Opinion: Is Miley Cyrus’s bad behavior a symptom of a bigger problem?

By now, everyone has heard about Miley Cyrus’ provocative VMA’s performance. Twerking onstage, miming oral sex, and grinding against co-performers and teddy bears were just a few of the things that outraged organizations like The Parents Television Council, who blasted MTV in a statement.

“MTV has once again succeeded in marketing sexually charged messages to young children using former child stars and condom commercials — while falsely rating this program as appropriate for kids as young as 14. This is unacceptable.”

In the world of social media, Miley’s performance has spun thousands of tweets and viral memes.

All laughing aside though, was this performance just a symptom of a bigger problem?

Her hyper-sexuality, lack of impulse control and boundaries, rapid mood swings, admitted drug use, compulsive tweeting and spending, extreme displays of irritability and argumentative behavior, difficulty sleeping, and hoarding of animals, all documented on Twitter by Miley herself for her over 13 million followers, may not be typical adolescent behaviors.

Many have defended Miley’s performance at the VMA’s, arguing that the VMA’s have been “edgy”, and citing fellow Disney channel alum Britney Spears’ VMA striptease in 2000 as proof.

But we all know how well that turned out for Britney. Her behavior became increasingly erratic. She slowly withdrew from the stage, but her exploits didn’t escape media attention. She was in and out of rehab, partying heavily, even shaving her own head.

Her 2007 VMA performance had been highly hyped and anticipated by MTV, various other media outlets, by music critics and many millions of fans and the World in general as Spears’ comeback performance, as this was Spears’ first performance since The Onyx Hotel Tour in 2004 in support of her fourth album In the Zone. Unfortunately, the disastrous performance only increased the media frenzy surrounding her.  In the months following the performance, Spears went through a very public meltdown.

Is Miley following in Britney’s footsteps? Rumors of self-harm, drug abuse, and cat-fights with other celebs have been splashed across the pages of gossip magazines in recent months. Some are saying she looked high during the VMA’s. Is she just having fun destroying her child-star image? Or is something more sinister going on? Let us know what you think in the comments!

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