Sinead vs. Miley - WTF?

Miley, Miley, Miley, are you an agent of patriarchy or not?

Lately the American society has developed some sort of a love-hate relationship with the former “Hannah Montana” star: they claim to hate her, but they love to write about her at the same time. She may be a disgrace, a stripper, an agent of patriarchy or a tactics-strategy genius – take your pick. Her “wrecking ball” clip has caused quite a commotion among the American public, making Miley famous (or infamous, it is possible that she does not care) even before her performance at SNL – and then in came Sinead O’Connor to puff her up even more.

Let us elaborate. Sinead wrote an open letter to Miley after her initial infamous performance, urging her to get help and to clean up her act. This is not quite unusual – lately internet sites (like MetaPicture and Yahoo) post various open letters between people, urging them to get help or to f*ck off instead. What is unusual is that Miley replied to it, telling Sinead (rather crudely, perhaps) that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, reminded how Sinead tore a photo of the pope John Paul II and compared her to Amanda Bynes in general.

Sinead’s Irish temper flared up, she threatened to sue Miley. Miley appeared to offer Sinead an olive branch, offering to talk to her before SNL. Sinead promptly refused, and again told Miley that she needed help. So far Miley had not replied to this – third, so far – open letter. Did Sinead win, then?

Let us think about it. On one hand, Miley’s behavior is crude at best and reminiscent of Lindsey Lohan and Brittney Spears at their worst. Plus, she did start it, by mentioning Sinead’s name (though completely innocently) first. On the other hand, what did Sinead expect, when she wrote an open letter to Miley? That it would remain unanswered? (If so, then why write it in the first place?) Or that Miley would repent and declare Sinead to be her new guide in life and spiritual-behaviouristic guru? No, seriously, what?

If Miley’s mention of Sinead was something of a provocation, then Sinead went fully along, writing a rather condescending letter to Miley. And Miley, to everyone’s surprise, replied (see above), by suggesting that Sinead does not have the moral superiority to talk to her like that – and Sinead was caught. Instead of keeping that same sanctimonious/morally superior tone, she threatened to sue, threatened that various advocates of mentally unstable people will sue, etc. if Miley does not back down.

Miley did not back down, no one else appeared to have supported Sinead, and instead Amanda Palmer (not Bynes) has written to Sinead in support of Miley, telling that Miley is the one in charge of her own performances and whatnot, and that Sinead should back down. Miley herself has tweeted Sinead, offering to talk to her before Miley’s SNL performance, but Sinead has appeared to have recovered her moral high ground, telling Miley that she will talk to the younger woman only after she had help (to paraphrase her) and that she won’t mock the American either. Good for Sinead!

Only, in the end, Sinead has caused more harm than good. Miley has not apologized to her (at least not publicly) and probably will not apologize in the future. So far, the rest of the American cultural community has not come to Sinead’s defense either, no matter what their own feelings on Miley’s performance are, nor has anyone else. Amanda Palmer has actually turned on Sinead, implying that the moral superiority are on Miley’s side as well, so all that the Irishwoman could do was back down as magnanimously as she could. It is doubtful that she will write a fourth letter to Miley now, not if she really wants to take her to court - with dubious results.

Well, not that dubious in regards to Sinead’s moral superiority – by the time the case of “O’Connor vs. Cyrus” would be over, it would be long gone along with anything that Sinead really values (at least in theory), like integrity. The American society supports Miley and not her and that what matters. All that Sinead really achieved was to give Miley another popularity boost just before the SNL one. Thank you, Sinead, Miley really needed that.

And Miley...odds are she was just being herself, but it is also possible that she started all of this just to get that popularity boost. Sinead is from Ireland, few people in the States have heard of her, and fewer yet want to support her against Miley, so Sinead was really at a disadvantage, an easy mark. That is cheap, Miley, and you know it.

So. Is Miley a tactical music genius or just Justin Bieber with boobs? Is Sinead an innocent victim or just a hypoctical busybody who was blown up on her petard? You tell me.