Sinéad O’Connor's original open letter:http://www.sineadoconnor.com/2013/10/open-letter-to-miley-cy.../ Wrecking Ball video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My2FRPA3Gf8
Miley's puerile (and even spiteful) response has made me lean in support of Sinead, which I never thought I would find myself doing. She should have just ignored it. Amanda Palmer's article also misses the point of what Sinead is saying. And this is a complete strawman: The message is actually that you don't NEED to charge naked into battle. You can keep your clothes on (figuratively speaking - I have no issue with nudity per se), and win on your own terms. Or, more simply put: "No need to lick the sledgehammer."In other words, let’s give our young women the right weapons to fight with as they charge naked into battle, instead of ordering them to get back in the house and put some goddamn clothes on.
Yeah, I just saw that, I'm with you. Making fun of her problems with mental illness is a low blow. She was genuinely trying to reach out to her! Not on, Miley. I do think its interesting though how both women assume totally different sides of how much involvement Miley really has in crafting this image. I would lean towards Amanda's interpretation personally, I'm only getting it from stuff like this though:http://www.vibe.com/article/miley-cyrus-asked-black-sound-si... and I could be wrong, but it does seem like she has a lot more agency over this type of stuff than Sinead gives her credit for. Sure, she's playing for the male gaze, but she's going to be judged through it whatever she does y'know? And sure, she doesn't really understand the implications of her actions (which are huge) but I think the point Amanda is getting at is that its a problem whenever anybody starts trying to police what another is doing - even if it's coming from a good place. I think its way less insidious than Sinead implies, its less a board room of evil media moguls and more that Miley is a normal 20 year old girl who is immersed in this culture, who has a lot of freedom, money and drugs. She just wants to join in. I think the idea is that what we should be working towards is her freedom to choose whether to lick the sledgehammer or not, and for her to do it on her own terms, rather than condemning sledgehammer licking altogether.