Miley Cyrus is undergoing quite the reinvention right now. It started with the release of her single, "Malibu," a radio-friendly slice of acoustic pop that sounds infinitely more relaxed than her previous work. She paired her laid-back sound with a new, laid-back look: long, messy hair, jean cut-offs, and tied-up white shirts. She's also drug-free right now, which is surprising given how vocal (and passionate) she was about cannabis during her Bangerz and Dead Petz eras. There's no more tongue-wagging or foam fingers or inflatable penises, either. Cyrus is over all that.
It's a jarring switch, but Cyrus wants people to know that she's always been herself. This new iteration is just different — an evolution. “I just want people to see that this is who I am right now. I’m not saying I’ve never been myself,” Cyrus told Harper's Bazaar for the magazine's August issue. “Who I was on the last record was really who I am. It’s just myself has been a lot of different people because I change a lot.”
That being said, Cyrus does admit she feels "really kind of far away" from the young woman who twerked on stage with Robin Thicke at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. The pop star says that rebellious era was intended as “kind of a ‘f--k you’" to the system that controlled her for so long. That's empowering as hell; however, things took a slight turn when Cyrus started feeling obligated to act sexual and shocking.
“It became something that was expected of me," she said. "I didn’t want to show up to photo shoots and be the girl who would get my tits out and stick out my tongue. In the beginning, it was kind of like saying, ‘F--k you. Girls should be able to have this freedom or whatever.’ But it got to a point where I did feel sexualized.”
This is a surprising revelation from Cyrus, who always seemed fully in control of the sexual images she put into the world. That is, after all, the only way a pop star's sexuality can be empowering (and not degrading): Everything must be done on your own terms. The second you lose control (even an ounce), things get murky. And that seems to be what happened with Cyrus: She felt pressure to be overtly sexual and outrageous.
But she finally has the power back. Cyrus is releasing the music she wants...exactly how she wants it. That's the kind of autonomy all artists need. No one should be tamed.
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