THE HACK: cheap views on pop culture

On the Day of Another Dream

 

I don't think this is as bad as people think it is. I dig it.

A Quick Look At One Miley Ray Cyrus

A few years back, following the whole Vanity Fair hoopla, I read an article on the Parents' Movie Guide on Msn.com titled "Is Miley Cyrus the Next Britney Spears?" It was interesting, not because it was all that well argued but because it began, in my mind, the beginning to a fulfillment of a prophecy presented at the end of the South Park episode "Britney's New Look." The episode dealt with the boys coming to understand that modern sacrifices are needed to ensure a good corn harvest, but that rather than stoning said sacrifices they must have them commit suicide. She is eventually photographed to death. At the end of the episode, a new sacrifice is chosen, being none other than Miley Cyrus.

I just never understood what the deal was with trying to tear Cyrus down. I mean, really, what has she done? Vanity Fair?

Cyrus was fifteen when she took part in this Annie Leibovitz shoot. And, no - I'm not going to say that she's fifteen and not a little kid. Fifteen is still very much a "little kid"-age. But, I don't find anything particularly wrong with the photo above. It's supposedly artistic. Not to me. Sexual? I guess. But, I don't find any picture of a little kid sexy. A little weird? Yeah - I'll go with that one. I've never been a fan of Leibovitz. I look at that "classic" John Lennon/Yoko Ono Rolling Stone cover and I think it's just weird. Nothing more. Nothing less. I kind of see it and move on.

So, the whole Vanity Fair controversy was lost on me. I just didn't care. So what if Cyrus was only fifteen? It's not like she actually was nude. It's not like it was a spread in Maxim. But, people were already waiting for something to take Miley down a few notches. I mean, how dare she become so famous. It's not like she very talented. Talent, of course, being like most other things: all in the eye of the beholder.

Then, again, this came after some photos of her had been released. Private pictures that I won't reveal here. These were taken from her cell phone. I'm sorry, I mean hacked. She didn't release these pictures. They were never supposed to be seen by her fans. But, no - anything for a headline. Right? Let's post pictures of a fifteen year old and call her names. Then, let's decry her professional photoshoot. After all, it serves the same means. Miley is torn down a bit.

And, while we're at it, since when is it okay for adults to take pictures of a sixteen, seventeen, or eighteen year old in a bikini? Because that's what's been happening for some time now. There are so many pictures of Cyrus in a bikini online that it's a bit ridiculous. But, you don't read or hear much about how ridiculous such a practice is. Read any comment from a site posting these pictures and you'll see people putting Cyrus down. Really people? What the hell is she doing wrong here? She's at the beach. And, at the beach, she has on a bikini. Big deal. Focus on the grown men taking these pictures. That's what's wrong.

Of course, now there's a new kind of controversey:

How dare she! How dare she smoke the perfectly legal salvia! How dare she smoke it on her eighteenth birthday! How dare she do it in public where everyone can see!

Wait. That's not what happened? No - that's pretty much what happened. Except she didn't smoke up in public. The video that was released, again, came from a cell phone. Although it wasn't hacked. It was released. Hope that individual got some good money out of it. Though, I still don't get what the big deal is. She wasn't in some club getting high. She's also smoking something legal. She's also an adult now. But, she still has yet to be sacrificed. So, I doubt she'll be left alone anytime soon.

And the thing is, if something does happen in the future, people will point and say, "See! See - we told you she was trouble! We told you she was a bad role model!" Oh yeah. She's terrible.

Because she was sixteen when she got pregnant.

Because she's been arrested multiple times for DUI.

Because she's exactly like Britney Spears.

Right?

Cyrus is not perfect. And, that's not an excuse. I never did any of the things she's done. But, others have done worse. A lot worse. But, I'm sure it's just a matter of time before the tabloids get her on something that destroys her career. Because what's more fun than destroying someone? I mean, it's her actions. All the tabloids do is report on what she does. They have a job to do, and they're doing it.

Yep. They sure are.

But, did you know Cyrus does other things with her spare time? You know, when she's not wearing revealing clothing or having fun on her birthday?

Check out Get Ur Good On. It's charity in which Cyrus is extremely involved.

She even has time to visit children's hospitals.

But, I'm sure she does stuff like this for publicity. Because that's what headlines concerning her are all about, right?

Miley Cyrus has done nothing that warrants mobs and pitchforks. If you don't like her music, or her acting, or her style, or her voice, or anything else about her, then do what I do when I don't like something. Don't. Pay. Attention. Really - it's that's simple. Let her do her thing. And, you do your thing.

In the end, though, if she does ever do something actually bad, I'll be reminded of another young girl who went down some dark paths but emerged as a major force in the entertainment industry. Not sure who I'm talking about. Click here. See you next time.

Or, as Cyrus would sing, "I can't wait/To see you again." Wow - that was lame.

The Journey of Miley Stewart [original post]

         

  Before you even begin to trace the steps of Miley Stewart’s coming-of-age journey, you have to first set up a timeline for the show and film. The first season, from “Lilly, Do You Want To Know A Secret?” to “Torn Between Two Hannahs” consists of Miley’s eighth grade school year. That’s easy enough. When we get to the second season, things begin to get a bit tough, thanks in large part to the writers strike that prevented the third season from being produced on time, making the second and third seasons take up longer amounts of time in the life of Miley. From the second season premiere “Me and Rico Down By the School Yard” to its eventual finale “We’re All On This Date Together” Miley is in ninth grade – there’s also some time spent during the summer. Here’s where things get complicated. In the third season, from “Ready, Set, Don’t Drive” to “You Give Lunch a Bad Name” (the first half of the season – 14 episodes), Miley is in tenth grade. School then ends and she goes off to film Indiana Joanie and the Curse of the Golden Cobra, leaving Lilly and Oliver to end up together. She returns to Malibu in “What I Don’t Like About You” and ends up on the S.S. Tipton a few weeks later in “Super(stitious) Girl”. School starts up again and Jackson goes away to college, as shown in the Hannah film. From “Once, Twice, Three Times Afraidy” to “Miley Says Goodbye?” Miley is in eleventh grade, Jackson returns to Malibu and goes to community college, summer comes along, and then the group starts twelfth grade. The fourth and final season of the show should consist of Miley’s final year of high school.

            Now, let’s break down the seasons. In season one, Miley adjusts to her double life, most likely just becoming a big star a few months prior to the first episode. Starting with the first episode, Miley begins to tell her friends, Lilly and Oliver, her secret. In turn, they too have to deal with Miley’s double life, sometimes being let down by her and sometimes enjoying the perks. Miley also begins a love/hate relationship with actor Jake Ryan whom she starts off despising (“New Kid in School”), starts to like (“More Than a Zombie to Me”), and nearly ends up with (“People Who Use People”) before the season ends.

            Season Two puts the trio in high school and essentially expands the world we already know. We get introduced to Miley’s deceased mother via dreams (“I Am Hannah, Hear Me Croak” and “The Way We Almost Weren’t”), Lilly’s mother (“Lilly’s Mom Has Got It Goin’ On”), and Uncle Earl (“(We’re So Sorry) Uncle Earl”). Jake returns and nearly wins Miley’s heart, until it’s decided that he needs some growing up to do (“Achy Jakey Heart, Part One and Two”). He returns again, this time with Miley realizing she herself has got some growing up to do (“That’s What Friends Are For?”). In this season, there is more and more of an emphasis on Hannah’s world and how it interacts with Miley’s.

            As the third season begins, Miley’s life starts to move forward. She gets her license, starts to handle more of her own money, but in the Hannah front, things start to look less fun than in previous seasons. She finds that being a role model is tough when her words get taken out of context (“Welcome to the Bungle”), she is told by her publicist to date a jerk-singer to sell records (“Cheat It”), and she discovers that her success has been taking its toll on her friendship with Oliver (“You Gotta Lose That Job”). Jake returns, only to pull a prank on Miley (as Hannah), though the two find that the spark between them is still there by episode’s end.

            As already stated, the school year comes to a close and Miley goes off to shoot a Rob Reiner movie. As she’s away, Lilly and Oliver realize that they have feelings for one another and begin dating. When she returns, she’s shocked but then comes to – sort of – accept it. A few weeks later, Miley, Lilly, and Robbie go aboard the S.S. Tipton to go to Hawaii to perform a concert. Miley loses a lucky anklet that her mom got her years ago before she died. This is the beginning of Miley’s transformation. In the episode “Super(stitious) Girl”,  Miley begins to question if she can still be Hannah. This is an important tie-in with the last time she questioned her double life and that was back in the beginning of season two with “I Am Hannah, Hear Me Croak”, also an episode dealing with her mother. It is subtlety hinted that perhaps being Hannah, and not simply being Miley, is Miley’s defense mechanism. After her mother died, is it possible she began to pull herself away from the world? Think about it. She has only two friends, both of whom she did not tell her secret to until some time after she began her double life. When her father begins to stray, she becomes hurt (“She’s a Supersneak”, “On the Road Again?”, and “Me and Mr. Jonas and Mr. Jonas and Mr. Jonas”). Even when it looks like she’s feeling out of the loop with her friends, she takes insanely drastic measures to keep them (“You Gotta Lose That Job” and “Joannie B. Goode”). Miley has abandonment issues stemming from the death of her mother at an early age. Hannah represents her mask, keeping her hidden from the world where she doesn’t have to lose herself with anyone.

            Although, there’s Jake. Of course, their relationship was never solid until the end of “He Could Be The One”. Even during that episode, Miley subconsciously tries to sabotage her love with Jake with someone she connects with as Hannah. She’s afraid that things will work out with Jake so she tries to hide behind Hannah and that world. With the help of her mother, via video, she’s able to overcome Hannah’s world and truly start her relationship with Jake. None of this is possible, though, without the events of the film.

            In the beginning of Hannah Montana: The Movie, Miley has begun to lose touch of her real life and has begun to put her Hannah world at the forefront of everything. She doesn’t see Jackson off to college and she shows up at Lilly’s birthday dressed as Hannah, causing Lilly’s buried jealousy to come to the surface. You can see it when she tells the tabloid journalist where Hannah came from. She’s angry at the attention Miley gets as Hannah. This was clearly Lilly’s day to shine and Miley takes it away from her. Robbie decides to take her back home to Tennessee, to Miley’s mother’s old home to get her back to her roots – not necessarily her country roots, but her Miley roots. He wants her to remember that she’s Miley and that Hannah is just a persona. Throughout the film, she does just that. There’s also a little romance, but to me the important part is, again, her mother. She sleeps in her mother’s old room and before the major reveal at the end of the movie, her grandmother gives Miley her mother’s necklace. This not only brings Miley to tears, it reinforces her struggle. (Also, receiving the necklace ties in with the loss of the anklet, which in the timeline occurred only a month or so before. So, it’s like Miley’s got her mother back with her, again.) When everyone’s she’s lied to and hurt is present in the audience during her concert at the end, something snaps in Miley. She realizes that being herself is more important so she reveals that she is Hannah Montana. However, it’s her fans and the very people she’s hurt that ask to be Hannah Montana. It’s a beautiful moment when looked at through this spectrum. She returns as Hannah, but not because she has to, but because those close to her, and her fans, wanted her to.

            From episode 17 and on, the third season has Miley putting her life before her Hannah world. In the episode “Promma Mia”, she makes the choice to take a nerdy boy to prom over doing a duet with David Archuleta. This is more than just Miley going on a pity date. This is Miley choosing her own world over Hannah’s. The same thing happens in “Can’t Get Home To You Girl” when Miley does her best to make it home for Lilly’s birthday, having ruined her previous one. All she thinks of in the episode is her best friend. Hannah is used, but only as a means to get home to Lilly.

            As for the season finale of season three, "Miley Says Goodbye?," well, it all comes to a climax. Miley's literal subconscious tells her that her heart belongs in Tennessee, and so she makes the decision to return to her old home. The thing is, that it is simply her old home. Malibu is where Miley belongs now. Isn't it? Well, that's the thing. Mirroring the finale of the film, Miley has another decision to make. While the first one dealt her choosing Miley over Hannah, this one is all on Miley. She must decide who she truly is on the inside. This is no longer about wigs, lying, or secrets. This is about her internal struggle for identity. In the end, she decides to really keep the best of both worlds. Her dad buys a ranch in Malibu. Something still does not feel right about that. Why? Because it is still about having the best of both worlds. By the end of next season, Miley must confront this ultimate choice. She really will have to choose. Will that mean the end of the Hannah personality? Possibly.

            Miley is a different person at the end of season three than she was at the beginning of it. With the episode "He Could Be The One”, she faced one last struggle with her Hannah identity. By the end of that episode, though, it’s clear that Hannah is just a means to an end. Because of this, it’s hinted that she cannot be Hannah forever. I predict that the fourth and final season will not only see Miley graduate from high school, it will also have her reveal herself to the world. Not only that, but the episode will consist of a dream where she will talk with her mother concerning this decision, and in the end she will finally make peace with her mother’s death, setting up a new stage for Miley’s life. She will say that she is Hannah Montana and will want to continue doing her thing but from then on as Miley. This will be the perfect ending, because not only does it reflect real life (Miley Cyrus moving on with her career as herself and not Hannah Montana), it provides one of those endings where it’s really only the beginning. "Miley Says Goodbye?" already points toward this. All that's left is to sit back and watch.

 

Screencaps by Mileyfans.net