Miley. A Defense? or a Gut Check? Maybe the BEST OF BOTH WORLDS.

Did you watch the VMA's Sunday night?? Some crazy ish went down. People have been UP IN ARMS about it for the past 48 hours.

I know I'm a loud person. I've made it so that I have an online presence...I've been putting my crazy out there for almost 8 years...with the blog and Facebook and Instagram and Tumblr and Twitter. There isn't much about me that is quiet.

So it's no secret I love Miley Cyrus. I call her Baby Girl. BG for short. If she's performed live anywhere within a 100 mile radius of me in the last 5 years...I've been there. And I've loved every minute of it. I own all of her CD's and movies. I could (proudly) "name that tune" to any number of her songs within 4 notes. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy. It shouldn't surprise me then, that after Sunday night...I got a good 90+ texts/emails from friends and family wanting my opinion on her antics.

Can I really put it into words? The way I love this kid, I'm not sure. It's like trying to explain why your daughter is Queen Princess Fairy Mermaid Snowflake Rainbow Cupcake Ballerina at her dance performance. Because she just is. And she is amazing at it. Of course she is.

But...OK. I'm gonna try...

But first, I must know: Did Sunday night's broadcast really SHOCK you? If yes...I have to ask, where have you been? Have you forgotten being touched for the very first time at an awards show? (psssst...that was THIRTY YEARS AGO.) Do you not remember feeling like Pedro was your brother, your best friend, your next door neighbor? (psssst...that was TWENTY YEARS AGO.) Have you never cringed, and covered your eyes, and placed your hands over your heart, all the while hoping against hope that what Nev was unearthing couldn't be true?! (psssst...that was YESTERDAY.) Do you even know what a Catfish is?! (psssst....it's okay. I didn't either. But thanks to MTV, I know now.)

The VMAs are meant to shock. Meant to rub you a little the wrong way. IT'S MTV FOR GOSH SAKES. When did the nation forget this? MTV is not in the business of making you feel good. Of respecting your traditional values. They have made millions off of marketing the ugly, the weird, the shocking, the awkward, the uncomfortable, the in your face, the UN-politically correct. Why now, do you expect them to stop? To reign it in? The show aired at 9PM. This wasn't Saturday morning, local channel cartoons. All those impressionable babes should have been tucked in. 

Yes, I still love her. (In fact, I think I love her even a little more.) No, I don't think she's spiraling out of control. If that were Megan or Molly up on that stage, what would I do? Okay, Le sigh...let's do this: 

I will admit, Miss Cyrus was over the top. Even for me, a die hard LOVER of my BG...she was in my face. But about two seconds into her performance I was laughing. And shaking my head. And saying out loud, "Oh heck...here we go." Because, while I watched her performance with wide eyes and didn't 100% agree with the route she was taking...I understood what she was doing. This wasn't a poor rich kid, ruined by the spot light, falling off the deep end. This was planned. This was calculated. This was on purpose.

Miley's performance Sunday night resulted in more than 306,000 tweets per minute. That is more than during the Superbowl or when Obama won his second term or when we killed Bin Laden. 

LET THAT SINK IN. 

(it's sad and disgusting and I drives me insane that it's true, because I beg of you...there are SO MANY OTHER THINGS I wish we would champion in this manner...but it is what it is. WE make it so.)

And what has happened? Many talented people performed Sunday night: Katy. Gaga. Bruno. Justin. NSYNC. Macklemore. (Hello? Did you listen to what Macklemore was trying to say?!) Miley didn't even win an award!! But WHO and WHAT are people talking about? How many tweets and Facebook and blog and buzzfeed and whatchamacallit posts have you seen in the past 48 hours that were about Miley? People who have no clue what the VMAs even are...still know that Miley did SOMETHING Sunday night. Her performance has been streamed over 10.3 MILLION times on MTV.com in 48 hours. Nothing else even comes within 10% of that. 

A quote from Rolling Stone:

"Miley was the one star in the room who truly understood what the MTV Video Music Awards are all about. She stole the night, which is why the nation is still in recovery. Thanks, Miley." 

In all reality...that's exactly what she did. She stole the show. Hands down. No debate. 

Bankrupted it, is more like it. 

Do I think she could learn a thing or two from Gaga and Katy? Their performances Sunday night were arguably "flawless." They embodied power, edge, sex and strength. And everyone is still taking them seriously Monday morning. (Even tho Gaga danced around in seashells and a G-string, ahem!)

Yes. As a Miley lover, there is a part of me that screams, "WHY CAN'T YOU JUST BE SAFE AND SMART AND MARKETABLE??!!! Why do you have to rock the boat SO HARD?! Why do you have to come in like a wrecking ball?"

But then again...who is talking about Gaga or Katy's performances 48 hours later? No one. No virtual gossip columns. Not Perez. Not Buzzfeed. Not E! News. Not every other mom blogger on the planet. Even sugar sweet, tried and true, Taylor Swift (I say that tongue in cheek) dropped the F-Bomb on national television but it failed to produce a single blip on the virtual radar. 

Who and What is everyone STILL talking about? I'd venture to say, Miley's camp couldn't have wished for things to go more perfectly. Her fans bought it, those who hated it are talking about it, and EVERYONE is paying attention to it. 

And I am reminded WHY I love her. 
She's bold. She's brave. She's so young and yet so self assured.
She's marketable because she refuses to be marketable.
Her crazy, in your face, open chaos - that's her vulnerability.
Does she hide it? No.
Do you hate it? Love it?
She doesn't care.
She's using it to her advantage.

And she is a success.

She dropped the second single from her yet to be released EP Saturday night.

24 hours before the VMAs.

WITH NO PROMOTION WHATSOEVER. 

None. 

All she did was send out a singular tweet. 

In less than 24 hours, Wrecking Ball was #1 on iTunes in the USA, Britain and Brazil.

While the nation was watching her thinking, "OMG and WTF?!"...her single was going #1. 

She's not dumb. 

And she's not lacking fans.

This crazy, twerking, short hair, tongue lashing girl you see...

It's a brand she's selling. 

And it's working. 

To the tune of MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.
And, if the last 48 hours are anything to show, apparently eons worth of free publicity.
(pssst...twerk was just added to the Oxford dictionary. No joke.)

Who wants to place bets on there being a run on foam fingers this Halloween?

Miley made her first million as an actress. 

Are you really so shocked that this is where she is now? 

This reinventing, self movement...it's very Madonna. 

(WAIT. WHAT?...that's so MTV. That's so 30 years ago!)

It's a performance.

She is a performer.

And the entire nation is walking right into her gyrating lap. 

In the grand scheme of things, I get why she did what she did Sunday night. It's marketably, bankably, absurdly GENIUS. But there is part of me that wishes she performed WB and brought the house down in tears instead. This is real. This isn't her playing games. The girl has a ridiculous voice...so much so, that I feel she takes it for granted. She doesn't even care to show it off. Cause she knows she owns it, and so do her fans. When Christina Perri tweets that your song is "massive," you know that it's angsty angst to the angst. (Notice she has it on continuous loop...Me too, CP. Me too.)

Miles, my BG...where was THIS VOICE Sunday night? Why do you fight it? I feel like there is a part of you that says "Eff it...people are gonna talk and hate anyhow. Might as well give them something to talk about." And I get it. I do. Cause there is a part of me that would do the exact same thing. 

But I digress. Back to the whole "What if that was Megan or Molly on the stage?" question...

Here's the hard thing for me to explain.

A Mother's Love.

If that were my kid,
Living big and loud. Happy and having fun. Alive in her dream.

Being herself. Being fierce, being brave. 

Earning a living...

I would give her a Standing O.

Just like Tish gave Miley Sunday night.

Of course I would.

She's mine and she's living.
We would have traveled this course together.
Our choices bringing us to this point.
So yes.

Of course. 

I'd be proud of my daughter. 

Would I be scared for her? Worried for her?
Would I wonder if, somewhere along the line, different decisions could have been made?
Would I wish she wasn't under the world's microscope?
Would I want to champion her dreams?
Would I kiss her goodnight?
Would I tell her the planet is better because she's on it?
Yes...I would.
Of course.

But here's the REALLY HARD THING for me to explain...
The VMA's are a point of national concern.

WHAAAAT?!
No, actually, I can't explain that one. 

Syria is using chemical weapons on it's own people.

A trans gender woman was beaten to death just for being.
1 in every 6 Americans are without dinner tonight. 

30,000 people DIE EVERY WEEK due to the lack of clean water.  

There is a homeless man that has sat on the corner of 17th and Orange for the last 12 months and I've never stopped.

But the nation is up in arms over Miley Cyrus and a foam finger.
And I'm spending time and energy writing a blog post about it...

Today, I will admit, Baby Girl is not my favorite.

I love her. So much.

But I hate that she can so easily bamboozle a nation.

Get us caught up in the superficial.
(If I stop to think about it...
It's really US that's not my favorite)

There is so much to be up in arms about OTHER THAN MILEY CYRUS. 

She has legs longer than the Mississippi.
She has a voice that will slay you.
She's brave and she loves her Momma.

Love her for these things. Or don't. 

But don't give her power she doesn't deserve. 

Fight and make a scene and get all UP IN ARMS for things that matter.

For love.

For clean water. 

For education. 

For good. 

For equality.

For fun.

For human rights.

For warm beds
For full bellies.

Do it. Please. 

BE APPALLED.

BE MORTIFIED.

Write about it on your Facebook page.
Blog and tweet and call your best friend!

Come in like a Wrecking Ball. 

WE CAN'T STOP promoting good. 

WE CAN'T STOP doing the right thing. 

WE CAN'T STOP finding joy. 

I hope we can't. 

If we do...

It will wreck ek ek me.