The VMAs May Have Been the Most Political Ever — And a Victory Lap For Obama’s America
< < Go Back
Miley Cyrus closed the VMAs Sunday night with an army of drag queens performing her new song “Dooo It!” about smoking pot. It was a progressive millennial victory lap, the sentiments of what the lit-up rainbow White House meant for so many, summed up in a single performance.
The VMAs aim to be controversial, an annual check-up of our cultural fault lines, but rarely are they as political as they were Sunday.
So much of the show was an effort to make the hashtags — be they about race, police brutality, gender identity, or feminism — a reality. Amber Rose and Black Chyna wore clothes covered in anti-women slurs on the red carpet, to reclaim them:
During her acceptance speech for Video Of The Year for “Bad Blood,” Taylor Swift said she was:
“happy that in 2015 … we live in a world where boys can play princesses and girls can play soldiers.”
And Miley’s nipple flashed on screen for a split second during a backstage segment, which seemed less like an accidental “wardrobe malfunction” than a statement about the difference between how we react to women’s bodies compared with men’s from a leading #FreeTheNipple advocate.
More From IJReview: