Why ‘We Can’t Stop’ trashy TV

If you happened to watch the VMAs on Sunday night, then you happened to catch a star-studded event packed with giant teddy bears, scantily clad women, and Robin Thicke in a Beetlejuice outfit.

If you missed the show, then you couldn’t help but notice when your Facebook / Twitter news feed exploded with outraged cries of disgust and disturbia.

How could network television that is readily available nationwide sink to such depths for ratings? What has become of the always classy and sophisticated pop culture in this country? What caused such an outrage, you ask? A woman with bleach-blonde hair was making obscene sexual gestures during an on-stage performance of a hit single.

Alright, let me stop you folks there. I have a few problems with all of this so-called outrage. Let’s take a quick trip back in time. It’s 1956, and a young man with slick black hair and a pitchy-at-best voice is ruling over the charts, shaking his hips on television and stage alike.

Elvis Presley garnered himself the nickname “Elvis the Pelvis” for his gyrations, and most television networks refused to film him from the waist down because of it. He was a god among men, a true rock star of his age, and, now, we refer to him as “The King.” Half of the man’s fame came from black hair dye and what is essentially the forefather of the “twerk.”

Pick any time period between now and the last 50 years, and you’ve got a sex symbol to go with it. The likes of Marilyn Monroe, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Twiggy sure didn’t become pop culture staples with their stunning intelligence and save-the-world philosophies. Not a lot of people had a problem with hyper-sexualization in the past, so forgive me if I say that 2013 seems like a strange year to finally decide the worship of good looking people is an outrage.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not defending Miley Cyrus’s stage show, nor am I condoning her horrid songwriting ability. But that’s art, man. Hippie-dippie or new-wave as that may sound, there’s been a lot of crappy songs, movies, and books written for the sake of creativity. Miley has just as much of a right to shave her head and write bad music as the rest of us, the only difference is no one cares when we do it.

If you are a fan of rap music yet scorn Miley for her suggestive behavior, you are either a hypocrite, or in a state of denial that is absolutely mind boggling. The same goes for watching any reality television show, reading any book regarding shades of grey, or just generally being an American consumer.

Sex sells. Like it or not, it’s a fact, and it’s a fact we all perpetuate. That being said, since when are we all so offended by sexual gestures?

On an awards show put on by MTV (a network famous for no longer having anything to do with music), where the entire point is garnering viewers, what better way to do it than to parade around skinny white women in barely anything at all? Lady Gaga kicked the show off in a white thong, but that’s just Lady Gaga being Lady Gaga, no big deal.

If you really have a problem with the sex on TV and in mediocre music, you do have the power to change it. Unplug your television. Stop buying albums based on what Billboard’s Top 40’s chart says is good.

TV networks are operating on a philosophy of “any publicity is good publicity,” so if you take away the viewers, you leave them with nothing. Everytime you pass around that picture of Will Smith’s family “reacting” to Miley’s performance (which didn’t happen), you feed the machine.

A culture that allows television shows like “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” to continue, yet gets offended by a strategically-placed foam finger makes my skin crawl.

Maybe if we directed all this passion about the VMAs towards something that actually mattered, our culture wouldn’t have to be represented by a 20 year old former child actress with a goofy haircut and a questionable fashion sense.