The Beat Zine #8

THE HOT AND SEXY WELCOME BACK ISSUE 14-28 October #8 kids. We met her as Hannah Montana, our take her birth control during class today. squeaky-clean, American sweetheart. But MY GIRL #thatssobu” and “#2738: Yes, there is a we forget that Hannah was just a charac- weight limit on crop tops ladies. Cover ter, and that the Miley that existed outside MILEY up your fat with a full sized shirt please,” of that character was too young to be appear on the reg. These posts show how doing anything remotely controversial that Once upon a time, I was a summer camp we fetishize a woman taking charge of her would have caught our attention. Fast-for- counselor to pre-teen girls. own being and dictate what choices she ward to now, and we’ve removed the should make. A public example comes by lens of such a character, instead seeing way of society’s reaction to Miley 2.0. an unfiltered 20-year-old experiencing a We were hanging out on the bunk porch You’d have to live under a rock to miss pivotal yet standard period of self-explora- one lazy afternoon when one called the criticism directed at Miley’s edgy new tion. While every other average girl in her another a slut. “I wdon’t like that word, act—one that’s thrown her through the demographic is similarly experimenting, Molly,” I told her. “What about the things ultimate slut-shaming ringer. be it by twerking at clubs and frats, wear- you’ve said?!” she sassed. I just kind of ing booty shorts, chopping and dyeing her sat there dumbfounded. I’ll admit to chas- The subject imploded with Miley’s twerk- hair, smoking weed or cursing, we expect tising the girls for peeing on the toilet seat ing on Robin Thicke at the VMAs. Mes- differently of Miley. It’s not that her behav- and converting our bathroom to “fucking sage boards filled with posts calling her ior is all that radical; her 18-24-year-old splashdown.” But the word ‘slut’ margin- a ‘slut,’ whore,’ and every other stab you peers simply don’t have the world watch- alizes an entire gender based on their could pose to a woman’s sexuality. By our ing. While Miley doesn’t owe us anything, sexual choices. ‘Fuck’ doesn’t. How does we treat her like she does, shaming her one explain that to a 12-year-old girl at a when she doesn’t serve as a beacon of religious summer camp? perfection against which members of the Parental Television Council can mold their Slut-shaming has become ingrained in children. our psyche, with well-intentioned parents subconsciously teaching it to their kids. Her divergence from the wholesome They don’t sit their sons down when they role we want her to fulfill fuels our overt start objectifying their middle school class- sexualization of her behavior. Take for in- mates to tell them that women deserve stance, a TMZ news clip that dubbed her respect. Instead, they tell their daughters “trash” and a “slut” who is “objectify[ing] to never go to a party alone, or walk down herself” after she was spotted wearing the street in sexy clothing, or accept a short-shorts. drink from a boy they just met at a party. We assume that women wear makeup I love TMZ. I want to work at TMZ. But and dress up to impress men rather than what’s not okay is TMZ’s harassing Miley for self fulfillment. Then we wonder why for wearing a pair of shorts equivalent in we have a rape culture that blames length to those of the girl in line ahead of women for not being careful enough me at Starbucks yesterday. around men ‘that just can’t help them- selves’ and a hookup culture that favors cultural logic, she’s asking to be shamed men with gross double standards of with her new persona. Yet people have Equally not okay are the two cents Juliet promiscuity. Nicki Minaj summed up this glossed over the fact that married father- Caragianis, a writer for popular blog narrative in her MTV documentary, “My of-two Thicke didn’t back away; he stayed HerCampus, contributed to the dialogue: Time Now.” “When I am assertive, I’m a and participated in the gyration (all set to “I vote more skin from Taylor [Swift] and bitch. When a man is assertive, he’s a his rape anthem and Top 40 number one less weepy love songs.” While it’s great boss. He bossed up. No negative conno- chart-topper “Blurred Lines,” no less). The that the author supported Miley’s dar- tation behind ‘bossed up.’ But lots of neg- dancing was consensual between the two, ingness, her doing so at Swift’s expense ative connotation behind being a ‘bitch.’” so while the relationship dynamics are completely undermines the point—that A woman cannot express her sexuality slightly weird, I’m not entirely sure why we women have the right to define their own without being negatively labeled. care. But if we’re going to point fingers, sexuality. Such a statement only enforc- Still, young adulthood is a time for such shouldn’t we point them at the married es the narrative that a woman’s sexual exploration. It makes sense then, that father? Shouldn’t he should know better expression will always be too little (Swift) slut-shaming infiltrates the lives of col- than the reckless, naive 20-year-old? or too much (Cyrus). If you’re conserva- lege-aged women. I could localize the tive, you’re a prude. If you’re provocative, issue, and talk about it in the context of With Miley, perhaps the issue becomes you’re a slut. BU; look no further than BU Confessions, one of not letting child stars grow up, re- where posts like “#2858: Watched a girl lying on them as role models to raise our It’s not our place to make these judg- #1 THE BEAT HALF MONTHLY 14-28 OCTOBER ments, or subject women to some arbi- trary standard of perfection. As Minaj said: “When you’re a girl, you have to be, like, NICE GUYS everything. You have to be dope at what you do, but you have to be super sweet. Nice guys: a rare species that shy away Guire for instance. He was the nicest curly And you have to be sexy, and you have from the bright lights of the real world. haired boy yet he was constantly over- to be this and you have to be that and They can be found holding doors open for shadowed by various other male charac- you have to be nice and it’s like, I can’t strangers and sorting their trash into the ters who were more boisterous and idiotic. be all those things at once. I’m a human correct colored trash bins in the GSU. So We gave Gordo so much credit for being BEEEEEEEINGGGG.” So are Miley, Tay- why is it that we can’t seem to find any a nice guy for so long, but how many of lor and every other girl coming of age. around? us could endure the pressures of being a nice guy? Why do we care how a woman express- Unfortunately they’ve gone into hiding, es her sexuality? Perhaps with Miley, it like my brain during the peak of midterms Now I’m not saying that all nice guys have boils down to the escapism pop culture season. Well not so much hiding, but in turned to the dark side. Even those who provides. Maybe it’s just consumerism disguise. As Sirius Black’s famous quote have will eventually emerge when they’ve at work, and we capitalize on it to help states, “We’ve all got both light and dark realized the cookies have run out. There push products (as exemplified by blog inside us. What matters is the part we are still nice guys out there. That’s some- Thought Catalog’s headlining an article choose to act on. That’s who we really thing I strongly believe. I think sometimes about Syria with Here Is Miley Cyrus’s are.” And lately nice guys seem to think we just overlook them. We take them for Post-VMA Sextape knowing it would jip going dark is the right decision. In Nigahi- granted and we’ve become a society that people into reading it). Maybe criticism is ga’s and Kevjumba’s viral Youtube video is skeptical of kindness. just an unfair yet unavoidable downside to “Nice Guys”, girls are portrayed to want- You’re being nice to me? her job. But that doesn’t make it right. As ing the “douchebag” or “rebel” instead of Well then you must want some Justin Timberlake said: “She’s young, take the nice guy. This prompts the two main thing in return. it easy on her. It’s the VMAs. You know characters to act in a manner that their We jump to these conclusions because what I mean, like, it’s not the Grammys,” grandmas probably wouldn’t be too proud we tend to see only the bad in people. he said. “We’re talking about Madonna in of. They think that it’ll attract girls, that However, don’t get me wrong. There are a wedding dress humping the stage, we’re it’s what girls want. It turns out to be as definitely people out there who don’t make talking about Britney doing a striptease.

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