Throughout our last unit studying youth and pop culture, I have realized what a huge impact media plays on youth; rather this is being produced by or for girls. This is thoroughly discussed in the Kearney article. Throughout this blog I will discuss the music video Ordinary Girl by Miley Cyrus. The music video primarily focuses on loving who she is and does not want to be ungrateful for what she has but bottom line she just wants to be an ordinary girl. The video starts out with Miley getting ready for a concert backstage getting her makeup on and singing about how she wishes she was ordinary. She goes on stage and is being hurried by her directors and she says sometimes I even choke on my own words, just like an ordinary girl. But she must put her best foot forward and get on with life. The video then goes into a school and focuses on random people from the school and what everyday life is like for ordinary people.
Singers and famous people such as Taylor Swift whom we discussed multiple times in class want people to believe that they are just like you, an ordinary girl, when in reality they can never be an ordinary girl. They may not discuss their personal life with the media like other celebrities but they are still famous and anything but ordinary. The idea by Kearney that adolescent girls are more playful than serious this music video demonstrates this. Miley wants her fan base to think she is just like them and the fans believe that they are just like her. Miley goes on to talk about her being lazy sometimes, she gets bored at times just like normal girls. She says sometimes she even feels ignored points in her life. This is what really sticks out in my mind. A lot of youth and teenage girls feel that they are being ignored and need to express themselves rather this be sexually or just being and individual which we have discussed in lecture many of times. I can appreciate that Miley does her own thing and does not go with the norms of society. Yea she may be singing a song about being “ordinary” which she is far from but in the same aspect, she does dress age appropriate and is not acting like many other singers her age.
Miley talks about her dreams and making wishes as if she has not already hit her goal in life. I like the lyrics “get back on your feet when you stumble and fall”. This could be a particular negative argument for someone because how many times has Miley fallen, but for me I see it as positive. She is telling girls that when you fall you just have to get back up and can not dwell on what happened. This is such a great statement for young girls to learn from their idols. I can’t tell you how many young girls that I know that know every song and line by Miley Cyrus.
Miley is largely focused on as being a “good girl”. Harris discusses this in her article about the difference between being a good girl and a bad girl. Miley is a good girl because she is Caucasian and upper class, she has access to practically anything she could want, she can receive the best education and has the money for this. This is according to Harris’ definition. Her father, Billy Ray Cyrus also grew up in this same category, Billy can relate to what Miley is going through in her life even if it may be years later.
Miley is largely still a young girl who does not know what she wants, maybe at this point in her life she wishes that she was just like everyone else but she will never be like every other girl in the world. In my eyes she still has a lot of growing up to do. In all of her music videos she is portrayed as a kid for “Hannah Montana,” which is a Disney channel TV show. When she is just simply Miley Cyrus there is an entire different discussion to be had. Throughout the video discussed in this blog she wants you to know she also has crushes on boys and even though she is famous, boys are still a major part of her life however her dad is still very much a dad. Miley gives hope throughout the video by saying anything can happen in this world to an ordinary girl you just like me. At the end of the music video they have a “ordinary girl” from the school they were shooting this music video in and she is smiling at the camera as if she is waiting on her chance to be famous. I like the way the video ended with hope for an ordinary girl to have a dream just like Miley had at one time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vHKfwuCrQM Ordinary Girl by Miley Cyrus
Kearney, Mary C. "Producing Girls-Rethinking the Study of Female Youth Culture."Delinquents and Debutantes: Twentieth-Century American Girls' Cultures. New York City: NYC, 1998. 285-307. Print.
Brown, Adriane. "Intro to Youth and Pop Culture” Women’s Studies 230 Gender, Race, and Sexuality in Popular Culture. 23 May 2011
Harris, Anita. "The "Can-Do" Girl Versus The "At-Risk" Girl." Future Girl: Young Women in the Twenty-first Century. New York: Routledge, 2004. 13-36. Print.
