Parton & Midler On the Miley Cyrus Thing

You know, we thought the Hannah Montana fever thing ended a hell of a long time ago (and yes, she did indeed beat Bieber to the punch of giving teenage girls mild fevers), but it appears the world really cannot stop theorizing on Miley Cyrus. Is she the downfall of all the feminism has worked for or is she next coming of Gloria Steinem? Should she put on her clothes or take them off more? Did she actually invent twerking? Dolly Parton and Bette Midler have both now voiced their Miley Cyrus opinions, and we should listen to them because they are sage and wizened and really damn fabulous.

Here's what Bette Midler said when Katie Couric raised "the Miley Question" in her direction:

I think there’s a difference between pushing the envelope sexually and pushing the envelope creatively. I think you can be as creative as you want to be and as inventive as you want to be…you can roll out old ideas and old thoughts and give them a new coat of paint. But the idea of whipping out the girls, I don’t know, there’s a grossness to it that I think is not flattering…to the women themselves.

Which is a good point — in that distinction between being sexually "edgy" and actually creative — but also kind of feels like we've been-there-done-that/heard it before.

Moving on! Dolly Parton — who is also Cyrus' godmother, which makes us jealous every day of our lives — recently spoke out on the little tyke in an interview with the London Evening Standard, and it's kind of my favorite things that's been said about Cyrus and her Cyrus-y antics as of yet:

I know that she has thought this all through. We’ll let her go and do her own thing....If she needs my opinion on something I will surely give it and there have been times we've talked. But I would never dream of calling her and saying, 'Well why are you doing this?' or, 'You shouldn't do this or that.'

Also:

“I don’t think people really realize yet what a great singer and writer she really is.” Parton insisted she did not need to give Cyrus career advice, saying: “She’s just trying to find her own place and wings and learn to fly."

We love ourselves some Midler and we agree with big parts of what she said re: Cyrus's idea of creativity. But we are inclined to agree even more with Ms. Dolly Parton on this matter, and not just because she is Dolly Motherf***ing Parton.

People seem incredibly eager to paint Cyrus as a pop star in crisis, but what seems much more accurate is that she's a quite-young (not even of drinking age yet) girl who grew up in the limelight and is actually probably only at the very beginnings of her career. As a result of that aforementioned limelight as a young'un thing she is also experiencing "creative" freedom for one of the first times in her life — just so happens that freedom is being expressed through us seeing "the girls" pretty frequently.

There's a reason both Midler and Parton have been around as long as they have, and it's because they are both incredibly awesome. As such, they both make very valid points that we — and Miley Cyrus — should listen to.

And yes, I am 100 percent going to use this as another excuse to post this video: