I don't belong to you and you don't belong to me.

Over the weekend images of 15-year-old Miley Cyrus posing in the upcoming Vanity Fair were released. In one of the images she seems to be topless with a satin sheet wrapped around her. Her back is exposed and she is looking toward the camera. The uproar about this photo shoot, that may I add was done by one of the most noted and talented photographers in the business - Annie Leibovitz, has bombarded entertainment news. So much so, that Cyrus has now issued an apology saying she is "embarrassed" by how Vanity Fair is using the material collected for the photo spread and corresponding article. Disney has followed suit by saying "a situation was created to deliberately manipulate a 15-year-old in order to sell magazines." The entire situation is ridiculous.
With our society being so sexually motivated from years of repression, the fact that a 15-year-old star posed in a semi-provocative manner should be no mouth-dropping matter. Far from Hollywood, on the streets of suburbia young girls' skirts are getting shorter and their tops lower. Their mouths glisten with the highest-end lip gloss to entice pubescent boys. They know sex sells. By 15 most of the teens in America have had some sort of sexual contact and are well aware of how profitable sexuality can be. Who is buying the sexually-influenced paraphernalia for these kids? Who is responsible for how they look when they walk out of the door in the morning? Not Miley Cyrus. Not Vanity Fair.
Parents, and whoever else feels the need to be self-righteous, are getting up in arms because they see the loss of innocence in Cyrus as the loss of innocence in their own children. When it's right in front of one's face it's, "Oh not my Ashley. It's just the fashion. There isn't anything else in the stores to buy. She looks cute. She's a good girl." Little do they know Miss Ashley knows more about sex, drugs and how to get what she wants than they could ever imagine. But when it's another's child, when it's someone that is put in the spotlight for people to judge, it's a travesty. Poor little Miley is being manipulated and she didn't realize the photos would be used in such a manner. So please parents of America, come to arms and assist this poor child. Turn a blind eye to your own kids because it's too difficult to deal with. Feel proud because you called out a magazine for doing exactly what they were asked to do. How about the parents of this country come to the aid of their own children and let Miley Cyrus figure out who she is on her own.
Stop buying your girls cute little T-shirts that say stuff like "Boys like me because (insert innocent yet provocative description here)." And don't judge a 15-year-old with more money than God for doing something she wants to do. What is your 15-year-old doing when you aren't around?