Since Miley Cyrus managed to exhaust all the attention she could get out of twerking during the VMAs, she apparently decided the next logical step was to perform with a band of little people. This of course didn’t sit well with Selene Luna, a comedienne who’s also a little person, and she spoke to RadarOnline about how she felt that Miley was only using little people for the sake of comedic value.
“Miley’s performance struck a chord with me,” Luna, who has performed with Dita Von Teese and appeared on VH1′s The Cho Show with Margaret Cho, tells Radar. “As much as I’m all for being anti-victim, it’s offensive to me that little people are still the go-to butt of the joke. I don’t understand why it’s ok that she’s like, ‘Oooh look at my prop!’”
“I could never get way with doing a show surrounded by a band of people with Down Syndrome,” Luna explains. “You couldn’t do a show with Chinese people and be like, ‘Look at my Chinaman!’ Why is this ok? It’s like little people are the last acceptable blackface in showbiz.”
“I shouldn’t be shocked or anything at this point, but I just don’t understand why she finds it funny to have these short-afflicted people performing,” Luna says. “And I don’t want to be patronizing to the little people with her because they have every right to make that money. It just makes me sick.”
Is it just me, or does Miley seem to have a problem with appropriating other people for the sake of shock value? There’s a difference between appreciating other cultures and commodifying them, and that seems to be Miley’s M.O. here. She’s basically turning other people into props and accessories for herself. I know it’s nothing new in pop culture (remember the Harajuku Girls? No? Exactly.) but Miley is really on a crush to use as many people as possible to get ahead.