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.

I don't think she was serious about taking it up the bum!

Seasicksal there is a vast difference between sinead stating publicly that she enjoys anal sex and whatever Miley is doing. There is nothing exploitative about sinead discussing her own sexuality online. I guess you think that it's all about the immorality of sexuality being in the public domain? That's really not the point.

Good on Sinead O.'Connor for that response. MC has done herself no favours - as Sinead says, who is advising her? Someone should be. Am sure her hero Brittney won't be impressed either having suffered her own very public breakdown (headshaving incident). Some of SO's comments made me wince, especially when SO said that MC would definitely have her own mental health issues in the future, sounded a bit cruel to me but SO is obviously so angry with her for deriding her and other people who have suffered mental illness.

Threatening with lawyers if the tweets aren't removed is really lame.

Lame perhaps, understandable, yes.

Just made the awful mistake of looking at the DM - another Terry Richardson shoot for Miley. How I despise that man. I remember the shoot he did of Daisy Lowe at 17 for ID magazine. Even her own mother thought they were a "violation" of her daughter.

Unfortunately Miley thinks she's cutting edge with her sexuality. I fear that she does not know when to stop and that her quest for "self-expression" and "freedom" will be gleefully accommodated by types like Richardson and a host of video directors.

to be honest I can't blame Miley going all raunchy and sexy.

I had to sit through dozens of episodes of that bloody Disney TV show with my dds a few years ago and the sickly shitty scripts with their morals and 'daddies girl' crap would have made me massively go off the rails.

The whole sinead/Miley thing is making me very uncomfortable, it reeks of slut shaming to me. I've been surprised how many of my friends are supportive of ot on facebook. Why is Miley Cyrus being held accountable for the misogyny of the music business?

Terry Richardson is a well known creep also.

I think everyone should read an open letter to sinead o’connor, re: miley cyrus. by Amanda Palmer instead :)

'Do I want a whole generation of teenagers looking at Miley Cyrus to determine that the only way to get hits and hawk your music is to rip your clothes off and wiggle around as violently and loudly as possible? (And while we’re at it - while weighing close to nothing and looking perfectly manicured without a single eyelash or molecule of mascara out of place even when a tear rolls down your face?)

Fuck no. But I don’t want to tell them it’s wrong, either, because like I said: the field has to encompass EVERYTHING. There’s no way Miley is going to read your letter and turn around saying “holy shit, they’ve been taking advantage of me this whole time!” She’s been taking advantage of herself, of her youth, her fame and her sexuality…and she knows it. We females all do this, to some extent, and we just want to feel like it’s our hand on the joystick. Telling her that her team is to blame is telling her that she’s not steering her own career and decisions, and I think she’ll just feel patronized.

When I was about 15 (not inconsequentially, right around the time I was listening to your albums non-stop on my long walks to high school every morning), I started having fights with my mother every time I left for school. I’d decided to dress like an oversexed punk and my attire often consisted of sheer lingerie worn over ripped tights and doc martens. You remember. This was 1991. My mother would say: “Amanda Palmer, get back in the house and put some real clothes on. You look like a prostitute. I won’t have my daughter walking around town like a harlot.” (I swear to god, my mother actually used the word harlot. Bless.)

I would say: “It’s my life fuck you I didn’t ask to be born etc etc”, grumble back into the house, and throw a flannel dress over my entire ensemble…which I would, of course, remove and stuff back into my bag the minute I got to school.

I know my mother was trying to protect me. She loved me. She didn’t want me to fall into dangerous situations, she didn’t want me to be ridiculed, she didn’t want people to think badly of me. And often they did - the jocks all called me Freak and Lesbo in the halls. But I took it as almost a marker of success - I didn’t want to belong to their club. I took the rolling eyeballs and raised eyebrows of my peers, teachers and parents as a sign that I was on the right track. It was my artist’s uniform, and I was learning how to wear it with pride; I was figuring myself out.'

Miley is extremely famous. She could have said no I'm not going to use sex to sell my records and done something else. The sad fact is she has no discernible talent and has merely been well managed (controlled) by her family. Young kids look up to her. It's all a bit sad really.

I don't think it's slut shaming (god I hate that expression).

There are so many people surrounding various female stars telling them its a great vision and dripping it into their ears so they believe it was their own idea.
It can be hard to go against that kind of flow and takes some a long while to recognise.
uk.omg.yahoo.com/gossip/110--pop/britney-spears-pushed-over-sexualised-video-told-producers-tone-down-170901879.html

Female sexual display is nothing to be ashamed of, the shame comes when it is used to debase. That shame should belong to those who seek to use female sexuality as a tool to mould young minds both male and female into thinking this is what society expects them to be. Instead the subtext here is that it is the artist who should bear the shame. The pursuit of notoriety as well as fame seems to have become a problem. More entertainers spew forth seemingly ill thought out bratish quotes which can be used as paving slabs to look back on over their journey to being a grown up start. All groundwork laid down now for the autobiography or introspective video years down the line. It must be so constraining, that's probably why they are all kept so busy and always are surrounded by yes people, because half of them if they had a minute to stop and think would take their lives in different directions and neither would make as much money.

Possibly that is where the victim blaming calls come from. It is picked up on that whilst there are claims no matter what the content that it is empowering and presents females as strong and in control of their own bodies, there is an undercurrent of vulnerability in the wrong places. The message (whatever that is) becomes perverted in the process.

There are videos where people wear less clothes that don't leave the watcher with a grubby after-taste, off the top of my head the Gotye video which shows both male and female nudity does not leave such a feeling.

There does seem to be at the centre of the entertainment industry a core of manipulation and suggestion of artists to head in various ways which all end up cookie cutter with few variations. In each generation of music since the 60's there have been the bad boys, the wholesome girls, the good girls gone wild etc. Its almost formulaic disregards the artist as a purely commercial commodity. Ignores the boundaries between fame and infamy and shows little disregard for the welfare of the artists. Any concerns are belittled because both sides are making bucket loads. It is not in the industries interests to change the formula because it has proven it works. The artist gets their cut so should they then wish to take their art in another direction they are being ungrateful or have turned odd. With all this pressure and work load it is no wonder that world is rife with mental health problems and addictions. People don't matter here only product.

Miley Cyrus is talentless. Let's not forget that she wouldn't have been on TV in the first place but for her father.
So when all of this furore dies down as it inevitably will, she will be left with nothing part from a downward spiral. I feel deeply sorry for the way that she is being manipulated and deeply angry at those around her, including her family, who are letting this train wreck continue.

YABU, she started the whole thing with her open letter and basically called Cyrus a prostitute then has a right royal whinge when Cyrus hits back by reposting her Tweets which clearly showed her fragile mental state. Why could she have not sent the letter in private? IMO she was just trying to gain attention for herselfby latching onto the latest 'scandal' in the music industry and it backfired on her massively.

By the way, I don't actually disagree with anything she said in the first letter but the way she went about it was all wrong and Cyrus was well within her rights to lash back like she did.

In my vho, the fist letter was deeply patronising and smacked of slut shaming. I like this comment is free piece as it sums it up for me.

I really do not see why O'Connor had to publicly present the letter, oh wait yes I do her US tour, nothing better than free publicity.

I am definitely on Miley's side here. 'Fuck off you old nutter' is a perfectly valid response to a condescending 'cover yourself up and be quiet' public reprimand from some attention-seeking has been.

And that also makes it ok for her to mock Amanda Bynes extreme nervous breakdown?

Wow.

I look forward to her downward spiral. And she can take that Bieber monstrosity with her.

SGB - do you think MC is a positive and powerful role model for young girls? Do you not think she could retaliate without referencing Sinead O'Connor's obvious mental health issues? She may think she's old and past it but the "nutter" aspect?? Really? "Perfectly valid"?

BTW I don't think Miley is talentless - she has a good voice. And she's beautiful. I think creeps like Terry Richardson are leeches.

Yanbu.

Sinead O Conor is a very misunderstood woman.

I think she has fought all her life against so much. She has been mocked, shamed and villified in the media.

The letter to Miley Cyrus is not ' slut shaming' ( what a disgusting term) its a public statement advising MC to recognise that there are people in the music industry who dont have her best interests at heart.

MC invited comment from SOC when she cited SOC as inspiration for her look etc.....I can only imagine how horrified SOC was when she heard this as it is against alot of what Sinead stands for.

SOC was a victim, has mental illness and has survived.

Check out Soc on youtube at bob dylans tribute in 1992 singing War. It was 2 weeks after she tore up the photo of the pope. Its feckin powerful!

I dont think SO has made such a roaring success of her life that she has any right to say anything to MC and certainly not via an open letter in the press. SO was a very talented singer who in her own way did just what MC is doing now. Setting out to shock and but just in a different way.

I don't know why anyone is having a go at Shakira for being a pawn of the music industry, she's worth about 200 million dollars in her own right and has set up her own charity which has got an additional 3-400 million dollars donated after Hurricane Katrina. Similar to Madonna, similar to Beyonce. You can't really say these female artists were compromised by taking their clothes off, at least not career-wise as Sinead claims. But they are the top tier, they have their own production companies, charities, etc. It's the rungs down (which Miley inhabits) which are far more exploited, although I'm sure the male members of STEPS or whatever don't feel they were massively benefited by their gender in such an industry which is quite happy to exploit young people and make them strip down to their undies without giving them a fair share of the reward.

My 2 cents -
SO'C's letter does have slut shaming and victim blaming elements
However I think her message is basically good
Miley Cyrus is likely to regret some of the things she is doing at some point in the future, and she is probably being exploited
It's a shame that young stars in general believe that they have to trade on their sexuality to be successful
There are lots of sleazeballs in the music and fashion industry who exploit young, inexperienced women to abuse them
Sinead shouldn't have written an open letter, it's unkind and patronising
Miley shouldn't have responded in that way, it's immature and unkind
Fin

I really don't like the tone of the letter. it is patronising. miley is young and should be allowed to grow and learn from her own mistakes.

I feel sorry for Miley when you see her interviewed she is like a robot she has been doing this for year

not sure why Sinead O'Connor had to be so public with her advice for Miley

"Miley Cyrus is talentless...So when all of this furore dies down as it inevitably will, she will be left with nothing part from a downward spiral."

I think that this kind of comment is really weird.

You may not like her stuff or her career but she's got one and she's been good at it so far. She does have some talent otherwise she would not have been able to be in the business she is in for so long.

Predicting an inevitable breakdown is weird too. No one really knows if she will be fine or not and it's wrong to assume she won't be IMO.