Of course, the firestorm isn’t quite on par with the furor the VF debacle provoked last year. That could mean a couple of things: 1. There’s a psychological world of difference between a sexy 15-year-old and a sexy 16-year-old; 2. We’re distracted by other stuff right now; 3. Sheets trump hooker boots; and/or 4. We’re getting used to seeing Miley as a budding sex symbol. It’s probably a little bit of all of the above. But No. 4, in particular, makes me a touch nervous for Miley’s future; I hope her handlers can keep their wits about them through the next few years and err on side of caution. No reason to erase every ounce of sexuality from a girl approaching adulthood — we needn’t cover her in a Snuggie just because she made her name as a Disney darling. But it’s tough for girls of a certain age to navigate this terrain in the public eye, when normal girls get to explore their sexual power in relative privacy, without national magazine covers to document their missteps. (Translation: You can’t always trust a teenage girl’s instinct for appropriateness, even a smart teenage girl.) And there’s no turning back once you’ve created a sex symbol too soon — just ask Britney Spears.
What do you think, PopWatchers? Is Miley’s Elle shoot too sexy? Nothing to worry about? Or totally expected at this point?
More Miley Cyrus:
The Miley Cyrus Vanity Fair photos: Racy or artistic?
Miley Cyrus: The $1 billion apology
How long should Miley Cyrus keep playing Hannah Montana?
I do not know one guy who thinks Miley is sexy and think it is ridiculous for Elle to promote her in a light she is too young and inexperienced to fully understand. Her parents NEED to take some responsibility as they ultimately have to provide authorization for these photos to be released as such since she is still a minor.
The coming of age via sexy photo shoot is fine, but if you ask me, 16 is not “of age”. I would wait a couple of years for the type of stuff she’s been doing. And my god, Miley as a budding sex symbol? It is so much more like a wanna-be budding sex symbol. She’s sixteen! I’ve never encountered a sixteen-year-old sex symbol before, and if we’re officially classifying her as one, I’m worried about the state of American pop culture.
Are you serious?! Does she realize that little girls look up to her??
I find this whole thing insane, not because it’s offensive that Elle is promoting a sexy image of Miley Cyrus, but because Miley herself essentially accused Annie Liebowitz and Vanity Fair of unfairly tricking her into playing sexy for her photos, only to do this Elle shoot mere months later. To me, this just proves the complete hypocrisy involved in the Cyrus camp. She found that people were too shocked and outraged at the previous pics, so she pointed the finger at the shady, (award-winning, highly respected) photographer. Now that things have settled down some, she’s decided to go back to Sexy Miley. Whatever. What Miley and her parents/managers are doing is just a few years shy of the current Lohan situation. Let your kids run wild to get the fame, then blame everyone but the guilty parties when everything blows up in their faces. This same family after all paraded their 9 YEAR OLD daughter down a red carpet in a bathing suit and make up. This family is Lohan 2.0.
i find it is not 16teen year old shoots it ridiculous she is a pop star for disney not for playboy let go of the sexy shoots/pics it’s not ur thing ok you are trying to grow up to fast but i don’t blame you it’s your parents’ issue and i adore you miley but not where the TOO SEXY AND TOO HOT comes in i am sure you do not want to be a sex symbol this young
FYI;you are a horrible role model in the sense of the bad gir pictures.
Controversial Boots? Yawn. But I guess any press is good press, even if it’s faux outrage. South Park was waaay ahead on this though. Jump to 20:50
http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/164365/
Totally expected at this point. She’s pushing the envelope to..well, we are talking about her, are we not? Case closed.
Weren’t her and her father and Disney complaining about the last time she did something like this? Just another little attention whore.
If Elle can’t spell her name right on their website (see: webpage title), I hope they spell it right in the magazine.
I love Miley Cyrus! And even though these photos may look suggestive, people need to realize that most models in all these magazine range in age from 15 to early 20′s…and they all dress and pose in the same ways as Miley does in this photoshoot..and no one gives has any issues with them! I’m not saying that the pics aren’t innapropriate.. but there are more girls out there her age that do the same thing all the time!
publicity publicity….
She’s not the first of this kind, she won’t be the last. I still wish Miley the best for the future.
Was the writer trying to set the record for most links in one paragraph in EW history? You win!
you people need to concentrate on issues more important this. does this really affect your lives in such a way that you can’t go on living? after reading the negative responses to this you would think the world is coming to an end. IT IS JUST PICTURES!!!!! she is not nude or doing anything that is risque. this country is so focused on insignificant bulls**t. GET A LIFE PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!
What David said … Miley can’t even get her nose pierced without self-righteous Americans squealing. Girl’s gotta grow up sometime …