Miley Cyrus. Hannah Montana. Teen idol. Actress. Singer. Sex icon? It's hard to believe that this Disney starlet whom millions of youth idolize could be painted as such, but that is precisely what Miley's photo shoot with Vanity Fair managed to accomplish. Swaddled in a white blanket that doesn't quite cover up her pubescent body, 15-year old Miley, in this particular picture, tantalizing portrays both youthful innocence and sexual intrigue; she is the very embodiment of Lolita. Everything in this photograph is suggestive, from the manner in which she is clutching the white sheet to her nude torso, to her rose-red lips, to the come-hither look in her emboldened eyes. Sex does sell, but, perhaps more importantly, youthful, evocative sex sells, which is precisely the reason why advertisements portraying youth in a sensual and erotic way are becoming increasingly more common in our society. Adolescent femininity is one corner of the advertising market that has been voraciously exploited, causing the line between acceptable and inappropriate to become progressively and dangerously blurred.
Annie Leibovitz of Vanity Fair stated, "The photograph is a simple, classic portrait shot with very little makeup, and I think it is very beautiful." And Miley initially agreed with this statement until she later recanted due to a condemning torrent of negative feedback from her fans. Was this Lolita-esque photograph appropriate for her age? Can anything be done to preserve and protect youthful innocence from becoming a manipulated sex symbol or is it already too common, and therefore, too late?
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