New Miley Cyrus video more disturbing than it means to be

image from thefrisky.com

[via Gawker] Miley Cyrus has a new music video out that has sent the internet into a frenzy.  Since this blogger has been enjoying pop music so much lately, I wanted to check it out, even though I’m generally pretty creeped out by Cyrus.  It’s not her fault– it’s mostly the way her terrible, terrible family began exploiting her and sexualizing her when she was a preteen.  So she’s got this new video out now, and everybody’s all like, “It’s too sexual!” and all like, “She’s too young to be so sexual!”  NEED I REMIND everyone about the Vanity Fair disaster??  This poor kid has been put in inappropriate situations for a long, long time.

Watch the video and read the Gawker response here.

Most of the buzz seems to be about the video being too sexualized, or just being bad, but what struck me is the heartbreaking symbolism of the video– Cyrus is in a freaking cage, after all.  The video opens with a room full of fancy-looking people milling about at a museum, about to see the “creature” Cyrus “in captivity for the first time.”  She is revealed to the gawking audience, who stare, gasp, and take her picture– which causes the Cyrus bird to recoil.  One of the first lines is:

Every guy everywhere just gives me mad attention/ Like I’m under inspection

Who knows to what extent Cyrus had any input in the video or the lyrics.  But either way, it hits a little too close to home, for a kid who is constantly under inspection, who basically is inside a cage, surrounded by adults looking in and taking pictures.