It was the twerk that can’t be unseen.
Miley Cyrus’s performance at the MTV Video Music Awards this Sunday was...just about every adjective in the book. From the moment the former Hannah Montana star stepped on stage wearing a strange, risque teddy bear outfit, to the instant she stripped down to a nude bra and panties and rubbed against “Blurred Lines” singer Robin Thicke, parents across America must have been wondering, This is TV14? -- if they hadn’t already changed the channel in disgust.
After Cyrus’s raunchy spectacle on the VMA stage, along with Lady Gaga’s striptease at the show’s opening and the condom commercial MTV aired during the program, the Parents Television Council is now speaking out. In an impassioned statement posted on their website, the concerned group of parents is calling for MTV to end its sexually explicit messaging to their kids. Here are some of their passionate pleas:
“MTV has once again succeeded in marketing sexually charged messages to young children using former child stars and condom commercials -- while falsely rating this program as appropriate for kids as young as 14. This is unacceptable,” said PTC Director of Public Policy Dan Isett.
“This much is absolutely clear: MTV marketed adults-only material to children while falsely manipulating the content rating to make parents think the content was safe for their children.”
Advisory board member Paul Porter added MTV's owners Viacom had "obviously broken" its own standards "for financial gain." He added:
"The Miley Cyrus/Robin Thicke performance simply substituted talent with sex.”
PTC concluded their statement by urging Congress to pass the Television Consumer Freedom Act, which, they explained, would give parents and consumers “the ability to choose and pay for cable networks that they want.”
“After MTV’s display last night, it’s time to give control back to consumers,” Isett said.
MTV’s too-sexy-for-TV programming this weekend was a far-cry from its old TRL days. The boundary has been crossed and the envelope has officially been pushed.
When I think back to Cyrus’s Hannah Montana days, I wonder how the once innocent and likeable brunette fell from grace so quickly. The wholesome show she starred in with her real-life dad, Billy Ray Cyrus, was kid-friendly in every sense of the word. Ironically, Billy Ray Cyrus is a member of the Parents TV Council advisory board that is now decrying his daughter’s recent R-rated performance.
If anything, at least Cyrus’s disturbing display gave us these priceless celebrity reactions.