Miley Cyrus is getting credit in Candy magazine for wanting to help the world be “more comfortable with fluid descriptions of gender and sexual orientation.” Cyrus, one of the premiere attention-grabbers of our age, has the platform to push any agenda she wants. Her gender fluidity and LGBT advocacy is doubtlessly reaching people whose experience and understanding of LGBT issues would be smaller were it not for her. But not everyone in the LGBT community — despite Cyrus’s work to help youth and educate the public — believes she’s doing purely good for the cause. As with any celebrity endeavor there’s the suspicion that Cyrus may be stoking the fires of her own fame with her issue advocacy.
“It’s people like her that keeps the trans community looking little more than objects of fetishism. There are better, non-sexualized ways to encourage people to become more comfortable with these ‘genderqueers’,” writes Cai Copley in comments at The Advocate. And Lara Holy, a Queer feminism advocate, wants to make sure what Cyrus is doing is simply seen for what it is. “There is nothing wrong with fetish and sex or being genderqueer, as long as this stuff is called out as what it is: appropriation of trans culture for corporate gain. respect the pioneers,” writes Holy.
