Who Wants to Watch Miley Cyrus Twerk? Or Anyone Else, for that Matter

Because she has no talent, Miley Cyrus continues to become more and more outrageous in order to keep attention flowing to her. Last night she was twerking on MTV. Why is it that we humans get some kind of twisted pleasure out of celebrities making fools of themselves? What will Miley do next? It’s oddly fascinating to watch her downward spiral from child star to video sex queen. Only she’s not sexy, just sick. Someone needs to tell her….

If you don’t know what twerking is, ask your kids. Or watch this video (gag alert) from the MTV Video Music Awards. If you’ve just eaten, you may want to wait a couple of hours. My breakfast almost ended up on my desk.

Entertainers have always pushed the limits. And I’m no fan of censorship, but with current easy access to EVERYTHING, I’m calling on parents to be diligent. Who watches MTV? My guess is that the majority of their audience is middle school kids. (Who else would even want to watch it?) So your 12- and 13-year-olds are watching Miley Cyrus, who is barely an adult (chronologically, anyway) gyrate in a nude bikini while she has “pretend sex” with Robin Thicke. Gross. Even the live audience appears to be in shock.

I think it’s gross, but what do kids think?

If they’re growing up on a steady diet of this crap, what messages are girls getting? It’s no wonder many young girls think nothing of “sexting.” You may say, “Well, the kids know it’s just entertainment. They don’t take it seriously.” Seriously? If you believe that, you’re delusional. Look how much celebrities influence fashion and behavior. For example, the latest trend in girls’ clothing seems to be exposing the butt-cheeks ala Miley Cyrus. Ick. As adults, we can be more rational because we have more experience. Children and teens don’t think like adults, and they don’t have the experience or desire to analyze what they’re seeing. A human brain isn’t even fully developed until age 25.

As parents, we can’t necessarily control the lowest common denominators of our culture, such as Miley Cyrus, but we can control to a certain extent what they’re watching. We can talk to teens about what they’re seeing, and about what a normal sexual relationship means. We can talk to girls AND boys about sexual exploitation of women.

With everything and anything out there on the Internet and on cable, it’s more important than ever to have open communication with your kids. If nothing else, in the case of poor Miley, you could talk about the difference between talent and a porn show.