Gender Codes and Culture: The Best of Both Worlds?

Miley Cyrus borrows black culture, gay and lesbian culture, and even ratchet culture, in order to challenge traditional gender codes of femininity. 

I think that everyone can agree on the fact that Miley has grown up and changed, but that’s not what this essay is going to be about. Miley considers herself to be a feminist, and whether or not you agree that she understands what feminism is, she definitely is a strong women. Amanda Lang says, “Miley makes everyone nervous. Men feel threatened, adults feel nervous, women feel bitter because they do not feel as confident”(1). I believe that this is very true. Miley voices her opinions, and shares what she feels. Clearly, she is unhappy with the traditional gender codes of middle class America, and wants to defy them. Miley borrows aspects of other cultures and mixes them to shape a new image of herself. This image is not like the traditional feminine Miley that we first fell in love with. This one borrows black culture, gay and lesbian culture, and even ratchet culture, in order to challenge traditional gender codes of femininity. However, while it may seem like Miley is celebrating these cultures, at closer look she may actually be disrespecting them, which in turn, upsets many people.

The question becomes; Why does Miley need to borrow other cultures in her career, why can she not stay an All-American country girl? Just by looking at an old picture of Miley, you can clearly see how she resembles the traditional girl in our society. She had the long hair, the makeup that wasn’t underdone or overdone, and her clothes were very classy and stylish. Now if you look at a picture of Miley, you see the short blonde haircut, numerous piercings, tattoos, red lipstick, and most likely her tongue will be sticking out. It seems as if Miley is trying to completely erase her past, by coming up with a personality that is so unlike anything that she used to be or represent. Before she is able to challenge traditional gender codes in society using a mix of borrowed cultures, she had to challenge herself. That is exactly what she did.

Something that is crucial to understand for this essay is what dominant gender codes are and how they affect people. Melanie Lowe did a study on Britney Spears, and tried to root out the problem of why people were upset with her. Teenage girls were angered because “She affects innocent” (pg 125), in other words Britney is erasing her innocence with sexuality. Innocence is a gender code for women. So is being classy, smart, motherly, girly, etc. For guys, gender codes would be strong, manly, in-charge, etc. Being sexual is not traditionally a gender code for women, so things get challenging. Miley wants to make it clear that there is no reason why a women can’t be strong and in-charge, and so she tries to prove this by borrowing other cultures to break down these codes.

Cutting her hair short is not very different from many people who chop their hair to feel less oppressed by the standards of femininity. I had a fearless friend who wanted to test the social norms of teenagers, by shaving off her hair. She wanted to prove to girls that even without your hair you could still be considered beautiful and feminine, just like Miley did.

Short hair is something commonly associated with lesbianism. In fact, when a girl cuts their hair short, the first thing people may ask is if she has come out of the closet. Miley Cyrus was accused of being a lesbian herself. Cavan Sieckowski said that in an interview Miley said, “Being a lesbian isn’t a bad thing. So if you think I look like I’m a lesbian, I’m not offended. You can call me much worse” (3). Cyrus clearly states that she is in no way upset that she would be called a lesbian, because she has been called much worse. Miley also has shown her support of this movement, when she got a tattoo of the equality symbol on her middle finger. But has Miley taken their culture from them, and only offered support back? In “We Can’t Stop” there are many scenes which hint at lesbianism. At the end of the video, as her friends are all watching the sun set, Miley grabs a girls breast. It seems as if Miley is trying to do something here. Maybe she is trying to seem cool, but my guess is that she is once again challenging the social norms of femininity. Traditionally, women should not be touching other women, and Miley does this many times in her video. She wrestles with a girl (Figure 1), she twerks on them, and Miley even makes out with a girl doll. Bonnie Fuller states, “I see your message in “We Can’t Stop,” as a high-spirited celebration of the freedom that young women are blessed with today to fully explore and celebrate their sexuality” (13). While I do think that Miley’s intentions are good, I wonder if real lesbians are upset that Miley uses their culture, to make this point.

Figure 1: Miley wrestles with another girl in “We Can’t Stop.” In accordance with traditional gender norms, you would not see a girl fighting at all. The breaking of a gender code, combined with aspects of lesbianism, adds a shock factor to this scene.

Miley is not a lesbian, so should she be doing these actions? She is all for gay rights, but is she using their beliefs for selfish reasons? I think so. Miley acting like a lesbian popularizes her, it’s entertaining. Is she being demeaning to gay and lesbian people, by taking away the seriousness of the fact, by fooling around with another girl for attention? She is borrowing their culture, maybe to celebrate it, but in the long run it really seems only for selfish profit.

Miley definitely borrows many aspects of black culture. The one most popularized in the media today is twerking. Before Miley, I had never heard of twerking before. With research it was discovered that twerking originated in West Africa. Christiana Mbakwe said, “If we view twerking through a Western prism, we’ll interpret it as being sexual, scandalous and controversial. However when you place it in its original context you’ll realize it’s a cultural expression of joy, with its function being primarily celebratory rather than for sexual provocation. Growing up, I saw it most frequently performed during joyful occasions — family gatherings and weddings. There was nothing scandalous about it, it was simply dancing (6).”

Miley has taken a piece of black culture, and has popularized twerking again. She, and many other people have taken a dance that was meant for celebration, and sexualized it. Why does Miley feel the need to do this? I cannot think of any dance that Americans do that is particularly sexual, so she had to borrow it from black culture. Women are supposed to slow dance and be classy, they aren’t supposed to bend over and shake their butt, so that’s what Miley did, of course. She is breaking the gender codes, by completely doing the opposite of what is expected of a traditional white girl. Amanda Lang also said, “Wealth and privilege also mean Miley can misappropriate a tiny element of the black cultural experience for profit and shock value, while the originators get none of the credit or capital (14)”.

Many people have expressed their opinion that Miley uses black people as props. In “We Can’t Stop” it might seem this way. In one scene three black women are teaching Miley to twerk, and then in the next scene they are watching Miley twerk (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Perhaps Miley is using her dancers as a citation for borrowing an aspect of black culture.

Miley also has a tendency for slapping their butts. I do see this as using them as a prop or an accessory, because Miley doesn’t ever slap a white girls butt. All of the black girls wear black, while Miley wears white. It seems as though their clothing serves as a separation between the two ethnicities. I would think that a person with as much power as Miley, would use this opportunity to show equality, rather than their differences.

I believe that Miley once again borrows concepts of culture to challenge gender codes. As a 108 pound white girl, Miley seems to not relate with black culture at all, and this is how she challenges norms. No one would expect a country singer to pop a grill into their mouth, and make a scary face (Figure 3).

Figure 3: This is completely opposite to the role she used to play. You never saw Hannah Montana popping a grill into her mouth.

Miley clearly wants to challenge traditional gender codes of middle class America, and the only way she can figure out how to do this, is by showing people things they have never seen before, which are aspects of other cultures. However, I believe that she is forgetting about the people of these cultures, and are using their unique aspects to create a new image for herself, and to selfishly erase her very traditional past.

Miley also takes aspects from ratchet culture, almost a subculture of black culture, which is identified as all things associated with poor women of color. Sesali Bowen says, “Ratchet works to simultaneously police and defy gender, class, sexuality, and respectability norms. Folks with certain privilege are willing and able to float in and out of ratchet at will” (6). This sounds similar to Miley, she is defying these same things, and is able to float in and out of ratchet culture. For some reason in our culture today it is cool to be “ratchet,” perhaps this is what Miley wanted. Twerking is ratchet. The fur coat that Miley wears in the video is ratchet, something you could find at Goodwill. The Bic lighters in the candlestick are ratchet as well. Again, American women traditionally are not supposed to act like poor black women, because that isn’t who they are. And I’m sure that these women are not happy that a rich white girl is stealing their identity.

You don’t act like someone else, unless you are trying to change who you are. Clearly, Miley is trying to erase her past. Maybe it’s because she feels restrained by her Hannah Montana life, or because she wanted to prove to society that you don’t have to stick to gender codes anymore. However, there is no denying the fact that she is selfishly taking from other cultures, and not returning anything back to them. If Miley is trying to steal the identity of a poor black women, then why can’t that women be rich like Miley, if they have the same identity? I agree with people who say that Miley is definitely changing society, maybe even for the better. She teaches women to be more confident and express their sexuality. She shows support for lesbian and gay people, and she incorporates black people into her performances. However, I think she mixes these cultures in a selfish way to challenge the traditional gender codes of femininity that she once stood for.