Dad's House » Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus Slant-Eye Photo in Bad Taste

dadshouse — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 08:05:14 +0000

Just when I thought my Miley Cyrus infatuation was over and done with, Miley goes and does something news-catchingly sketchy again. First the topless Miley Cyrus photos in Vanity Fair. Then Miley’s older boyfriend Justin Gaston. This time? She posed in a casual setting with friends, making a slant-eye face.

Why does a photo of Miley making a slant-eye face matter?

It matters to me because Miley Cyrus is around my teen daughter’s same age. (Miley is younger by six months, I think.) Not that my daughter looks up to Miley Cyrus, or even pays attention to her any more, but Miley is a celebrity symbol for my daughter’s generation. You’d hope they’d share some values. Plus, Miley Cyrus is a billion dollar franchise, and if she’s making windfall profits from a good girl image, the least she can do is try to be good.

Okay, but why is the slant-eye face so bad? Miley herself said it was just a silly face.

Miley Cyrus making a slant-eye face is mocking to Asians. It’s making fun of them. She might as well yell out “hey Chinaman!” every time she sees an Asian walk down the street. Mockery is a way to put someone down. What Miley Cyrus did is not nice.

Miley Cyrus slant-eye face picture
and news article at The Daily Mail.

But Asians tend to have slanted eyes, don’t they?

Yes, they do. And some populations (whether ethnic, religious, or social groups) tend to have bigger lips. Some tend to wear dots on their foreheads. Some tend to wrap their heads in turbans. Some tend to have short legs. Whatever.

If you latch onto the most unique thing about a certain group, like slanted eyes, then make fun of that unique thing, like making a slant-eye face – you are mocking that group. Expressing contempt or ridicule. Showing your dislike.

Where I live in Silicon Valley, there is no majority group. I think we might be the only county in the United States that can make that claim. As such, there is a whole lot of acceptance for people who are different, and a lot of tolerance for our differences.

That we’re all different makes us the same.

Compare Silicon Valley culture to where I grew up. My hometown was mostly white, with some hispanic, and much smaller concentrations of other ethnic groups. I didn’t eat Indian food until I got to graduate school. My kids, on the other hand, argue about whether we should go out for Indian, Thai, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Persian, Mexican, Brazilian, Spanish, etc. You get the point.

Kids around here are growing up in a very ethnically diverse environment. They are being raised with more tolerance and acceptance toward other groups. My preteen son knows not to make slant-eye faces. Kids around here don’t share Miley Cyrus’s slant-eye bad taste. I already get the feeling with Obama as President that an attitude of acceptance and tolerance is spreading to the whole nation.

Miley Cyrus’s slant-eye face would not be tolerated in these parts. Someday, it won’t be tolerated anywhere.

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Miley Cyrus Nude Photos Not a Mistake

dadshouse — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 11:33:23 +0000

News flash from Scotland – Miley Cyrus changed her mind about those nude Vanity Fair photos taken by acclaimed photographer Annie Leibovitz. Rather than saying it was a mistake for a fifteen year-old to be shot naked in satin sheets with a just had sex sort of look about her, she now says: “Everyone outside of America liked it a little bit more because that’s more like the style, but the States are really conservative.”

Funny. Miley doesn’t seem to mind that the conservative United States helped make her Hannah Montana franchise worth more than one billion dollars. I can’t imagine Miley would have made that much money by simply flashing skin for the camera, without her good girl TV image behind her.

I understand that the US is more conservative that some parts of Europe. Check any Italian or French topless beach to verify that.

Funny story – last time I was in Italy, my kids and their preteen cousins and I walked down the beach to get gelato. On the way back, we came across two women in their early 20s sunbathing topless. When they heard us approach, they quickly covered up. But when they saw I was “just a dad” (they said as much in Italian, of which io parlo un po), and not some pervy younger guy, they uncovered and went back to topless sunbathing. (Did I mention that being a dad friggin’ rocks?)

Why do I care about Miley Cyrus and her nude photo shoot? Only because she’s younger than my daughter. Once these girls are eighteen, they are adults and can do whatever they want. Even at nearly-seventeen, my daughter is showing maturity she didn’t possess a year before. But those Miley Cyrus pics were taken when the singer/actress was only fifteen!

I don’t care if the world thinks America is conservative or not. Fifteen is too young for photos like that. Especially when there’s a billion dollars being made off her good girl image.

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Miley Cyrus Boyfriend Justin Gaston Too Old? Nah…

dadshouse — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 10:00:17 +0000

Miley Cyrus has a boyfriend: underwear model Justin Gaston. She’s fifteen, he’s twenty, and the tabloids are all a twitter. Her dad, Billy Ray Cyrus, not only approves of the match, he introduced the two. (I assume Billy Ray wasn’t paid off by some agent to arrange this Justin Gaston match.)

Is she growing up too fast? Dating someone too old? Nah. This single dad thinks Miley is doing just fine.

My reaction might surprise some readers. After all, Miley Cyrus is only half a year younger than my daughter, and I’ve ranted on Miley before. I was disappointed with the Miley Cyrus sexy nude Vanity Fair photo shoot where she’s all wrapped up in satin sheets. And later, when I was getting comfortable with her image shift from good girl to sultry young woman, I came down on her hard for the Miley Cyrus Hannah Montana back-to-school gear targeted at young girls.

With a billion dollar franchise to Miley Cyrus’s name, who can begrudge her (or her people) for trying to take money from young kids and young adults, alike? (Um, me?)

But when I saw news that Miley Cyrus was dating this older Justin Gaston, I thought – she’s just like I was at that age!

Like Miley Cyrus, I was dating at fifteen, going out with someone older. My girlfriend had two years on me. In fact, I legally drove her to my first prom with a learner’s permit because she turned eighteen before the dance.

Granted, Miley Cyrus’s boyfriend Justin Gaston is older than any boy I’d want dating my daughter. But Miley Cyrus’s life is extremely different than most. She’s a child celebrity. She has already grown up fast.

Would she be better off with a boyfriend her age, like Nick Jonas, the Jonas Brother she used to date? Nah. Girls mature faster than boys, and Miley’s already been living sort of like an adult. Years are less an issue than the life stage two people are in. With all her wealth and success, Miley Cyrus needs an older boy who feels comfortable around her. A twenty year-old boyfriend like Justin Gaston seems about right for her.

So, Miley, I wish you the best of luck in your dating endeavors.

And any twenty-year-old boys like Justin Gaston eyeing my daughter can go away, now.

Note: Miley Cyrus Justin Gaston update from Yahoo OMG – she’s in the April 2009 Glamour, talking about her older boyfriend Justin Gaton. The pics posted on yahoo’s OMG are awesome, and age appropriate:

Miley Cyrus in a prom-like dress, wielding a guitar – Miley Glamour pic on yahoo OMG
Miley Cyrus cute smile, with her dog – Miley Glamour pic on yahoo OMG

Note: Miley Cyrus broke up with boyfriend Justin Gaston in June 2009

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Sexy Miley Cyrus Pics and Back-to-School Gear

dadshouse — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 08:00:38 +0000

Ah, Miley Cyrus. I was just getting comfortable with your move from good girl to sultry woman. The sexy nude Vanity Fair pics in satin sheets, the licorice lip-swap in a hallway with a girlfriend, the wet t-shirt shower pics that may have been hacked (and because of that uncertainty, I won’t point to them.) The older boyfriend Justin Gaston.

My 16-year-old daughter, who is about your age, totally gets what you’re doing. You’re trying to be more of a woman, advance your career to more adult roles. Fine. Props to you. I hope you can do it in a way that doesn’t crash and burn like other Disney girls. Britney Spears – from Mickey Mouse club to panty-less skirts, disastrous performances, shaved hairdos. Lindsay Lohan – from double-twin Parent Trap cuteness and Freaky Friday success to drunken driving arrests and way too much partying.

But just when you’re entering womanhood, Miley, at the ripe old age of 15 – you come out with Hannah Montana back-to-school gear featuring your cute girlie girly Hannah Montana persona. Products targeted at 6-12 year-old girls.

Do we buy our young daughters and nieces the backpacks and binders and glitter diaries, and pretend the sexy adult Miley Cyrus doesn’t exist? Or do we tell them about Miley Cyrus nude in satin sheets? Or Miley Cyrus frolicking with a girlfriend? Or whatever else TMZ, Perez Hilton, and the paparazzi find?

Please, Miley. You’re sending a mixed message. And with a billion-dollar industry to your name, I have to believe that message is entirely calculated. Are you a teeny-bopper or a sultry siren? And if you’re both, which as a fifteen-year-old girl you very well may be, do you want all your seven-year-old fans to mimic your role model behavior?

Thankfully, my sixteen-year-old daughter can make up her own mind on this one. She won’t be buying any of your back-to-school supplies. And while she respects your move to womanhood, it quite frankly doesn’t figure into her own life at this point.

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Miley Cyrus Sexy Vanity Fair Pics – She’s Younger Than My Daughter

dadshouse — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:09:00 +0000

Famed photographer Annie Leibovitz recently shot Miley Cyrus for Vanity Fair, and the resulting pictures aren’t surprising. After all, Leibovitz is well known for other female celebrity pics she’s shot. Who can forget the photo of Demi Moore pregnant and nude, Scarlett Johansson butt naked and Keira Knightley nude with Tom Ford, or Demi wearing nothing but a bodypainted suit?

So when I saw the photograph of Miley Cyrus nude in satin bed sheets, bare back, sexily messy hair, I was fairly non-plussed. She’s a celebrity singer/actor likely trying to dispel her good-girl Disney image to attract a wider audience and land adult acting roles. I’m not immune to the idea of broadening a demographic base. And it wasn’t like she was totally buck naked.

But then I realized – Miley Cyrus is younger than my daughter.

Photo by Annie Leibovitz, some rights reserved.

What message does this bedroom shot send to high school girls? Will my daughter, 16 years old and a Hannah Montana fan, doubt herself and wonder whether she’s taking things too slowly with boys her age? After all, she’s only recently started hanging out with boys, testing the waters with harmless flirting. I know she’s more woman than child, but I’d like for her to mature at her own pace. Is Miley Cyrus setting a good example?

Photographs Annie Leibovitz
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I’m certainly no prude, as any Dad’s House reader can attest. I’ve had my share of hookups, booty calls and one night stands. But I’m an adult. When I was my daughter’s age, I was happy to simply make out with my girlfriend under the bleachers. We weren’t waking up together in satin sheets.

I know some high school kids are having sex, just look at pregnant Jamie-Lynn Spears. But Jamie-Lynn never missed curfew, she probably snuck off with her boyfriend for romps during the day. It wasn’t like they were sleeping over. And she did her deeds in private – she didn’t pose naked in bed for a picture to be published in a national magazine.

Miley Cyrus is already the richest child celebrity with a $1 billion franchise. If she feels the need to up her game and grab an even bigger share from a more adult pie, that’s her business. But couldn’t she have done so without thumbing her nose at the very fans who made her rich? Her nude in bed pics tell the world she’s no longer a kid.

I’m disappointed in Miley Cyrus. And for now I’m keeping my daughter in cotton sheets.

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