To stand up and give Sinead O'Connor a round of applause

[Fifilosttheplot]

Not something that would normally happen at Maison Fifi but in this case I think it is richly deserved for her open letter to Miley Cyrus. I know Sinead is no stranger to courting publicity but with this one I think she is bang on the money www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24382051

Actually, I'd like to print some of the comments about being worth more than your body or sex appeal out and hand them out to some of the secondary school girls going past my gate on a morning.

Fair play to sinead O'connor. Mostly very sensible advice, and gently given.

MC is just the latest in a long line of young women exploited by the music industry.

I believe Rihanna has a rather eye popping new video out. Haven't seen it myself, have just seen reactions to it on Twitter.

I think you could be. Having a baby doesn't make somebody wise. Who knows though, she could regret that cage phase. Or maybe she believes it's her finest work.

So, if MC is just one of a long line of people being exploited by the music industry then doesn't that mean there is something rotten within the music industry to allow that to happen? So shouldn't O'Connor be concentrating her efforts on speaking to the people wh are doing the exploiting rather than those who are being exploited?

Do you work for the music industry?

I think Sinead is pretty explicit in illustrating the sleaze behind the gloss within the music industry.

The thing is, Miley is so young that she doesn't or can't really realise what she is doing or why she is doing it. She is getting all sorts of positive feedback from her current actions - great record sales, magazine covers, column inches, re-tweets, kudos from people inside the industry, people congratulating her on "having grown up" or "making the transition from Disney princess to proper adult woman", you name it.

Sexualising herself to that extent seems like a good idea at the moment to reap all those rewards. Small price to pay, even.

Except it isn't.

She'll be ashamed of this one day. She'll realise that there is actually nothing setting her apart from all the other nubile young flesh out there. Maybe she's worried that her talent isn't actually enough to compete at that level.

There is nothing SOC could say to the industry suits that they would even listen to nevermind act on.

So she has just sided with everyone who blames and shames MC for recent performances (and ignored R Thicke's part in it for example) and dresses it up a bit with some motherly 'actually I really care about you not ending up in rehab' kind of stuff. I dunno, I credited Sinead O'Connor with a bit more insight and intelligence really.

I think if sinead had addressed the industry suits rather than Miley directly, there would have been a general rolling of eyes about feminism and sinead being sinead and a bit weird again and the message would have been lost. By addressing Miley directly with a simple and really strong message it goes much wider and hopefully will resonate with her peer group and younger fans as we'll.

I also don't think it is slut slamming (a truly awful phrase in its own right) either or blaming the victim. The trend of giving the message to young women that they are worth what they can project sexually is truly depressing. Whether it is Miley, Rihanna, shakira or the dozens of others styled by the music industry you can see the message filtering down to young women that they may have some talent but their real worth is in what they will do with their body.

Yeh, Sinead has no control over the music industry !! All she can do is advise somebody not to buy into the way the music industry sells them.

Apparently the lovely MC has responded by mocking Sinead's previous mental health problems.

Lovely girl

Just read Sinead's response to MC. I agree with what she has said, wrt the Philadelphia report, the boston report, and that tearing up a photo of the pope did NOT signify insanity, the opposite....

I hope it just ends now though. No more going back and forth. Sinead is right. Leave it there.

I think she should.

She should just roll her eyes at the silly child.

As I posted on the other thread none of us has any idea if MC is a victim of anything or being exploited. No one bats an eyelid at male pop stars going shirtless and writhing around but if MC does she must be being abused? How patronising. It may be the case but there is no need to assume so.

And I believe the section of the letter when SO talks about not letting our daughters walk around naked because men are animals (I paraphrase) is a precursor to victim blaming.

It's amazing that twenty years on, Sinead's act of tearing up that image of the Pope is still shocking to so many.

SC is directing at MC as MC said Nothing compares to You inspired her. Otherwise, I am sure Ms O'Connor would have happily picked up her knitting and let the world roll on past. She bears more than a few reminders of run ins with the med.ia and music and what have you

Now Blueemerald perhaps not all of us are as able as yourself to bone a piece of text and find the real meaning behind even the most well intentioned messages. I believe that SOC would not accept she is victim blaming even though you are certain she is, and as you seem to know how to spot it, then there it is. so you go on saying it is victim blaming, that is fine, i am sure it is. I believe that what the majority of us read was a warning from an older performer to someone at the begining of their career.
Might I also add, the music industry was once filled with the likes of Jimmy Saville, Jonathon King and the bloke who was manager to the bay city rollers. that is the reality of music industry. SOC has been through it. more than i have so I bow to her personal experience.

This is difficult. Sinead O'Connor's success was down to her amazing voice AND to the undeniable fact that her IMAGE was incredible. Her tales of laying on the table of the abortion clinic and deciding not to go through with the abortion of her son when she was recording The Lion and the Cobra are difficult to read. She was a female in the recording industry with this immensely powerful, roaring image but at the same time was experiencing huge complications in her life with regard to her relationships with men (positive and negative). Singing songs about her passionate love-life leaving "blood on the headboard". Jeez. Men were a HUGE part of her success and failure as an artist.

With Miley, I see a woman flexing the muscles (pardon the pun) of her sexuality at an extremely formative time of her life. She's 19? The year when I left home, went topless on the beach for the first time, was testing the world of sexuality. Only difference is I got to do all that in a tiny, private way - Miley is doing it in the crazy, fucked-up environment of the entertainment industry that she's grown up in. She feels different (sexy, daring, powerful etc.) and she feels that that industry was expecting more of her too. She came up with the goods as a sweet little Hannah Montana, now she's coming up with the goods at the next stage on her journey.

The fact that she told Brittney that she wanted to go topless at the VMAs means that she obviously thought the "Dicke" video was cool and just wanted to go out there and emulate it. The fact that she'd seen that "naked" video on TV/Cable and YouTube and thought it was good was just chiming with what the majority of people thought of it - lovely sexy ladies dancing around having fun. I think we have to accept that we are in a minority if we thought it was dreadful and derogatory.

Her response to Sinead O'Connor's letter is so sad and appalling.The hate just piles on her. The Amanda Bynes references are painful to read. Her mother is her manager - I guess we are supposed to hate her too. My mother had NOTHING to do with my life at that age. I can only imagine that her mother's involvement is on a business level.

All I say is thank fuck for the likes of Bjork and P J Harvey - and thanks to Sinead for The Lion and the Cobra too - but how hard is it to be a woman in the entertainment industry who isn't prepared to "explore" her sexuality for the benefit of her audience.

Miley Cyrus is so caught up in all of this that you can almost see her head spinning.

If what she was doing came across as even the slightest bit genuine then I would be disagreeing with Sinead O'Connor, but nothing she does seems like her idea.

I have no doubt the VMAs were rehearsed to death but she didn't look as if she was expressing her sexual freedom. It looked like she was just pushed out on stage and someone said "GO!"

I doubt she came up with the reply.

Um, considering she posted an advert looking for someone to fuck her up the arse on her own website I think she's got a bit of a nerve lecturing Miley.

What happened there SeaSick?

She made a post on her website looking for a sexual partner and specified that the 'difficult brown' was mandatory and she wanted someone who would engage in anal sex with her.

www.queerty.com/sinead-oconnor-now-accepting-applicants-for-anal-sex-20110830/

Another tweet from that whole situation

"SO VERY VERY happy to be weeny insect chipping away at Ireland's sexual repression."

I think it was all rather sarcastic.

Sinead O'Connor's response to MC's crass tweet. And again I think it's fair comment from her. MC should educate herself about O'Connor ripping up the photo, and the things she's gone through that have impacted her mental health, before mocking her as she did.

Sinead O'Connor's mother left the family home when Sinead was very young. The song was written by Prince but the line "All the flowers that you planted, Mamma in the backyard. all died when you went away" really resonated with her and that's why she cries at that point in the video.