Is Miley Cyrus a role model, and if so, what is she teaching young women and girls?

I’m frustrated that she gets so much attention for doing stupid things. I’m frustrated that I’m giving her attention right now. One shouldn’t look to the media for role models. The media just want money, and news like this is just what simple-minded consumers desire. Miley Cyrus isn’t a role model anymore (assuming a role model “exudes” positive traits). I guess she had a lot of respect from the younger generation before. The lesson that that generation should learn from Miley Cyrus is not to fuck your life up by doing stupid things.

She’s a “celebrity,” not a role model. She’s the car wreck you can’t look away from; she’s the one in the crowd who looks very different from the others; she’s the occasional indicator that wild actions can create wild success. But she’s not a role model.

At the very least, she’s teaching young women people that they can rebel against the frame and moldings others have asked you to fit into. You can take one image of yourself and reverse it, fuck it up, and take it where you want it to go… for better or worse.. you can.

We can only have conversations like this if we feel that there are such things as role models, and that these role models are to be found on tv. Any conversation about Miley Cyrus’ behavior seems to imply that there is some set of actions she could take that would be “good” and qualify her to be a “role model”.

TV personalities are not eligible to be role models, so there is no use in discussing Miley Cyrus’ success or failure in this area.

Oh I’ve watched her little show and she said she’s doing what it takes to keep it fresh, playful and this is America, if you can’t say what you want, how free are you really?

So in that aspect, I like her ballsy schtick with her little redneck accent and old Billy Ray supportin the twerk, it amuses me. Britney, Paris and all the other little attention ho’s do the same thing, that’s what’s funny about being so ‘unique’ today.

Well, I like her music, but do not consider her a role model. She does stupid stuff, but she is not doing them to look terrible, she is doing them so people don’t compare her to Hannah Montana. She is trying to seem more grown up, and serve as a older person singer, not a singer for little kids on disney.

Hannah Montana was a kids show with comedy. If she branched out and did some proper dramatic or horror movies, she’d not be seen as an HM clone. But she doesn’t do that. Instead she simply drags herself through the gutter (every bit as odious as JLo), and comes up smiling with muck on her face. Isn’t that appealing now?

@snowberry Of course it is because a lot of young girls want to be cool, want to be sexy (scary) and all kinds of popular. At least there’s a few Selena Gomez types out there that give me hope. Don’t get me started on Taylor Swift, snowy…lol

She isn’t teaching them anything. They already got the message earlier.

She is under the same influences, whatever they are, of the late teen early twenties girls I saw last year at a wedding reception.

It looked like a ‘ho convention.

Is she worse than Madonna or Lady Gaga or Cher?

She isn’t, in my opinion.

I think her point is NOT to be a role model.

Young people have been doing stuff like this long before Miley Cyrus. She’s following a trend, not leading it. Gossip reporters just need a source of content so they can keep getting ad revenue. If it weren’t her, they would find some other hyperactive twentysomething to write about. Some teens and twentysomethings are going to act up, no matter what is going on in pop culture.

Said by someone who is 26. Being in my late 20s gives me official license to say, “get off my lawn!” ;)

I’m not her biggest fan but I wish people would cut Miley a bit of slack. So far every time she has caused the media and general public to be “shocked” or “disgusted” I have wondered what all the fuss is about, how is she any worse than Rihanna, Madonna (in her day) or Lady Gaga? People are really over sensitive at times. I think she is just a young woman experimenting with her style, every young person does this to some extent only she is doing it with the pressures of the media and public opinion surrounding her. Everyone makes a fool out of themselves from time to time, she just does it in front of the whole world but, even then, it’s really never as bad as people make it our to be.

As for the whole role model thing, the question is, has she ever claimed to be a role model? Yes, she is going to influence young people to a certain extent but I really believe it is up to the parents to raise their kids and teach them right from wrong and not the responsibility of whichever celebrity is in the limelight at the time.

@KNOWITALL So in that aspect, I like her ballsy schtick with her little redneck accent and old Billy Ray supportin the twerk, it amuses me. Britney, Paris and all the other little attention ho’s do the same thing, that’s what’s funny about being so ‘unique’ today.
That could be part of the equation; if her device is the same as insert earlier actor/actress here it might come off as desperate copycatism, and not as something they invented. So if the earlier celebrity shocked to the 3rd degree, in order not to be lumped into doing the same thing that was done before they would have to up the ante to 3.5 deg or higher. Then the celeb after them will have to push it up even higher, like the high jump in track and field, the next person is always trying to go higher. How shocking can it get before you can no longer shock anyone?

@filmfann Is she worse than Madonna or Lady Gaga or Cher?
She isn’t, in my opinion.
In all actuality, maybe not; however, to not appear as a rehashed clone or copycat of them would not MC have to shock people differently or greater to have separation?

@Neodarwinian I think her point is NOT to be a role model.
Even if that is her point by mere fact that she is in the public eye constantly she has influence over people she may not care if she influenced; which in my opinion makes her akin to a de facto role model because people want to be like her, do what she does, and how she does it. With her minions handing on every move and word with baited breath, is what she imparting to them more positive, negative or to no affect really?

@Hypocrisy_Central I thought Janet Jackson’s breast flash was the epitome of shock. Accident, I don’t think so….lol