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Final Paper: Miley Cyrus Transformation

Armela Mustafaj

Visual Culture

Professor Murray

15 April 2017

Miley Cyrus: Transformation through the Years

Breaking into the Hollywood scene since 2006, debuting as Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus has been a household name. From Disney’s “Hannah Montana” and world tours, to pop anthems our youth can’t and won’t stop singing; she has worked hard to earn her name. The starlet’s look has changed dramatically over the years, and with her growing up in front of the cameras, there was a whole world out there to see it happen. Identity is no longer the promise of a product. Rather, identity is the pure product we consume; either as information, an image, or in this case an artist (Sturken Page 228). The brand image of a celebrity is the impression of the products held by real or potential consumers. Her celebrity brand image once had the reputation of an innocent and sweet girl. Her fan base consisted of many young teenage girls who idolized her and were influenced by her fame. When we think of a celebrity’s brand image, we think of consistency. While Miley Cyrus was on “Hannah Montana” for four seasons, she delivered a highly performed brand promise to her viewers. Parents accepted her as a symbol of “pure” fun and the energy between Cyrus and the Disney brand seemed unstoppable. She reinforced Disney’s family values, and vice versa. The brand extended to merchandise and her net worth was thought to have been close to $150 million. Having such a fortune at a young age she reinforced the idea that a good girl can be wildly successful. Just like everything else Disney, people grow up and the good girl is now an adult. The Disney brand is kid stuff and she knew she couldn’t reach an audience of 14-year-old girls as she was hitting her twenties. Cyrus needed to find a way to remain relevant while continuing to grow her fortune.

When we think of images we know that they present to a viewer clues about their dominant meaning. A dominant meaning can be the interpretation that an image’s producers intended viewers to make (Sturken, Page 56). An image or object is encoded with meaning in its creating; it is further encoded when it is placed in a given setting or context (Sturken, Page 56). Take the show “Hannah Montana” for instance, this show is encoded by meaning by the writers, producers, and the production apparatus that allows it to be made and the audience according to our cultural assumptions and viewing context then decodes it. The show is a comedy series that stars Miley Ray Cyrus as Miley Stewart and unbeknownst to her friends and classmates, Miley has a secret double life; one as a normal high school girl and the other as world famous pop star, Hannah Montana. Now because this was a Disney Channel show and was targeted for young kids, the encoding that writers and producers went for was that you could have the best of both worlds. One of the greatest lessons I learned from being an avid viewer of the show was to be yourself whoever that is. The entire storyline was based on a teenage girl who lies to the world about her true identity. Is she Miley Stewart? Is she Hannah Montana? She doesn’t know, therefore how could we? I don’t even know exactly who I am now at 21 years old much less back when I was 14 years old. Throughout the series, Miley Stewart struggled with the question of her true identity. You see her struggle to define herself and reconcile her two lives and it felt relatable to viewers because otherwise it wouldn’t have been a hit television show. Now fast forward to today with our knowledge of everything there is to know and see about Miley Cyrus, you see the similarities between the characters she played on television and whom she truly was deep inside. Decoding the Hannah Montana series wasn’t difficult. Much like Stewart, Cyrus was struggling pretending to be someone she was not all those years. She was always told what to do, what to wear, what to sing, how to act, etc. How could we ever tame Cyrus? Ironically enough, she wrote a hit song called “Can’t Be Tamed.” She once told MTV in an interview that this song “it’s just about freeing yourself from anything you think is holding you back. And I think that’s really important especially for girls, because so many people are told, ‘No, you can’t do something,’ or, ‘You need to be this because Mom and Dad say that, teachers say this (2)’”.

She decided to rebrand her celebrity image and change the views of others. She was no longer that 14-year-old pop star with a blonde wig and microphone. This was when she chopped off her long beautiful hair and surprised everyone on television by her performance at the MTV Music Awards. It was all over the news and it instantly became controversial news. At the MTV Music Awards she wore a flesh-toned latex body suit and performed provocative dance moves, all while holding a foam finger and creating what is now her signature pose with her tongue out. Cyrus no longer represented the Disney brand and for that matter any pre-teen or teen brand. Parents were outraged and even prevented their children from watching Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball” music video. Who did she represent now? Representation is a process in which we cobble up the world around us, even through a simple reformation of an artist, and making meaning from it (Sturken, Page 14). Miley Cyrus became set on letting the world know she was her own person and most importantly her own woman. She is now a strong and proud advocate for the LGBTQ community and is also a feminist. She is apart of a foundation she launched, Happy Hippy Foundation, which supports LGBTQ and homeless youth. In February 2012, Miley Cyrus revealed that she had received hate mail from the conservative Christians in her fan base for her stance on marriage equality. But she sticks to her guns, writing that it made her "feel sick to my stomach" to think same-sex couples would be denied legal marriages. "Without legalized same-sex marriage, most of the time you cannot share the same health benefits, you are not considered next of kin and you are not granted the same securities as a heterosexual couple," she writes. "How is this different than having someone sit in the back of the bus because of their skin color?" Being one of many celebrities speaking for the LGBTQ publicly, this ultimately tied in perfectly with her representation and how she wanted her fans to view her now. She is so set on telling her fans the truth and only showing them what was real and that is why she was so glad the MTV Music Awards happened the way it did. There are so many adolescents and young adults who struggle with their sexuality in our cruel society. Having celebrity figures as powerful as Miley Cyrus give individuals a voice to be heard. She may have lost the love of a few parents but she sure won the hearts of people who believe in equality and a just world. Cyrus praised Disney Channel for finally adding their first gay couple on “Good Luck Charlie” back in 2013 (3). “I commend Disney for making this step into the light of this generation. They control so much of what kids think! Life isn’t bright sets and wardrobe and kids becoming superstars! This is inspiring,” she tweets. This tweet resonated with me because fans of Cyrus understand her struggle. She didn’t grow up like every average child in America did, she was born with talent and with that she practically grew up in front of the public eye. The way she represents herself now will not change because she is sticking true to her colors and this time she can make her own decisions, rather than have someone else make the decisions for her.

Let’s take a step back for a minute and talk about twerking (4). Now the roots of twerking are rich and it was commonly associated with the New Orleans scene. Its origins lie in West Africa and it’s exceedingly similar to the Mapouka dance from Cote d’lvoire (4). This was a dance done by woman and its main body of focus was the buttocks, however it was a cultural dance that existed for centuries. Of course we have construed twerking as being sexual, scandalous and controversial. Yet, if you take a look back to its original context you will realize it is a cultural expression of joy not for sexual pleasure. You would see twerking performed by women at family gatherings and weddings. It was simply dancing, nothing scandalous about it. Just like everything that media has twisted and manipulated in the past, twerking has now been branded. Miley Cyrus was the channel that brought twerking to mainstream consciousness. The world is infatuated with black culture and corporations know this. Miley Cyrus cannot twerk and yet has attempted to take something from black culture and appropriate this. She uploaded a video on YouTube twerking to the song, “Wop”, and also attempted to twerk to the MTV Music Awards. Cyrus carved out twerking and aimed to make the dance culturally appropriate. However, what ended up happening was Cyrus misappropriating a tiny element of the black cultural experience for profit and shock value.

The male gaze is also an important term to consider when analyzing Miley Cyrus’s image. The gaze is uncritically consented to by the audience and in the gaze the subject/gazer (man) has the power, whereas the object (woman) lacks power. The concept of the gaze is fundamentally about the relationship of pleasure and images (Sturken, Page 76). When considering the male gaze there is both pleasure and pain in these ways of looking. The pleasure in being looked at includes the acknowledgement of presence, aesthetic appreciation, and looks of love or care. The pain in being looked at includes the identity as an object and the intention of the gazer. The male gaze theory can be applied through Miley Cyrus’ music video “Wrecking Ball.” There is a scene in the video where Miley places the places the hammer in the center of the shot along with her red lips licking the hammer. This draws attention and signifies the action she is carrying out. This complies with the male gaze theory because many of the scenes in this video have sexual connotations. Resulting in creating an erotic gaze for a heterosexual male. Another memorable scene from the video is her stripping naked and swinging from the wrecking ball. Now Cyrus poses in an extremely sexualized way, implying she is the object of sexual desire. There is also shots throughout the video where her bare legs are being shown slowly and this complied with the male gaze theory because she appears to just be laying in the rubble, almost like an object and her only purpose is for men to look at her for sexual purposes.

Miley Cyrus has no interest in conforming to today’s beauty standards but still feels low when she looks at touches photos (5). She was insanely famous when I was in middle school and that was a long time ago so there’s no doubt that being in front of television at such a young age impacted her in some way. Cyrus is obviously comfortable in her skin these days but back when she played Miley Stewart in “Hannah Montana” she wasn’t so comfortable. In an interview with Marie Claire she reflected on the negative daily pressures of playing the teenage character had on her. “From the time I was 11, it was, "You're a pop star! That means you have to be blonde, and you have to have long hair, and you have to put on some glittery tight thing,” she said (5). She was working 12 hour days on set and would have coffee 'jammed down her throat' to get her up and moving. Miley said, 'When you look at retouched, perfect photos, you feel like s**t. They lighten black girls' skin. They smooth out wrinkles. Even when I get stuck on Instagram wondering, "Why don't I look like that?" It's a total bummer. It's crazy what people have decided we're all supposed to be (5).” There has been an infinite amount of photographs shot of Miley Cyrus and she has been the face of thousands of magazines over the years, all of which have been digitally manipulated to conform to societies rules on what it means to look beautiful. “I'm probably never going to be the face of a traditional beauty company unless they want a weed-smoking, liberal-ass freak. But my dream was never to sell lip-gloss. My dream is to save the world,” she says (6). Cyrus has been having fun with her own kind of digital manipulation where she posts a variety of images on Instagram of the most random photoshopped images (6). There are been images where she photoshopped herself in an image of Kim Kardashian and Kanye, her mother and her on two carrots, her boyfriend’s head on her body, her face on Nicki Minaj’s body, etc. She photoshops for unintentional purposes and it’s all fun and laughs (6).

As we all know, Miley Cyrus is a huge figure in media today. There are fans who absolutely swear by her every move and much of what she does affect those who view her as a role model. This year’s Presidential campaign was one that everyone will remember for much of the wrong reasons. Celebrities were very vocal on their political views via social media. The concept of a public culture is an important element in how the mass media is conceived. Media forms in which are one-way, such as radio and television, contribute to a sense of shared audience among viewers (Sturken, Page 177). Our public sphere today is social media (i.e Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc). Cyrus was very vocal during the campaign and after the elections on her stance on President Donald Trump. She uses her voice to stand up for some really powerful movements in our country. She takes a dig at Donald Trump’s campaign with her pimped out red hat that says: MAKE AMERICA GAY AGAIN. She shows her fans that she loves all her fans including her fans in the LGBTQ. She was an important figure in the election because we need to influence young people to pay attention to politics and to never doubt the power of fashion for social change. She even broke down crying after nominee Donald Trump won the Presidential nomination. She shared a video to her Facebook of her thoughts after the election. Miley says that, “I still think that, in Hillary’s lifetime, she deserves to be the first female president, and that’s what makes me so sad. I wish she had an opportunity because she fought for so long and because I believe her when she says that she loves this country. This is all she’s ever done; she’s given her life to make it better.” She later added, “Hopefully we adjust and we accept everyone for who they are, and, so, Donald Trump, I accept you. This hurts to say, but I even accept you as President of the United States, and that’s fine, because, now, I want to be a hopeful hippie. I want to be hopeful that you will step in, too.” Cyrus also took to her Instagram to write a heartfelt message encouraging fans to be loving and compassionate towards one another. This revealed so much about her character and for her image for that matter. She didn’t care if all her followers were seeing her cry and sharing her feelings. She uses this Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook as a modern public sphere. The idea of a public sphere was generated in the eighteenth century yet there is not doubt that it has a modern relevance and is essentially a way for civil society to articulate its interests. But what is the role of the public sphere in the cyber age? Social media has made way for fans to have direct access to Miley Cyrus and they are able to like, comment, retweet, favorite her content as well as express their arguments and opinions without censorship.

John Berger has written, “The state of being envied is what constitutes glamour.” The idea of glamour is central to advertising, both in the use of well-known celebrities to sell products and in the depiction of models who appear to be happy, without flaws, and satisfied (Sturken, Page 213). We all remember when Miley Cyrus would smoke marijuana and didn’t care if she sparked public controversy online. This necessarily isn’t a beauty product or a weight loss supplement that she is promoting, however, dedicated fans may see what she is doing, realize how beautiful and successful she is and start smoking too. She could start the smallest of trends and people would follow because she has such a strong affect on her fan base. There was a period of time where even I envied her success and fortune, meanwhile she would post videos and pictures of herself smoking marijuana or anything controversial. Here I am, going to school, working, and being a good girl, however I’m not successful or famous? Maybe I should start smoking weed and chop all my hair off? Of course I wouldn’t do that. But anyone who isn’t confident in themselves and searches for a role model in celebrities such as Miley Cyrus, would probably think that resulting in more damage than good. This creates insecurities and anxiety for the average girl in our corrupt society today. Last thing we need besides being objectified as women is being manipulated into thinking that a drug would benefit our lives because in our eyes she seems happy either way.

After carrying out lots of investigation into the ever-changing identity of Miley Cyrus, it is clear that as she has matured and become more famous as her identity is becoming more outrageous. She continues to experiment with different hairstyles, fashion statements and tattoos. In fact, she now has a total of 23 tattoos, including several on her fingers, rib cage and even one on the inside of her lip. She played a huge role in the lives of teen girls around the world and will continue to inspire us in becoming our true selves. The mind boggles as to what she’ll come up with next. Will it be radiating or just corrupting? Either way, this is indisputably Miley’s moment. And she’s having the time of her life.

Work Cited:

(1) Sturken (Seperately Cited Throughout Paper)

(2) Vena, Jocelyn. "Miley Cyrus Female Empowerment." MTV, 23 June 2010. Web.

(3) Macatee, Rebecca. "Disney Channel Praise." E! News, 24 June 2013. Web.

(4) Mbakwe, Christiana. “The Origins of Twerking.” XOJane, 30 August 2013. Web.

(5) "Miley Cyrus and Body Images." Daily Mail UK, 13 Aug. 2015. Web.

(6) Mize, Chelsea. "Miley Cyrus' Photoshop Skill." Bustle, 24 Mar. 2015. Web.

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