Miley Cyrus Backlash is about Appropriation of Male Privilege

Miley Cyrus is such a racist! It’s true. So many articles were being written, it was hard to keep up. But my skeptic senses started tingling a little bit when I kept seeing her bikini described as “flesh-toned,” “nude,” or “skin-colored.” It didn’t seem like this kind of casual racism would have ended up by accident in article after intersectional article attacking Miley Cyrus for being a “wealthy white woman” using her backup dancers as “literal props,” appropriating twerking (is twerking really the hill we want to plant our flag on?), and being a general terrible human being who had the most offensive and disgusting performance in the history of the VMA.

Well, I decided to watch it in context. And I noticed something.

This guy.

“That’s totally different, Yessenia!” some may cry. “He’s black! It’s completely different when he expresses his power and wealth by using the sexualized bodies of black women as silent props in his performance! Plus he didn’t even attempt to twerk, so whether he appropriated it is moot.”

Only then I kept watching, and I noticed this guy:

So there’s a white male performer who was the other half of Miley’s twerk, still using black (and white) women’s bodies as literal props in his performance, and for his own personal gain. “But he wasn’t the girl half of the twerk, so it’s totally different!” some may have the better sense not to say out loud.

Why 20 year old Miley Cyrus being held to such a higher standard? Does anyone sincerely think she had the total creative control over this entire performance that would be necessary to justify her solitary condemnation?