In this day and age, anyone could come up with a thousand and one ways to become famous. Through websites like YouTube and other social media, you don’t need to have extreme talent to be famous.

All you need is a camera and some creativity and the stage sets itself. It can be moderate or outrageous, as long as it’s all in good taste. No one relayed this message to Miley Cyrus.
In what could only be described as the beginning of a downward spiral, Cyrus has been making a series of career choices that show how “mature” and “grown” she is now that she’s left the fame of her Hannah Montana days behind. These actions, although meant to symbolize her growth, have only served to ridicule herself in the media.

A couple of facts I need to clarify before I go on, only for the purpose of expressing my vantage point: I am a fan of Miley Cyrus and her music. I’m guilty on 25 charges of enjoying and listening to both “We Can’t Stop” and “Wrecking Ball” on repeat. However, my fanaticism did not prevent the wave of embarrassment that took over after watching both of her music videos.

In a time period during which everyone can become famous for being themselves, cultural appropriation and over-sexualization are not the way to go. I’m not saying that people are not allowed to do as they wish, but there should be a level of taste going into the final product.

Miley Cyrus performing lewd acts in front of millions of people — teenagers and children included in the audience — with a foam finger is neither art nor tasteful. Miley Cyrus shedding all her clothes as she rides a wrecking ball in the music video for “Wrecking Ball” is not an artistic nude. It’s simply Miley Cyrus being naked in front of a camera while licking some seemingly unsanitary construction work equipment.

Although she is free to be who she wants to be and do the things she wants to do, there should always be a concern and a purpose of artistic revelation in her work. Nothing should be done for the sake of selling sex. Miley has the talent to sell the songs, which are good, without the tasteless videos that accompany it. Running out of puns, I have to say that the only thing that should come in like a “wrecking ball” in her career is her parents, telling her to stop.