Remember all the thinkpieces spawned when Miley Cyrus decided to twerk on Robin Thicke at the VMA Awards while performing a mash-up of We Can't Stop with Blurred Lines? Well, they covered everything from race relations to discussions of art, infantlisation of female sexuality to the cult of celebrity to the impending apocalypse brought on by a 20-year-old woman wagging her bum around onstage.
The conversations got so lofty and detailed that a university is to offer a course in The Sociology of Miley Cyrus, subtitled, ‘Race, Class, Gender and Media.’ This is, of course, coming from Skidmore College, the same university which offered a Beyoncé studies module. Why Miley?
Well, it’s all because the students couldn’t stop talking about We Can't Stop. ‘I showed that video to my class, and the students had so much to say,’ says Professor Carolyn Chernoff.
Miley will be used to discuss lots of broader topics in the sociology class, and a junior student, Layla Lakos is into it. ‘You can study a lot of things based on Miley,’ she told The Mirror. ‘She represents how transient wealth and fame can be, and shows how possible it is to change your image.’
‘Miley is sometimes seen as a wild, terrible she-beast. After the VMA performance, this young woman was seen as the end of all times,’ she continued. ‘Miley is a lens into cultural conflict.’
Can’t say fairer than that, and as long as the students get to wear their Abercrombie and American Apparel, or whatever US students slouch about in all day instead of beige latex knickers, it sounds like a lot of fun. Where do we sign up?
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Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.