Miley Cyrus’ suprise performance on Sunday night wasn’t just rainbow puke. It wasn’t weird for the sake of being weird. It wasn’t just a repeat of her outrageous 2013 performance when she twerked with Robin Thicke. Miley’s 2015 VMA performance had meaning and intention, and if you don’t understand it, you probably think it’s bad.
That’s how all art is — if you don’t understand it, if it doesn’t connect with you, you dismiss it. On the surface, you see Miley spitting glitter and rubbing sprinkles on her face. You might say, “ew.” But for many kids watching, it was important.
Miley brought 30 drag queens, burlesque performers, trans activists, actors and models onstage — each a different style, shade and size. They don’t match, unlike the dancers in Justin Bieber’s performance earlier in the night dressed in all white. They represent those of us who reject the status quo. Decked in neon costumes of giant eyeballs and jagged teeth, they let you know that it’s OK to be eccentric too.
A didactic article explaining Miley's intentions (read the rest here), this is why she's my favourite popstar she's actually a philanprothic genius
I didn't watch vma's but I did see the performance and just within the last year I kept noticing the rise of popularity of drag queens, whether it's because of drag race or not idk but I was like wow there are drag queens death dropping on a major award show and I thought that was cool and something that deserves
