Empowerment is what you make of it

Tobi Abdul
Staff Reporter

In the past few months, it has seemed as though the world has been shocked to learn that people grow up.

Miley Cyrus has been under heavy scrutiny for breaking away from her Hannah Montana image in favour of twerking and sticking out her tongue. Evidently, she’s no longer a role model to the young tweens who watched Hannah Montana with complete adoration of Miley’s sweet Southern demeanour. Yes, the young tweens who are now legal adults themselves or nearing adulthood.

Irish singer-songwriter Sinead O’Connor took it upon herself to write an open letter to Miley advising her after she called O’Connor a role model of hers. O’Connor warns Miley against letting the industry prostitute her and berates her actions basically implying that Miley is a puppet of the industry, controlled by thinking men care about her because she swings naked on wrecking balls and tells her exactly what “real empowerment” is.

Sinead O’Connor. The same shaven-head lady who ripped up a photo of the Pope on national television now writing that Miley’s actions are “absolutely NOT in ANY way an empowerment of [her]self or any other young women.” A lot of people praised this letter but I think it’s just another example of the way we shame woman into conforming to an ideal. Personally, I think the entire letter straddles the line of victim blaming and slut shaming. As women, do we have an obligation to other women to act in a way that empowers us all?

What is this “real empowerment” that O’Connor speaks of? I think Miley’s actions are empowering, just as I think O’Connor’s actions on Saturday Night Love were also empowering. “Real empowerment” should be doing what you want to do, despite social pressure to do something else. Isn’t that all what we’re fighting for? The right to not have our actions scrutinized and judged against some measure of morality and empowerment.

I may not agree with Miley’s actions for myself, I would most likely never hump giant teddy bears, but I support her because she does not give a crap about what anyone says. Her actions in no sign show any characteristic of her being prostituted by the industry. Sure, I’m sure that her manager and label are thrilled with her album’s success and would prefer her to keep doing what she’s doing, but make no mistake that Miley’s actions are done because she wants to do them, not because anyone is telling her to.

We do have an obligation to each other as women, but this obligation isn’t to cover our bodies and think that every man is out to pimp us out. The obligation that we have to each other is to let ourselves be individuals outside of this gender identity. If I want to gyrate half naked, I think that I have the right to do so.

I would completely understand if you didn’t want to watch that, which is why I think a world stage isn’t the best platform for it, but I do think that our actions are governed too little by what we actually want to do and governed too much by what others want to do.

Whether you identify as woman or not, you do not owe anything to anybody. Be who you want to be and act in a way that you want to act whether or not you think it “empowers” whatever group you belong to. Your actions do not dictate how anyone else is seen. We are who we are and we should be respected for it.