Patterns of controversy are so wonderfully predictable aren't they?
The new unpleasantness over the
Miley Cyrus Vanity Fair picture is a perfect example. It goes like this:
Someone does something vaguely objectionable to certain people - Media outlets anticipate ratings/sales/website hits that could come from fomenting controversy over said semi-bothersome act - Pot is stirred - People with political gripes latch onto budding kerfuffle for their own evil purposes - Media pretend they didn't start the whole thing on purpose, disguise perpetuation of controversy as "analysis" - Individual at center of shitstorm is forced to apologize even though they didn't really do anything wrong - Bill O'Reilly hides hard-on behind self-righteous rant - Blogs mock individual at center of shitstorm, media,
Bill O'Reilly, everyone else remotely involved in scenario - Lots of people make lots of money.
This one is particularly silly because, frankly, there's nothing wrong with that picture of Miley Cyrus. It's only "sexual" if you're the kind of sick fuck who goes around viewing any display of skin as inherently "sexual."
And the idea that pedos need to be kept at bay by having Miley put a shirt on is silly...cause real pedos are going to be aroused even if Miley does have a shirt on.
Stuff like this is why the French laugh at us.
And yes, I realize
Vanity Fair only ran that photo because they knew it would be controversial and help their sales. They've exploited Miley too. Everyone has exploited Miley, including me for posting this.
Still, at the root of the whole thing is an incredibly absurd, backward, childish sensibility. If people didn't get all outraged over completely innocent things like a picture of a teenager wrapped in a sheet - and furthermore, if certain media outlets didn't take advantage of said outrage by anticipating/stoking it - then there'd be no situation for
Vanity Fair or me or anyone else to exploit.
It's stupid that Miley felt she had to apologize. And it's stupid that I felt I had to write this. And America is full of big, dumb, stupid lumbering dipshits who see lasciviousness and sexuality in places where there isn't any.
These people are all John Ashcrofts hiding statues behind curtains because of the naughty naughty boobies. Grow the fuck up.