Bodies Put on Display

Okay so you have probably heard enough about Miley Cyrus, but it would be a shame for me to leave this video alone without pointing out the obvious. Beyond the chewing money, the kissing of dolls and the hot dog ravaging, there’s even a worse visual image that I must discuss. If you forward the video and stop at exactly 1 minute and thirty seconds you will see miss Miley Cyrus dancing with African American women, seems harmless right? Wrong. The problem I have with this is the simple fact that these women are used as props not only in this video but at the live performance at the VMAs.

Because of the womens’ curvy bodies and to die for booties, they are put on display and frankly I disapprove. Now I don’t totally want to shame Miley Cyrus, these woman did choose to be in the music video, but my main problem is the way they are used in the video. Now I’m totally for getting people of different ethnic and culture backgrounds to be your back up dancers, but when they are only used to shake their asses behind you, that’s when I draw the line. I don’t know if any of you have ever heard of the Hottentot Venus, but she was this slave woman who had a very large bottom and when she arrived in London in 1810 her body became an economic exploitation. At times she would be put in a cage as if she was an exotic animal and everyone had to catch a sneak peak. Though this  is a very extreme example compared to the Miley Cyrus scandal, I can’t help but to find some similarities.