Tousled hair? Check.
Toplessness? Check.
Wrinkled bedsheet/clothes pulled up to conceal said toplessness? Check
Harsh makeup for a 15-year-old? Check.
Enigmatic expression that might be "come hither" but you don't know for sure? Check.
I know it's been defended by using those teenaged Brooke Shields Calvin Klein ads as an example:
But every time I see those photos it's a different Brooke Shields thing I see:
You know what happens when you make these young teen idols grow up too fast?
What really bugs me is that I actually watched a few of these "Hannah Montana" episodes, and I thought they were pretty cool for teenage girls to watch. But it's like actresses/singers like Miley turn 15, 16 years old and there is this big rush to establish them as "hot chix." What the hell?
That's why I'm throwing my support towards proud Girl Scout Abigail Breslin:
Nobody let Annie Leibovitz and her camera within twenty feet of that girl!
I read in the Express (Washington Post light for us commuters) that Miley was a bit miffed at how she was portrayed in the photo shoot. She thought it was going to be "arty" but saw the photos in the magazine and felt duped.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that if I had a 15 year old daughter (or son for that matter) that became famous and Annie Leibovitz wanted to photograph her I would say yes in a heart beat. I mean just her name gives enough credit to do something like this and it be artistic. I honestly have to say Cyrus looks fairly "innocent" in all of it.
ReplyDeleteNot to sound sexist, but I am not putting too much in the whole "I was duped" argument. Apparently Miley's parents and management team was there. They could have stopped it at any time. Miley probably could have as well. It's pretty hard to dupe all those people.
ReplyDeleteWhat I think is that they were going for shocking, it turned out to be too shocking, and they backpedaled. I think they knew what kind of vibe they were going for in the get go.
Should they be taking pictures of a 15 year old, naked, wearing a sheet? No. I don't think so. But there are only certain ways a 15 year old wearing a sheet could look. If they didn't realize before hand that it could turn out too racy, the have no right to complain afterward.
I agree, William,
ReplyDeleteor I at least agree that her parents/management weren't "duped."
it is a very common thing with these teenage female celebrities to have their "coming out" photo shoot in some major magazine in which they are made up to look adult and sexy. In fact, I think it must be an official "rite of passage" for starlets in Hollywood.
in my mind, I think these things are done as calculated career moves, as a way to show the world that they aren't "little girls" anymore and that they are "leading lady" material. Maybe there is a fear of being typecast as a child star, and this is the antidote to that.
It's totally reprehensible.
ReplyDeleteIt's not limited to female stars, though. Not the sexying up, or the 'clueless' parents-management.
Just see 'Quit Playing Games with my heart' by the BSB, and remember that wet, 'sexy' Nick Carter was only 15. Or 'Tearing Up my Heart' by *N Sync, that portrays a 14 year old Justin Timberlake in a wife beater on a bed. Both produced by Lou Pearlman, who is now facing charges of molesting the kids on his watch (JT hasn't been mentioned on the charges, but Nick has), and whose mothers were always at the shoots.
Unfortunately, parents will accept almost anything as long as they think their kids will get a shot at fame and fortune.
And while I had no idea who Miley Cyrus was by name, I wouldn't never have thought she was 15 by those pictures.
In fairness, if she or her management team don't want her typecast as a child star, all she needs to do is walk away from Hannah Montanna right now and go do an indie movie about anything other than teen-pregnancy or coming of age in a small town.
ReplyDeleteThe management team do and don't have a defence with the whole 'we didn't know how it would turn out' angle - the photograph has been touched up between the shoot and seeing print, and there was obviously more than just one photograph taken that day. Who knows what the others were like - possibly more restrained. Presumably they were a bit more original, at the very least, as if I was on her management team and looked through the shots from that day, I certainly wouldn't have pegged that particular image as being the one a lauded photographer or experienced editor would have picked from the bunch. What seems to have escaped everyone's notice in the furore is that it just isn't a very good photo.
On the other hand, her management team could've just asked to see the article before they printed it. Would have took all of two seconds.
Also, I'm not sure about 'coming out' parties, being from Ireland, as the closest thing we have here is 'the Formal', which traditionally happens to young men and women of 16+. 15 seems a bit young for any kind of formal induction into adulthood, highly-visible child star or not.
Wow, I don't know about being "duped" and it's not surprising at all to me that a 15-year-old girl (and obviously those managing her) wants to be "hot." What I do wonder is what would happen if someone was passing around photos of a non-famous 15-year-old girl wearing only a sheet. While I'm aware that the age of sexual consent varies from state to state, I had thought that child pornography laws were pretty strict.
ReplyDeleteThis 30-something American male finds the whole thing creepy. It's bad enough when actresses and such over 18 look really young, but this - no matter how famous the photographer is - seems really wrong.
On the one hand, I agree that 15-16 is too young for photos like this. On the other I can definitely see how they intended it to be "arty" because the first thing I thought when I saw it was that it looked almost like a worth1000 photoshop job imposed over a Bougeureau. Her facial structure is a dead ringer for The Shepherdess and posture seems like it's echoing the Seated Nude, or perhaps one of the other classical paintings... On the gripping hand, it's hard to imagine what they thought the results would be, since I doubt that they'd want her to enter into the same category as the other trashy teen stars of the era, the other option being public outcry, which has obviously happened.
ReplyDeleteOh Snap! Leibovitz already got to Abigail Breslin.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.livingorlando.com/wp-content/plugins/nextgen-gallery/nggshow.php?pid=146&width=500&height=333&mode=
It would appear that no child actor is safe from the Leib.
Yeah, but Abigail had Julie Andrews there to look after her best interests.
ReplyDeleteMary Poppins never lets the kids down.
Ijust stumbled across this here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.slate.com/id/2190209/
thought it might be interesting.
I don't why people get so worked up over a picture of a girl with a bed sheet. For one, you can't actually see any "Personal" parts of her body. Two, it's also a modeling job alot of wemon and teens model pictures quite like that and do you see any one going crazy over that? No to answer that question. I personally think that people are just making a big deal out of that picture is because she's had such a clean reputation and she's popular, people have just been waiting for her to make one little mistake so that that can write crap about her. I just don't think that people should be so shocked and horrified by that stupid photo.
ReplyDelete