Painfully Young Siren Strikes A Pose...

By Eric 'Renderking' Fisk - May 14th, 2008

I'll never forget the day when I was first introduced to Britney Spears. It was not memorable because of her beauty or the provocative nature of the poses she took with in the pages of a popular men's magazine, although that was the factor. I remember that this publication was strategically placed in various locations around Boarders Books in Nashua, New Hampshire, this issue was found in prominent locations, at the end of some isles and were aside from the other magazines. I don't remember why this issue was so "important" but it was in displays in the foyer and cash registers.

What struck me was the nature of the article when Miss Spears' comments were quoted about her quick rise to fame and amassing an incredible fortune so early with her first album "Baby hit me one more time..." the title itself has a double entendre that's either sexual or violent depending on how you say it or hear it. She was absolutely too honest about some of the most deeply personal things, such as she hated the way her feet looked and how she knew that perhaps her biggest fan base isn't the 'tweens (the 10-12 demographic,) but the young boys and frustrated middle aged men who found her hot. She knew that older girls and younger women wanted to be her, while all members of the masculine gender wanted to bed her. She was hot, and she knew it and she was going to use that to her advantage even at the cost of losing some privacy.

What shocked me was the total lack of discretion in her comments about sexuality and the wanton desire by men for a woman who was in her late teens... Someone so young and naive, not knowing what fate had in store for her. Here was a young woman, a former "Mouseketeer" was already exploited and sexualized and yet was more then a year away from being able to vote and a handful more away from being able to legally buy herself a drink.

What I remembered the most from this moment was the thought about how incredibly unfair it was that this was now the new standard for what was "sexy." This was the roll model for young women? How is any woman supposed to compete with that? How can any woman compete with so much money and talent but with so little brains? How were all the other women supposed to compete with "that" for the affections of young men? What man running on pure lust wouldn't want someone who was both attracted and easily manipulated like Britney Spears? And at the same time how could women like my wife and those of her age and accomplishment not feel embarrassment and resentment towards those in the media who made this pop tart the standard?

Ten years later and new "jail bait" has been manufactured by Disney and is now in the middle of a controversy involving a proactive photo which now brings back the topic "how young is too young?"

Enter Miley Cyrus

I'll be honest with all of you (like I always try to do, but that's what I say when I'm about to express an opinion that's going to be highly controversial and might be hurtful to a lot of people...) I'm clueless on a lot of issues. I've almost made a career out of being clueless on some issues and reviling in how I'm actually proud that I don't understand some modern things. The most obvious example is what makes a fad in one day and out the next. It's so contrived, as if there has to be someone detached from logic dictating what's in and what's out...

The second issue that I'm clueless about: I have no idea why some performers become popular. There are those out there who are of such minimal talent who become rich and famous, while there are those who have it all can't catch a break because of some quirk that's invisible or unheard to everyone besides entertainment executives and talent scouts. There are many performers hustling for their being break out there, I'm sure its frustrating for people with real talent see a less talented performer get further ahead because their popularity was manufactured by a cooperation.

But I look at performers like Britney Spears and know exactly why that performer is famous, it's because we're told so by the committee of "They, Them and Those." [The group of people who gather once in a while and dictate what's in and what's out... "You know, THEY say short skirts are coming back.] There are those young performers that are bought on the Soul Warehouse (put on the market by their parents) and Disney grooms and concocts an image and a persona for our young children to emulate so that our cherubs will come to us and ask for products that will help them be more like their on-screen heroes. [The irony is not lost on me, that the man who is writing this is the webmaster of a site dedicated to duplicating the style and substance of a by-gone era and the name of such was inspired by his heroes headwear...]

The latest is Miley Cyrus - daughter of "Achy Breaky Heart" Billy Ray Cyrus. I'm not saying this to put her down, or to trash her fans. I have no idea how she's famous or popular other then the fact that someone in her life had the boldness to get a good agent who in-turn introduced her demo-tapes and photographs to a head-hunter with-in the Disney Cooperation. When I have to hear her sing, I hear yelling and a shrill almost that almost matches Hillary Clinton. I don't think she's unattractive, but she's 15 and I'm 38 and the mere question makes me want to run to the sink and wash my keyboard out with soap. Miley Cyrus seems to prove just how unfair life can be for someone on the outside looking at her life, I'm sure there are some other talented girls out there asking "why her and not me," Anyone with an IQ above room temperature can see there's just something not right here...

There doesn't seem to me any reason why she's now the center of a "Hannah Montana" franchise worth Millions (if not Hundreds of Millions approaching Billions....) of Dollars. Just as I'm at a loss as to trying to explain how she became wealthy and popular, I'm just as inept as explaining to anyone who has no idea who she is just how popular she's become.

Many of the people who I've spoken to believe that she's another one of the pre-fabricated "phenomenon's" and just like much of what exists in the media, she's only popular because we're told she is.

Something To Write About In Her Autobiography?

At the end of March and the beginning of April, the biggest controversy about Miley Cyrus was the news about her cashing in to write her "Autobiography." She's 15 years old and already someone is offering a few million to share her life story?

I'm almost 40 with an extraordinary life, and I'm giving pieces of my story bits at a time here on The Fedora Chronicles for free. I must be doing something wrong...

One of the harshest criticisms about Miss Cyrus getting this book deal was her age and the lack of life-experiences. What's there to write about? What could she possible share with all of us that would warrant anyone plunking down more then ten dollars for a tome dictated by her parents and polished by a ghost writer. Besides being selected by a cooperation to be their next big thing and working non-stop for the past two years, what's there to say?

What nobody knew at the time was that back in February, Anne Liebowitz took what were later labeled "provocative" photos during the last few minutes of their session and after her father left the photo shoot. The one photo in question is the one I've doctored and you can see in the section above (it's now available on our forum and can be used as your avatar if you wish.) The picture in this section, with Miley having some make-up and hair touched up, is just something I posted to sort of prove that these pictures were obviously meant to be sexually provocative and to make Miley - a girl of only 15 - to look more mature and more sexual. Or just sexual, period.

For everyone living in a cave who doesn't yet know, for the past few weeks this has stirred up a fire-storm and a controversy that seems a bit, well... contrived. First the Autobiography with nothing much to really write about, then as on queue there's this debate about whether or not these pictures are "alluring" or "inappropriate." There's something about these two events that feel to me to be manufactured.

I don't believe in coincidences anymore when it comes to the media... it just so happens that after one debate about Miley Cyrus makes the headlines, an even bigger one comes out the following week over photos that were taking almost 2 months ago? This is choreographed better then some of the dances on stage in her concert.

Define "Too Young..."

Maybe I'm perpetually and intentionally naive, there are something's I just don't want to know and I'm better off with out some information about other people's personal life. I wish to isolate myself forever with in the confines of The Fedora Chronicles while venting on line about how dreadful things are like how it's too easy it is to find smut on line (it finds me when ever I do a google search or check my e-mail.) At the same time while trying to recapture my youth by living vicariously with my boys as we buy legos and build things together on the dining room table over pizza with Doctor Who in the background on Friday Nights.

I'm the first to admit that I was just as excited as my boys are when we went to see "Walking With Dinosaurs" two weeks ago, and that I'm biting my nails while waiting to take them to see movies that I've waited a long time to see in the theater. I look at my sons and remember back when my life was filled with Space-ships and adventures on other worlds that took place in my back-yard with my action figures and things that we made with junk we found. I look back and think about how my life was actually better when I didn't know about societies pressures that demand that you know what your "sexual identity" is, when all I knew about when it came to boys and girls is that there's holding hands and kissing involved with some cuddling.

The Media, Disney and The Cyrus' aren't making it any easier to keep my kids innocent and focused on remaining children. I hate the notion that there's some executive or activist somewhere who thinks it's his or her job and responsibility to introduce my kids to things I don't want them knowing about. I don't want my 5 and my 3 year old to know about Homosexuality, Heterosexuality, Transgender, Transsexual, Transvestites or even Transfats that are found in many of the foods we eat elsewhere... simply because "transfats" just sounds dirty and perverted even though there's nothing provocative about cholesterol talk. Because I'm trying hard to make sure my kids don't know about these things, somewhere out there someone thinks that they have MORE of a responsibility to infect my kids little brains with this nonsense because I'm obviously so backwards and regressed.

All this flack about Miley Cyrus reminds me of all the guff women have to endure. To be relevant in the dating world, you have to be young or at least look it, you have to wear revealing clothes and behaving an a way that's the obscene balance of being available but not desperate. These pictures published of Miley Cyrus in Vanity Fair sends a message out to girls that it's not only OK to dress a little slutty (as seen on The Disney Channel show "Hannah Montana") but it's ok to undress and be a little slutty with pout. It's a negative and incorrect fact that girls learn fast enough as it is with out the help from some pop-tart or network devoted to "family programming..."

Miss Cyrus got a lot of attention with this, by the way, and I imagine more people know about her now then they did before she got undressed and got cozy with herself under the sheets. I wonder how many young girls came home with unwanted pregnancy's and diseases 10 years ago thanks to Miss Spears, and how many of them will do the same now now that Miley has shown that it's ok to be sexual at such an early age, too.

To me there's something very underhanded and almost vulgar about a media company like Disney, with the help of her parents, who worked hard to cultivate this new talent only to allow the wholesome image to be tarnished and sexualized at this point in time. Just as Miley is outgrowing her girlishness and into womanhood, she's being cultivated into something more appealing for younger men who's interests are fueled by hormones and testosterone.

What are the odds that this controversy was staged to prepare the world for a moment in time when the Hannah Montana gimmick has lost it's novelty? And why can't we just allow kids (even performers) remain kids just a little while longer?

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