''Dear Miley Cyrus'' {{Making Out With Everyone Does Not A Feminist Make}}.

First off, it should be acknowledged that Miley Cyrus deserves props for openly embracing the label 'feminist' when many people -- especially celebrities -- are still wary of doing so. And Miley has, if nothing else, sparked some very interesting conversations about women, pop culture, performative idenitites, and media in 2013. For that, we thank her. But it doesn't mean we can't be a little critical. 

Recently Miley has been speaking out in interviews, going so far as to declare herself "one of the biggest feminists in the world" because she tells women "to not be scared of anything." But what Miley may not realize is that she tells women lots of other things too. Of course fearlessness is an admirable quality in any person -- male or female -- and nobody would deny that such a message works well with a feminist movement, but Miley has also equated her antics on stage and in her videos (many of which involve her being naked or some variation thereof) with women's empowerment. Sinead O'Connor tried to explain why some of this is problematic in her initial open letter to Miley (which then turned into a Twitter feud, naturally). Miley has done what many women have done, in that she has conflated sexual empowerment or agency with sexual exploitation. Perhaps it's a thin line, but the difference has to be acknowledged. Many people are working to explore these complexities in modern feminist thought as it relates to pop culture, like the folks who created this video: