Hollywood's Math Problem
If the squeaky-clean-Disney-star-turns-sex-kitten metamorphosis feels formulaic to you by now, there's good reason. It is a formula. And a lucrative one at that, even if it's as distasteful as sausage making—with a product that doesn't cook up nearly as nicely.
Miley Cyrus is the latest in a long line of Mouse House-manufactured phenoms to be "transformed" into something unrecognizable and unpalatable. Lately there's been a barrage of judgment lapses that make one wonder what this 17-year-old's parents could possibly be thinking. Miley's newest stunts include giving a "lap dance" to a gay 44-year-old movie director (a deed that dad Billy Ray brushed off as his daughter "just having fun"), an onstage pseudo-lesbian kiss, a racy new video and an outfit that revealed so much of her groin Starpulse writer Casey Johnson called it "literally a centimeter away from being obscene."
But rather than being shocked by any of this, we should be doing the math instead. That is, we need to see this so-called transformation into "adulthood" for what it really is. After all, there's quite a bit of precedent to study. We saw this process with Britney, Lindsay, Hilary, Vanessa, Christina, the Cheetah Girls and even Justin (who, if he isn't a sex kitten, is certainly one sexual cat).
A + B = Hot-Button Fame
So what, exactly, is this highly effective (and morally incomprehensible) star-making method? Us Weekly deputy editor Natalie Thomas recognizes it well. She told MSNBC's Dr. Nancy Snyderman, "Miley knows exactly what she's doing. … These girls have to break out eventually of the teen and tween market … they need to kind of push the envelope a little bit and gain a new audience and grow as [their fans are] growing. In the world they're in I believe [increased sexuality is crucial]. Whether it's a few risqué pictures or an edgier role in a movie or just sexing it up a little more on stage, it is necessary for their career to grow. We've seen it before with other actors and singers and it's worked."
"Worked" is a relative term, but to put Thomas' statement into more mathematical terms, the Hollywood success formula for teens is:
Initial sweetness + enormous talent = superstardom. But sweet superstardom - increasing raunchiness = "Where Are They Now?" articles as CDs pile up in discount bins at Best Buy.
As a famous teen gets a couple of years past her tweens, it's said she must "grow up" if she's to remain relevant and gain a greater audience as she matures. (Who can sing for 6-year-olds all her life?) She must push the envelope. She must change her virginal ways and shift toward a more "adult" image, including racy clothing, lyrics and moves.
In the sense that this method has gained young entertainers (and their parents) fame, fortune and fans it certainly has "worked." But it's done nothing toward creating human beings—both fans and stars—who have self-respect or a healthy perspective of sexual boundaries and their bodies. Certainly these starlets leave behind them no helpful path to follow as everyone "matures" together. And they've forced an increasingly tougher job onto countless parents who are honestly trying to navigate their children around the latest bad example on the pop culture scene.
Immaturity Plays Dress-Up With Sex
The bald-faced lie in this formula, of course, is the belief that relevance and maturity equal blatant sexuality. While Miley and all of the young, attractive, hugely successful teens before her may be physically grown up (their very revealing lingerie clearly displays this), their perspectives and hearts often lag far behind. And why wouldn't they? Without real input from fans and concerned adults, these stars lose perspective. Miley, for example, chooses not to hear any criticism. She told MTV recently, "I try to think of really just the positive things. My family, we're only allowed to have 10 channels basically at our house, because we don't want to see any of that stuff. So the people that are around me, they bring me the good things, and I never see anything or read anything that's bad because it's never e-mailed to me by my manager or publicist or whoever."
"That stuff," Miley mentions must include the disturbed and rightful criticism of mothers who desperately ask her to tone it down a bit. Blogger Maggie Lamond Simone addressed Cyrus in a recent post, wisely writing, "Together [my 9-year-old daughter and I] watched you grab your breast onstage and passionately kiss a backup singer (the fact that it was another woman was a non-issue, compared to the fact of it happening at all), I couldn't help thinking that maybe you are. Having a breakdown, I mean. Because otherwise your behavior just boggles the mind."
Simone continues: "You claim you never wanted to be a role model, yet you worked for a network that essentially defines many of the role models for kids today. By signing on with Disney, with Hannah Montana, you did choose to be a role model. I can't understand, then, why in the space of a few short months you can now choose to so intentionally and totally alienate the audience of pre-teen girls who have made you the star that you are. … The headline yesterday was 'Miley Cyrus: I'm Not Trying To Be Slutty!' That was not an easy conversation with my daughter, I don't mind saying. What happens at 18, nude movie roles and sex tapes?"
That's harsh. But I'd be lying if I didn't say I've had similar thoughts. They're cynical, yes. But they're now firmly rooted in reality, too. Especially in this case, since Miley has already told the BBC she would consider doing a nude scene.
Can the Conveyor Belt Be Stopped?
All of this makes some of Miley's lyrics quite ironic. On "Robot," a track from her latest album, Can't Be Tamed, she sings, "I need to breathe, I'm not your robot/Stop tellin' me I'm part of the big machine/I'm breakin' free/Can't you see?"
What she can't see yet is that she's very much part of the machine—and more so now that she's living down to the "break-free formula." It was Disney's magic that built her current stature. And by "breaking free" from her (apparently) ponderous childhood fame, she is merely fulfilling a well-documented cycle—something bloggers have now dubbed "Britnification."
So many popular singers and actors have done what Miley is doing that I began to question whether anybody ever chose a different path. They have. And I recently spoke to three women who've successfully sidestepped Hollywood's freakish carnival show.
How did they (and how do they) manage it?
Read what Candace Cameron Bure, Andrea Stephens and Rebecca St. James told me in the interview titled "Fracturing the Formula."