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Don't Let Your Girls Grow Up To Be Child StarsMeghan O'Rourke takes readers' questions about Hannah Montana and the Miley Cyrus photos.


Posted Thursday, May 8, 2008, at 5:46 PM ET

(Continued from page 2)

Meghan O'Rourke: Thank you—I'm really glad you liked the article. While I agree with a number of posters here that the "controversy" was fed by the media, I do think that the discomfort many parents felt touches on some larger cultural issues that are pretty fascinating. One of them being celebrity ambition, and how children of celebrities fare.

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Alexandria, Va.: Is it just me, or does this whole controversy about the Miley Cyrus photo shoot seem a mite ... manufactured? I mean, it's not like she flashed the world on Facebook or something.

Meghan O'Rourke: As I said earlier, there is a way in which it is. But it also seems to touch on submerged tensions in our culture about teen sexuality, the popularity of the tween market, and so on. It's funny to me that this photo was such a big deal, though.

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Easton, Md.: Thank you for this piece—you nailed it! I just wish it could be published in some teen magazines where girls might read it. Even my 13-year-old has begun to realize that Hannah Montana's "messages" are more disingenuous than wholesome. As for the regrets and apologies expressed by Miley and her entourage for the Vanity Fair photo, as the saying goes, it's easier to ask forgiveness than beg permission. (And hello, any parent who's thinking about having their daughter "shot" by Leibowitz can look at the famed photographer's celeb portraits and see that, ahem, "provocative" may be a polite word for the end result.) In any case, Disney (and Billy Ray) should milk Miley for all she's presently worth, because unless her singing and acting skills improve (along with the material that's chosen for her), her star may be slipping toward the horizon before she's old enough to vote. Thanks again.

Meghan O'Rourke: Thank you! I'm glad you liked the piece, and especially glad to know that someone with a 13-year-old felt it nailed some of the issues. I did talk to a few kids who watched the show and wish I'd been able to talk to more.

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Parents: I'm a 27-year-old woman and am sick and tired of little girls wearing the same clothes as me or carrying cell phones and Gucci bags or wearing lipstick or have dyed hair. Parents need to step it up—saying no is okay. I swear, my kid will never wear a T-shirt that says "ditch the loser" or "your boyfriend is a good kisser." My child will never have a Bratz doll. And if my kid hates me, so be it. Why not just give your kid a bottle of vodka and some ecstasy ... then they really can be cool.

Meghan O'Rourke: Saying no certainly should be OK. And I confess that why any teenager would need a Gucci bag is beyond me. At that age, I could barely hold on to my fingers, let alone something not attached to my body.

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Buffalo, N.Y.: I still don't see what the big issue is—it's a beautiful picture. There is nothing sexual about it. I'm an thirtysomething woman and have no problem with it. People are making too much over nothing.

Meghan O'Rourke: It's interesting to see how different the responses are. I tend to think the photo is not all that sexual. Except, as I said earlier, perhaps the hair...

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Madison, Wis.: I'm a 30-year-old single female with no kids and no television, so for the longest time I had no idea who or what "Hannah Montana" was, besides hearing the name occasionally. I knew it was some kind of television show involving a young girl, but judging on the name alone I pictured it as being a very innocent show about a freckle-faced young girl growing up in rural Montana, sort of a modern-day Little House on the Praire.

Boy was it a shock when I eventually saw a clip of the show (actually, that's the only clip I've ever seen) in which Hannah Montana was all bedecked in sequined pants and way too much makeup, pushing her way into a posh Los Angeles restaurant, gabbing cattily with a young friend. Maybe I'm hopelessly out of touch, but why aren't there shows like the one I imagined, like the ones I watched and loved growing up (a whopping 20 years ago) like Little House and Anne of Green Gables? Or are there, and kids just don't like them anymore?

Meghan O'Rourke: That was exactly how I felt when I saw the show—horrified and taken aback by the tube tops and stovepipe jeans and general lipglossed ethos. It made me wonder if I'd grown up and become a cultural conservative overnight. I don't have kids, so I don't know whether there are shows like Little House on the Prairie or whether kids like them; I think there must be, but I haven't encountered them.

Interestingly, Hannah Montana's ratings have slipped dramatically over the past year, apparently.

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Washington: I can understand why this photo shoot became news, but why is it still news. Why does this thing have legs? Are we all that bored of Obama and Clinton?

Meghan O'Rourke: Alas, I guess Miley Cyrus is more entertaining than the gas tax. Or Myanmar.

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Meghan O'Rourke is Slate's literary editor and the author of Halflife, a collection of poetry
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