IT TAKES TWO TO TWERK
Clad in nothing more than a tight fitting, flesh colored vinyl bra and underwear while grinding and dancing all over the stage Miley Cyrus was more popular than the Super Bowl - at least for one night.
Her performance at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMA’s) astonished millions. So much so that there were more tweets per minute than the Super Bowl receives. The morning after the show millions more learned about her performance that left Will and Jada Pinkett Smith with their mouth’s agape.
Overnight, Cyrus became, for many, an easy target, and a punching bag for those who were outraged by her risqué act. But there seems to be something that nearly everyone has forgotten. Miley Cyrus was not alone on that stage.
With her was Robin Thicke. He is a 36 year-old husband and father. For many years he was not well-known until his song, “Blurred Lines” turned him into a smashing success.
The lyrics to “Blurred Lines” speak about the vague line of a girl being either a good girl or “an animal.” And the lyrics do not stop there. They move into the arena of sadism and, some have claimed, speak about the line between consensual sex and rape.
Two highly sexualized videos were made for the song. One featuring topless women, and the other featuring women clad in nothing more than a tight fitting, flesh colored vinyl bra and underwear. The same outfit Cyrus wore at the VMA’s.
MTV has promoted these videos, and many others like them. MTV provides of never-ending, sexualized vision to women. Their message constantly says the most important thing is the appearance of their body, and whether or not they are willing to give it up.
Let’s not forget it takes two to tango, or, in this case, twerk. Sure, a few comments here and there have been made about Thicke, but he has largely gone unscathed amidst the vitriolic criticism since Sunday night. Meanwhile, we are outraged only at Miley.
This ought to raise some questions for us regarding the way we have responded to the VMA performance. From Facebook to Twitter people have condemned Cyrus, the former Disney Kid, for what she’s done. But it’s worth asking why we have said little about Robin Thicke, and ignored MTV who set the whole thing up?
Perhaps it’s due to the fact that we have become exceedingly comfortable with the exploitation of women. It’s commonplace and it’s everywhere.
A few days ago I walked into a store in my neighborhood. Hanging on the wall were two large photos of women wearing skimpy bikinis leaving little to the imagination. No, it wasn’t that kind of store. It was a beer display in a city corner store.
And this is normal.
Women are objectified because someone, somewhere concluded that the naked female body is good for sales. And we have largely accepted it. This constant exploitation of our mothers and sisters and daughters has led to a slow, continual degradation of women in our culture. So much so, that when a husband and father like Thicke sings about injuring a women during sex no one is appalled. Rather, the song turns him into a star.
And it’s not just the overt sexualized images that lead us to demean women. It happens in much more subtle ways too. Ask yourself, “When was the last time you heard a snide comment or a joke about women?” This is more commonplace than the images on a beer display, far more accepted and it’s alive and well in the Church.
Sexism, chauvinism and misogyny are not just tolerated; they are embraced. These attitudes, possessed by many, lead to the same view of women. What is subtly taught and caught is that the existence of women is on a different, lower plain than the existence of men.
These attitudes run so deeply in our minds that when a 20 year-old young woman prances around on stage grinding teddy bears, we fail to notice or comment on the husband that was on stage with her singing about a brutalized form of sexuality. Our society has so lowered the innate value and worth of women that the one who receives nearly all blame for the whole scene is Miley Cyrus. We have judged the exploited, yet said little or nothing of the exploiter.
It’s high time we change our tune.
It’s time that we speak up about the constant exploitation of women in our world. It is destroying all of us. It’s time that we cry out against chauvinism that is embraced and championed in our society, and, even worse, in our churches. It’s time to fight against misogynistic teaching, preaching, writing and thinking that continues to teach women they are second-class.
Perhaps the best place to begin is with a sorrowful repentance. So many rushed to judge and criticize Cyrus, but how many of us were truly saddened by what we saw? Many of us are guilty of sitting back, saying nothing and accepting these attitudes toward women. We need to turn around and think differently. We need to repent.
We must return to the beginning which reminds us, “God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
It’s easy to throw rocks at Cyrus. We can do better. Before we rush to judgment we may do well to examine our own attitudes that we harbor toward women. Only then can we properly address the influences and cultural norms that lead to songs like “Blurred Lines”, and performances like we saw at the VMA’s.
Perhaps, if we commit ourselves to honoring our sisters, millions more will be astonished for all the right reasons.