Teenagers and sex, part... well, whatever part it is

In the comments from yesterdays post, Little Mary Sunshine discusses that she feels that the media holds much more responsibility in how sex is perceived by teenagers and she points to the fact that in this weeks Vanity Fair, Miley Cyrus does a very risque photo shoot and interview. I remembered reading this article about this today in which Cyrus claims that she is embarrassed by the photos and interview. She claims to not really have been aware of the photos and thought that it was an artistic shoot and now is embarrassed by the outcome and the interview. Now there are several issues with this innocence that Cyrus is trying to claim. First, the photographer that did the shoot was Annie Leibovitz, this is not some amateur or even just a staff photographer. Leibovitz is a world renown professional photographer, Leibovitz say that Cyrus was fully aware of the entire shoot and how all of the shots looked. Leibovitz says that all of the photos were taken using a digital camera and Cyrus saw all of the shots right there on the set. Second, when Cyrus says things like, "It’s my favorite show! I love it!” when talking about Sex in the City. And about her Disney show Hannah Montana, in which she plays a schoolgirl with a secret life as a rock star, is patterned after Sex in the City “Obviously not the scenarios,” she explains quickly. “But if you watch Sex and the City, like the way the friends are..." to an interviewer in Vanity Fair. You cannot then say that you are shocked and embarrassed by the interview, you supplied the answers and the quotes, hence you are responsible for your own words. And finally, does this look the photograph of a 15-year old and her dad?



This is a very adult picture that probably never should have been taken, but even if it was taken and you really wanted to make sure your reputation would stay in tact than you should not have Ok'd the publication of this photo. Also, most magazines do not want to get sued so they cover their asses pretty well and the layout and article was probably sent to either Cyrus, her father or some representative of Miley Cyrus to peruse, so now saying that they were unaware of what was in the article and that they regret it. It is now too little, too late.

There is obviously a problem with society when the type of questions that could be asked and the photographs that could be taken were asked and were taken. We need to stop hyper-sexualizing our celebrities especially our teen celebrities, but I guess this is just a pipe dream for me at this point.