Remember when Miley Cyrus Twerked, gyrated, writhed around and nearly had full-on intercourse with Robin Thicke at the MTV Video Music Awards?
No? This performance has slipped your mind?
It doesn’t even sound like the Miley Cyrus you’ve grown to know and love over the past several months?
Good, Miley would likely reply.
That’s been her goal.
A couple years removed from her racy outfits and shocking antics (remember that poor foam finger?!?), Cyrus cover the latest issue of Harper’s Bazaar and explains to the publication why she actually can be tamed after all.
By herself, that is.
“I feel really kind of far away from that person,” she tells the magazine of the old Miley, adding:
“I just want people to see that this is who I am right now.
“I’m not saying I’ve never been myself. … Who I was on the last record was really who I am. It’s just myself has been a lot of different people because I change a lot.”
The 24-year old says she’s always tried to be outspoken about important topics such as marriage equality and feminism.
But she realized after awhile that her message kept getting lost amidst the controversy her clothing or her actions were creating.
“It became something that was expected of me. I didn’t want to show up to photo shoots and be the girl who would get my tits out and stick out my tongue,” she says.
“In the beginning, it was kind of like saying, ‘F–k you. Girls should be able to have this freedom or whatever.’ But it got to a point where I did feel sexualized.”
In a broad sense, Cyrus still believe one should free the nipple.
This campaign has always been about freedom of choice for women.
But any time Miley would actually free her nipple in public, stories would simply be written about the poor example she was setting for women… or how she was desperate for attention.
The bigger issue was always missed.
“I think I’m just figuring out who I am at such a rapid pace that it’s hard for me to keep up with myself,” she also says, as self-aware as any celebrity we can think of.
“People get told that it’s a bad thing to change. Like, people will say, ‘You’ve changed.’ And that’s supposed to be derogatory.
“But you are supposed to change all the time.”
Case in point: Miley no longer smokes pot!
“Just for now,” she clarifies to Harper’s Bazaar. “To quote the wise Justin Bieber, ‘Never say never.’ But right now I want to be clear.”
This issue of Harper’s Bazaar goes on sale on July 25.
We’ll let Miley wrap things up by reminding everyone that she’s changed in many ways, but not in one important way:
She’s gonna keep being true to herself and refuse to conform to what society may expect or want from her.
“I think I show people that they can be themselves. I also think something that has been important for me, in this next little, like, transition phase of my career is that I don’t give a f-ck about being cool.
“I just want to be myself.”
Amen.