{"id":4550,"date":"2020-11-17T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-17T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mangoprism.com\/staging\/5310\/?p=4550"},"modified":"2021-03-09T10:07:39","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T15:07:39","slug":"miley-unleashed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mangoprism.com\/staging\/5310\/miley-unleashed\/","title":{"rendered":"Miley Unleashed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\" id=\"mileyunleashed\">Britney\u2019s shiny, fire-truck-red latex catsuit is back, this time with metal teeth on the crotch\u2014specifically the crotch of Miley Cyrus as she crawls, punches, flexes, and gyrates her way through the 2019 video for \u201cMother\u2019s Daughter.\u201d Directed by Alexandre Moors, the video is a carefully wrought spectacle, and the visual reference to Britney Spears\u2019s outfit from the 2000 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CduA0TULnow\">\u201cOops\u2026 I Did It Again\u201d video<\/a> is unmistakable. Female American pop stars cannot appear in red catsuits, curved crotch spikes aside, without evoking \u201cOops,\u201d especially if they share Disney Channel training, as Cyrus and Spears do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Oops&#8230; I Did It Again<\/em> was the first CD I ever bought. I idolized Britney Spears in all of her midriff-baring glory, developing an affinity for crop tops myself that has not, to this day, worn off. (This would likely resonate with Miley, who once joked, \u201cIf I owe anybody an apology, it&#8217;s the people who make the bottom half of shirts.&#8221;) While Britney Spears was in the sweet spot for my unquestioning adoration (she was about nineteen when I was six), Miley Cyrus was born a couple years before me. This is important because though I loved Hannah Montana (my best friend and I had a sleepover in high school to screen <em>Hannah Montana: The Movie<\/em>), I aged out of her demographic. I was in college when Miley abandoned Hannah.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Five years later, with her feminist anthem \u201cMother\u2019s Daughter,\u201d Miley alchemized her teenage rebellion into the battle cry of a line \u201cdon\u2019t fuck with my freedom.\u201d She had finally articulated her own evolution.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-default\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Miley Cyrus - Mother&#039;s Daughter (Official Video)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7T2RonyJ_Ts?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-default\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>That iconic Spears video set a stage of sorts for \u201cMother\u2019s Daughter.\u201d In \u201cOops,\u201d the flare-legged, turtle-necked red catsuit and its contrasting white ensemble represent the angelic lyric \u201cyou think I was sent from above\u201d and the devilry that undermines it\u2014\u201cI\u2019m not that innocent.\u201d The song\u2019s speaker rebuffs the advances of a suitor who, in the video, has followed (stalked?) Spears all the way to Mars to present her with the long-lost necklace from<em> Titanic<\/em>. She keeps the necklace, admonishes him (\u201caw, you shouldn\u2019t have\u201d), and sends him away.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Cyrus sings \u201cback up, boy\u201d multiple times while wearing a similar but edgier catsuit in \u201cMother\u2019s Daughter,\u201d she amplifies the sentiment of \u201cOops\u2026 I Did It Again.\u201d For all its coy, faux-confessional distress, \u201cOops\u201d is a song about rejecting a man. In her video, Spears oscillates between a neutral-sex-object stare and what looks like genuine anger as she lip-syncs that she\u2019s not that innocent, dammit! Cyrus channels this defiance and intensifies it. A pretend apology becomes a demand, if not a restraining order: <em>back up, boy.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The lyrical echo and the catsuit allusion amount to a gesture of solidarity, Cyrus to Spears, from one Disney-bred child star to another. Spears did not fare well during her transition from teen stardom to adult celebrity. She suffered a decline in mental health well-documented by a tabloid frenzy in which photographers took pornographic pictures of her without her consent.&nbsp; Though Cyrus clearly grew to resent the confines of her Hannah Montana image and broke away from it with typical teen celebrity rebellion (getting tattoos, smoking weed, dancing \u201csexy,\u201d, etc.), that virginal guise also protected her for longer. In 2008, Annie Leibovitz photographed Cyrus topless but holding a sheet over her chest for <em>Vanity Fair. <\/em>Cyrus was 15 at the time and still in high Hannah-Montana gear. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/culture\/2008\/06\/miley200806\">the accompanying story<\/a>, Bruce Handy wrote, \u201cin an era when every under-age actress in Hollywood is stalked by the Ghost of Britney Future, [Cyrus\u2019s success] depends on her continued public innocence.\u201d&nbsp; Cyrus, however, told Handy that because she knew Spears (and Lindsey Lohan, another Disney \u201ctrainwreck\u201d), she understood that they had \u201cgood hearts\u201d and were \u201cstruggling.\u201d&nbsp; The catsuit in \u201cMother\u2019s Daughter\u201d suggests that Spears, supposedly a bad example to follow, is a pop-mother to Cyrus, worthy of homage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>I coached a U12 volleyball team in 2014. One day at practice, the subject of Cyrus came up. The year prior had been rife with her unruly performances: she\u2019d licked a sledgehammer naked in the video for \u201cWrecking Ball\u201d; the drug\/party ode \u201cWe Can\u2019t Stop\u201d had topped the charts; and at the VMAs, Cyrus had wiggled her tush while grinding on Robin Thicke. A nine-year-old player told us she\u2019d been crushed when Miley eviscerated Hannah, saying with unnerving gravitas, \u201cTalk about breaking a little girl\u2019s heart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cyrus distanced herself from Hannah Montana over the course of about five years. As she <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elle.com\/culture\/music\/a28280119\/miley-cyrus-elle-interview\/\">told <em>Elle<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em>\u201cThe minute I had sex, I was kind of like, I can\u2019t put the fucking wig on again.\u201d Yet after so much effort to shed, if not exorcise, her Disney persona, Cyrus returned in 2019 to blond hair and blunt bangs in the style of that famed wig. This surprised me, in a good way. \u201cI decided that I\u2019ll just be Hannah forever,\u201d Cyrus said in a cheerful Twitter video after her trip to the salon. A few months later, she put out the \u201cMother\u2019s Daughter\u201d video. By permitting her child-star hair aesthetic in the same space as her edgiest feminist work yet, the video offers a visual reconciliation with the past. Regarding her Hannah Montana period, Cyrus told <em>Elle, <\/em>\u201cI feel like I\u2019m just not ashamed of that anymore.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMother\u2019s Daughter\u201d forms part of Cyrus\u2019s triumphant reclamation of her highly scrutinized \u201cWrecking Ball\u201d video. In \u201cWrecking Ball,\u201d Cyrus rides a literal, gigantic wrecking ball naked or semi-nude, depending on the cut of the video. She endured a maelstrom of slut-shaming for this performance. In an open letter Sin\u00e9ad O\u2019Connor told Cyrus to stop \u201cprostituting\u201d herself. Though the discourse between O\u2019Connor and Cyrus devolved\u2014Cyrus ridiculed O\u2019Connor\u2019s mental health struggles and (righteous) anti-Pope activism; O\u2019Connor said Cyrus was \u201ctoo busy getting [her] tits out\u201d to educate herself\u2014O\u2019Connor\u2019s reaction was indicative of the misogyny, internalized and overt, that flared up in the video\u2019s wake.&nbsp; One writer for <em>The Guardian<\/em> criticized Cyrus for having filmed \u201ca wank fantasy\u201d and predicted she would feel \u201cembarrassed\u201d about the video in the future. \u201cMother\u2019s Daughter\u201d is spliced with close-ups of Cyrus\u2019 face, a tear running down her cheek in a shot nearly identical to one that appears throughout \u201cWrecking Ball\u201d (ironically, Cyrus told <em>Rolling Stone <\/em>that the shot had been inspired by O\u2019Connor\u2019s video for \u201cNothing Compares 2 U.\u201d) By referencing a much-maligned past project, \u201cMother\u2019s Daughter\u201d seems to say, \u201cI regret nothing.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I do wish that the \u201cWrecking Ball\u201d video had not been directed by Terry Richardson, the photographer notorious for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/10\/27\/style\/terry-richardson-sexual-harassment-fashion-photographers.html\">sexually harassing<\/a> numerous young women, particularly relatively unknown models. His involvement casts the video in a far creepier light. The fact that he steered the whole project makes it seem more voyeuristic, as if the \u201cwank fantasy\u201d comment, which I find abhorrent, might also be partly true. Still, Richardson\u2019s contribution doesn\u2019t devalue the video wholesale\u2014rather, it exemplifies the rampant misogyny of the music industry that Sinead O\u2019Connor was trying to warn Cyrus about, albeit without much tact or solidarity.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reactions to \u201cWrecking Ball\u201d obsessed over Cyrus\u2019s nakedness. But the policing of her so-called indecency and sexual pantomiming obscured the politics of self-pleasure put forward by the video, wherein Cyrus rides the wrecking ball. She sits in a prime position for (female) masturbation, mounting\u2014that is, assuming a traditionally masculine posture above\u2014the object which could provide that pleasure. And she rides it as an agent of destruction. Rarely is Miley Cyrus recognized for promoting self-pleasure through her continued willingness to openly touch herself, both sensually and sexually.&nbsp; At the 2020 VMAs an enormous, glittering disco ball descended from the ceiling during Cyrus\u2019s performance of \u201cMidnight Sun.\u201d She straddled the chain from which it hung, reigning from atop the wrecking ball once more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Any credit owed to Cyrus for her sexual boldness is limited by her tasteless appropriation of Black culture. This tension emerged most infamously during her 2013 VMAs performance, alongside Robin Thicke, mashing her song \u201cWe Can\u2019t Stop\u201d into his song \u201cBlurred Lines.\u201d Critics panned the performance for using Black women as props\u2014the Black back-up dancers wore enormous teddy bears on their backs\u2014and for the appropriation of twerking, a dance move with roots in New Orleans bounce culture and, going further back, Mapouka dance in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire. As Jody Rosen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vulture.com\/2013\/08\/jody-rosen-miley-cyrus-vmas-minstrel.html\">wrote for <em>Vulture<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em>Cyrus\u2019s twerking allowed her to \u201c[annex] working class Black \u2018ratchet\u2019 culture, the potent sexual symbolism of Black female bodies, to the cause of her reinvention: her transformation from squeaky-clean Disney-pop poster girl to grown-up hipster provocateur.\u201d While Rosen and company identified the racism of \u201cMiley\u2019s Minstrel Show,\u201d the anonymous women\u2019s bodies police took to the internet to call Cyrus a slut. Even more esteemed sources, such as <em>The New York Times, <\/em>cashed in on double standards and called the performance a \u201cmolesting of Robin Thicke.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cyrus\u2019s Black appropriation phase lasted for quite some time. When I finally listened to the entirety of her 2013 album <em>Bangerz<\/em>, I found that some of the songs try cringingly hard to be Black. It\u2019s a toss-up whether \u201cDo My Thang,\u201d where Cyrus raps lines like \u201cmind yo bidness \/ stay in yo lane, bitch,\u201d or \u201cSMS (Bangerz)\u201d is worse. Despite featuring Britney Spears (a combination that should be unstoppable) and sampling \u201cPush It\u201d (released in 1987 by female rap super-group Salt-N-Pepa), \u201cSMS (Bangerz)\u201d manages to be remarkably bad. The refrain \u201cI be struttin\u2019 my stuff\u201d sounds wrong when Cyrus says it. And when Cyrus hosted the VMAs in 2015, she wore dreads.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Still, that 2013 VMAs performance was also an unrestrained display of female self-gratification, particularly in the \u201cBlurred Lines\u201d segment, where Cyrus was effectively invited to (coerced into?) acting as the sex object. She stood in for Emily Ratajkowski, the most prominent of three female models featured in the \u201cBlurred Lines\u201d music video, all of whom appeared topless.&nbsp; (Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams, of course, were fully clothed.) So at the VMAs, Cyrus turned her role in a song about domesticating women and disregarding consent into a ribald quest for female pleasure, grinding on a foam finger and on Thicke himself.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cyrus retains this sexually transgressive spirit in the video for \u201cMother\u2019s Daughter,\u201d in which she touches herself often and all over the place. She rubs her breasts and hips and pelvis; she also rubs up on Vendela, a female model who receives the most screen time besides Cyrus herself.&nbsp; In the video Cyrus, who identifies as pansexual, enacts a queer orientation with Vendela\u2014yet another facet of the \u201cback up, boy\u201d sentiment: <em>back up, boy, because I don\u2019t need a man at all.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Both the imagery throughout \u201cMother\u2019s Daughter\u201d and the crew it assembles flaunt female anatomy. A menstrual, traditionally feminine red-and-pink color palette is the backdrop for shots of scarlet-spotted underwear and balloons shaped like nipples rubbing together. These balloons poke fun at the shirtless double standard (flat-chested men can go topless in public; women, as well as men with \u201cmoobs,\u201d a word I wish didn\u2019t exist, are punished for the same behavior.) Actor, dancer, and single-mother advocate Melanie Sierra adds to this commentary: she appears breastfeeding her youngest child, lit from above and wearing a sun-rayed crown like the Virgin Mary herself\u2014though, as the video reminds us in one of its flashing slogans, \u201cVIRGINITY IS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT,\u201d and pregnancy leaves marks. The video cuts between a metallic-ring-embellished C-section scar, another taboo image, and a horizontal zipper unzipping in the same position. The teeth of the zipper recall the metal fangs on Cyrus\u2019s catsuit, an allusion to <em>vagina dentata. <\/em>This is a Latin phrase for a myth found in folklore worldwide about a woman whose vagina teeth protect her from rape and\/or punish men who have intercourse with her by castrating them. This costuming choice may be the most overt visual version of the \u201cback up, boy\u201d imperative: <em>back up, boy, or I will bite off your penis<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And yet the video resists a reading of \u201cback up, boy\u201d as directed only at male-bodied people. The most prominent man in the video, Casil McArthur, appears glittery, necklace-clad, and shirtless (remember: male nipples are allowed). He rubs his hand across his mouth, smearing his lipstick dramatically. This gesture emphasizes how the makeup, a tool of feminine performance, is just that: a tool. He can wield it defiantly. Looking anguished, he lip-syncs the words \u201cback up, back up\u201d\u2014the word \u201cboy\u201d is elliptical. Because McArthur, a trans man, is the video\u2019s only recognizable example of a man, it\u2019s powerful to see him in particular perform this line. When his appearance emphasizes the construction and malleability of gender, his iteration of \u201cback up, boy\u201d rejects mainstream (cis) masculinity.&nbsp; \u201cMother\u2019s Daughter,\u201d then, celebrates female anatomy\u2014which has been mystified and maligned for millennia\u2014but also proposes a transinclusive feminism. It\u2019s a kind of body feminism that opens its embrace to femme, feminine, female, trans, and gender-nonconforming bodies. In this way, the video broadens the category of woman. In 2019, Cyrus <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elle.com\/culture\/music\/a28280119\/miley-cyrus-elle-interview\/\">told <em>Elle<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em>\u201c\u2018She\u2019 does not represent a gender. She is not just a woman. \u2018She\u2019 doesn\u2019t refer to a vagina.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>I revel in the video\u2019s attention to detail, such as model Aaron Philip\u2019s sculptural, metallic purple heels and luxe white-fur blanket, but I wonder if this prettiness sanitizes the effect somewhat. The menstrual panties, for instance, with their evenly spaced, petal-like dots, are quite cute. Even when activist Trydryn Scott and dancer Paige Fralix undulate by a bonfire, their bare chests and backs painted with the slogans \u201cI AM FREE\u201d and \u201cRIOT GIRL\u201d in the style of \u201cbody posters\u201d favored by the Ukraine-based, militant, sextremist group Femen, the raw scene feels cleaned up. The smoke billowing amidst their slow-motion writhing is blue and pink, for goodness\u2019 sake. This is not to say that feminism can\u2019t be artistic or portrayed by an auteur\u2014see <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=k2qgadSvNyU\">\u201cNew Rules\u201d by Dua Lipa<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PaYvlVR_BEc\">\u201cPYNK\u201d by Janelle Monae<\/a>.&nbsp; But the cool outfits and color-coordinated photoshoot backgrounds in \u201cMother\u2019s Daughter\u201d do somewhat elide the tenacity that real life requires of video guests such as non-binary skateboarding phenom Lacey Baker or youth water activist Mari Copeny.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This aesthetically pleasing form of feminism seems most effective when it interrogates beauty standards. Sure, Vendela, Miley, and her mother Tish (also prominently featured), are hot, skinny white women, but they\u2019re only part of the equation. Philip, who was born with cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, wears a sparkly, belted mini-dress and the aforementioned fabulous metallic heels. Dancer Amazon Ashley, who appears in a low-cut, chartreuse jumpsuit with a \u201cWorld Wrestling Champion\u201d belt around her waist, stands at 6\u20197\u2019\u2019. When Philip (the first Black, trans, disabled model to sign with a major agency) and Amazon Ashley (a Black, trans, \u201ctoo tall\u201d burlesque performer) and Angelina Duplisea (a white, cis, fat activist) all appear in the same work, an expansive understanding of body acceptance begins to emerge.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Duplisea, whose Twitter description reads \u201cPlus Size Performer\/Professional Fat Shaker,\u201d in the video reclines nude among the pillows on an ornate chaise lounge. The emerald cloth in her hair, combined with her dangling earring and her glance over her left shoulder, evoke the 1665 painting <em>Girl With a Pearl Earring <\/em>by Johannes Vandermeer<em>. <\/em>Duplisea\u2019s pose, with her left knee bent in the foreground, is also reminiscent of the figure of Venus in Peter Paul Rubens\u2019s 1612 <em>Venus, Cupid, Bacchus, and Ceres<\/em> as well as Michelangelo\u2019s 1531 statue <em>Night, <\/em>which Vandermeer later sketched in 1601 (<em>La Nuit<\/em>). These works of art were created during an era when women\u2019s bodies were permitted to be larger, whether they labored in fields or feasted at banquets. Their fleshiness was revered. In response to \u201cMother\u2019s Daughter,\u201d online comments blatantly fat-shamed Duplisea\u2014for instance, \u201cI\u2019m sorry, but the person in this image is not acceptable.\u201d Such reactions lay bare the bleak reality that her mere presence in the video is radical. By alluding to the artistic lineage of the Renaissance, Duplisea\u2019s portrayal in \u201cMother\u2019s Daughter\u201d points toward alternative forms of beauty. That possibility becomes even more liberating when triangulated with Philip and Amazon Ashley.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMother\u2019s Daughter\u201d pushes back on the notion that Miley\u2019s father, Billy Ray Cyrus, made Miley into the star she is today. (Though no amount of pushing back changes the fact that Billy Ray\u2019s fame, surname, and genes were a huge leg up.) Tish is Miley\u2019s manager, and the song lyrics give her credit: \u201cMy mama always told me that I\u2019d make it \/ so I made it.\u201d As these lyrics play, we see a long shot of Tish and Miley absolutely decked out in Chanel. They wear matching tweed suits adorned by Chanel belts and necklaces, their arms crowded with bracelets and rings. Fittingly for these French-designed ensembles, they sit on a Louis VIX-style couch, Miley resting her head on her mother\u2019s shoulder. Tish holds a (Chanel) teacup and saucer and gazes directly into the camera, looking pretty damn royal. Both lyrically and visually, Cyrus identifies herself with her matrilineal heritage, a feminist salute reinforced by cameos from elder relatives as well as her brief appearance in Joan-of-Arc-inspired golden armor.&nbsp; When I noticed that my research rabbit hole had led to dissecting the Cyrus genealogical tree, I decided to cut my losses and make educated guesses about the three older white people in leopard-print clothes who show up for less than a second: the woman in glasses looks like Cyrus\u2019 maternal grandmother, Loretta Jean Palmer Finley. The man could be Carl Dean, husband of Dolly Parton, who is Cyrus\u2019s godmother. The other woman could be Dolly herself. Or Dolly\u2019s sister Stella. I do not know for certain. Regardless, here Cyrus celebrates her under-acknowledged ancestors, invoking the die-for-your-beliefs legacy of Joan of Arc and elevating her (biological, entrepreneurial) mother, Tish.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">The first time I watched \u201cMother\u2019s Daughter,\u201d I was floored. The video introduced me to the new Era of Miley: in 2019, she divorced Liam Hemsworth, starred in a <em>Black Mirror<\/em> episode as a futuristic pop-princess heavily inspired by (and distorted from) herself, and joined Lana Del Ray and Ariana Grande on the new <em>Charlie\u2019s Angels <\/em>soundtrack. With the song \u201cOn a Roll\u201d by her <em>Black Mirror<\/em> character, Ashley O, Cyrus became the first female artist to chart songs in the Billboard 100 under three different names. In response to allegations that she\u2019d cheated on Hemsworth, Cyrus tweeted, \u201cYou can say I am a twerking, pot-smoking, foul-mouthed hillbilly, but I am not a liar [&#8230;] I am simply in a different place from where I was when I was younger.\u201d The \u201cMother\u2019s Daughter\u201d video manifests this quote, albeit in totally different context: Cyrus acknowledges her past self, especially the thornier parts, but she\u2019s looking ahead, paying tribute to her predecessors and embracing the contemporary feminist moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Back in 2008, those semi-nude photos of Cyrus in <em>Vanity Fair <\/em>unleashed a parental and media uproar (\u201cMILEY\u2019S SHAME,\u201d blared one <em>New York Post <\/em>headline). Cyrus responded to the backlash with an apology and said publicly that she was \u201cembarrassed\u201d by the pictures. Ten years later on Instagram, she posted an image of an article about her apology with the caption \u201cI\u2019M NOT SORRY FUCK YOU.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The \u201cMother\u2019s Daughter\u201d video makes a similar move. It validates \u201cWrecking Ball\u201d and other past work that engendered misogynistic vitriol and even extends that affirmation to another singer, Britney Spears, whom the press has similarly punished for baring her body. \u201cMother\u2019s Daughter\u201d selects a lineage of antecedents to honor while also presenting a many-faceted, gender-encompassing, collective feminism that foregrounds the human body in many of its, to use a Darwinian phrase, \u201cendless forms most beautiful.\u201d The title of Cyrus\u2019s 2019 EP, <em>She Is Coming, <\/em>couldn\u2019t be more fitting\u2014and \u201cshe\u201d includes more people than ever before. \u25a9<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\"\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Britney\u2019s shiny, fire-truck-red latex catsuit is back, this time with metal teeth on the crotch\u2014specifically the crotch of Miley Cyrus as she crawls, punches, flexes, and gyrates her way through the 2019 video for \u201cMother\u2019s Daughter.\u201d Directed by Alexandre Moors, the video is a carefully wrought spectacle, and the visual reference to Britney Spears\u2019s outfit [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":4585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[581,584],"contributors":[585],"seasons":[537],"class_list":["post-4550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-miley-cyrus","tag-mothers-daughter-2","contributors-abby-seethoff","seasons-537"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO 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