your instincts usefully, sometimes our most
timely sermons are about telling us our sermonizing has gone horribly
wrong (which is why Jesus was hated by the Pharisees). In our case, it
has gone wrong because we tried to protect the outcasts and in the
process buried our winners. And now we know that we can be post-gender
only by mass indoctrination and thought control
and persecution. We can avoid gender only by keeping children away
from romance, and if the men and women of our day aren't good enough to
rebel against our intelligentsia as they should and fight them with
every ounce of our sexual vitality, we will have to wait – for our
children to do it for us.
And
their protests will be unlike any protests the left has ever imagined.
They might be made in dirty looks and angry comments at priggish
individualists in ugly costumes. But they will more likely be silent.
They will more likely be accidental. They'll be a return to good art
and good fashion and pictures of beautiful women posted on bedroom walls
of adolescent boys. They'll be an unspoken evasion of all the
post-gender possibilities for the beautiful maidens and muscular
champions we always wanted. It's our desire for good lovers that will
make us into men and women – and there is nobody in the world who can
keep us from doing it. And this is because romance is bigger than bad
social constructions.
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 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.
The collaboration between the rock band the Flaming Lips and the pop singer Miley Cyrus has so far yielded, among other things, a cover of the Beatles classic “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”; a trippy short film titled “Blonde SuperFreak Steals the Magic Brain”; matching torso tattoos; and a recently released album, “Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz,” inspired by the singer’s affection for animals.
Music critics have done some head-scratching over the results. But in the unlikely partnership between the band’s frontman, Wayne Coyne, who is 54, and Ms. Cyrus, who is 23, the amateur sociologist sees a golden opportunity to examine the generational divide.
A few recent articles have suggestedtension between the two groups. The older demographic (born roughly from 1961 to 1980) bristles at what it perceives as an entitled attitude and constant need to be praised; the millennials (born from 1980 to 2000) seem dismayed by X-ers’ skeptical worldview and preference for antiquated forms of communication like email.
Might the BFF status between Mr. Coyne and Ms. Cyrus hold a key to intergenerational harmony? Reached by phone in the Midwest, where he was on break from touring with “Cyrus,” as he often referred to her, Mr. Coyne gamely considered the matter.
“I think because I’m so old and because she’s so young, we reach around and meet in back,” Mr. Coyne said. “As opposed to her being slightly behind, or me being slightly ahead, in years. Then it would get confused.”
He first met Ms. Cyrus when she was 20 or 21, he said, and was unsure how well they would work together in the studio. The former child star is famously outspoken, although Mr. Coyne doesn’t attribute that to a generational trait so much as to her youth and celebrity.
“Everybody who’s 20 or 21 owns the world anyway,” he said. “And then if you’re Miley Cyrus, you really own the world. For some reason, we seemed to know things about each other, enough to know we’d like each other. She works the way I do. We both have the same quality of saying, ‘Yes.’”
Mr. Coyne told Billboard that Ms. Cyrus was “probably influencing us more than we’ll be able to influence her,” because her endless energy and lack of a self-censoring filter were a benefit to the Flaming Lips, a band that has been together more than 30 years.
Indeed, the band is currently promoting a 20th-anniversary remastered edition of “Clouds Taste Metallic” — an album released when Ms. Cyrus was 2
So is Mr. Coyne saying that aging, self-questioning Gen X-ers can get a creative jolt from pairing up with millennials?Continue reading the main story
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“A lot of things that ended up being on the ‘Dead Petz’ record, I was there when she was making it up,” Mr. Coyne said. “I’d ask, ‘Are you embarrassed by that?’ But that’s what’s powerful about it. She doesn’t have any filter. There’s no reason to have any filter. It’s so badass.”
One area where Mr. Coyne is unlikely to follow Ms. Cyrus’s example is in the sex department. Although “Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz,” like much of her recent music, is overtly sexual, with single-entendre song titles like “Bang Me Box,” Mr. Coyne said he can’t imagine himself applying the same frank sexuality to Flaming Lips music and live performances.
“When it’s her being sexy, I think it works great,” he said.
NICKI MINAJ LAUNCHES FEUD WITH VMAS HOST MILEY CYRUS
“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.
