Miley Cyrus -- ever since you unleashed your twerk in a latex bikini at the VMAs, I've heard so many women -- WOMEN! -- dissing you for being too sexual. Here's why you're a victim of a double standard.
Miley Cyrus -- you're completely comfortable with your own sexuality and you love to be provocative, but that doesn't mean you're a slut!
Miley Cyrus: Other Women Should NOT Be Judging You
Being sexually comfortable doesn't make any woman a slut. But you've been smack dab in the center of controversy ever since you started promoting your singles, 'We Can't Stop" and 'Wrecking Ball,' for your newly released album, Bangerz. And your VMAs singing while twerking and grinding performance sent critics into a fever pitch.
You'd think that no female signer has ever rocked a sexy outfit, and shook their booty before on stage.
It's as if our culture has collectively forgotten Beyonce at Super Bowl 2013, Madonna, the mother of racy, in her multiple concert tours, Katy Perry with her shaving cream-shooting bras, Rihanna singing in naughty lingerie and Lady Gaga in concert in a thong and seashell bra. Celebrating their sexuality has become the norm for the planet's most successful female singers -- all of whom have clearly chosen to see their sexuality as an expression of female empowerment.
Miley Cyrus: Criticized For Using Sexuality To Sell Songs
Despite this, so many women -- not men -- but women, in particular, celebrities and non-celebrities, decided to diss you for using your sexuality to sell your songs.
Former American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson was first out of the gate to go after you. She may have not named you exactly but her intent was obvious.
"Just saw a couple performances from the VMAs last night, 2 words...#pitchystrippers," she tweeted on Aug. 26.
Hmm! So, she thought you looked like a stripper AND sang badly -- double diss.
Then your former TV mother got in on the act, Brooke Shields slammed your VMAs appearance for being "a bit desperate," on the Today show. This from the woman who appeared nude at the age of 12 in the film Pretty Baby. And who then implied that she was wearing no underwear under her Calvin Klein jeans, in an infamous ad, when she was just 15. Brooke -- remember when you purred, "Nothing comes between me and my Calvins?"
Speaking of older female stars who chose to forget that they once used their sexuality to be provocative on stage -- Cher decided to get in on the dissathon against you.
"I'm not old-fashioned. She (Miley) could have come out naked, and if she'd just rocked the house, I would have said, 'You go, girl.' It just wasn't done well," Cher overshared in a USA Today article. "She can't dance, her body looked like hell, the song wasn't great, one cheek was hanging out. And, chick, don't stick out your tongue if it's coated."
Even former Eurythmics frontrunner Annie Lennox came out of retirement to take to her Facebook page and let loose with a bunch of barbs that were clearly aimed at you, Miley.
"If a performing artist has an audience of impressionable young fans and they want to present a soft porn video or highly sexualized live performance, then it needs to qualify as such and be rated for adults only," she lectured.
Miley Cyrus: Male Singers Are Never Judged, Why Are You?
What I don't get Miley, and I'm sure you wonder the same thing, is why male singers are never criticized for dressing and dancing like sluts and strippers -- something I've heard you accused of everywhere from the gym locker room to Top 40 radio stations.
Justin Bieber may go shirtless, grab his crotch and let his underwear show on stage but he's not called sexually provocative -- though I bet he'd love that.
And what about Adam Levine, Usher, Chris Brown, Anthony Kiedis, 50 Cent, and LL Cool J -- they all strip their shirts off onstage and also, make sexually provocative gestures and no one gets on their high horses and disses them. I don't hear icons of rock like Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and The Who's Roger Daltrey calling out young male pop stars for letting their pants fall down on stage.
So why have women attacked you, Miley, for being sexually provocative?
I think it's because you truly are sexually confident. You like your body, you're comfortable in your own skin. You worked hard at Pilates to get in shape -- and you're not afraid to show your body off.
And aside from working out, you've done nothing to enhance your body. You haven't resorted to breast implants, even though your chest looks like an average -- and very attractive -- B or C cup.
That kind of sexual confidence and openness about your body is simply not something that most women have yet. So, it's still shocking, especially to other women, who may not share that same sexual self esteem.
And instead of many women celebrating your openness, they are influenced by society's traditional attitudes towards women -- i.e., women should dress and act like 'good girls'. So women themselves end up trying to enforce this old fashioned standard as much as men have historically.
Personally, I'm sick of the double standard. Justin Bieber can drop his pants and it's cute, but Miley, if you twerk, you're a stripper.