Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Non-Judgmentalism, Miley Cyrus and Springbreakers

Recently, one of my readers expressed concern that they found several of my posts in 2013 a bit 'judgmental'. Specifically, those were posts on Miley Cyrus and the movie Springbreakers. Let me provide my answer to that accusation here.

My criticism of Miley was not about judging anyone, or their actions. It was about a 'clash of values'. I'm more than happy to respect a friend choosing to dress and act like Miley did. But Miley was not just doing those things in 2013, she was doing interviews, expressing ideas and viewpoints. In other words, she was not just having fun, she was promoting a particular cultural worldview, a culture that was against my own values. Therefore, I had to say something about it. Otherwise, I wouldn't have values at all, right? It's the same as taking a stance against someone promoting racism or homophobia to me, and just as important. In fact, recently I wrote an opinion piece on the difference between judging someone and standing up for your values, you can read it here if you are interested.

Regarding my criticism of Springbreakers, it was some of Selena Gomez's comments regarding the filming that made me think about the possibility of popular culture making women do things they are not entirely comfortable with, something I think would be important to address. Or maybe I was overly sensitive. But either way, it wasn't meant to be a critique of the way people dressed in the film at all.