Miley Cyrus Isn't Making Music To Please Men — This New Album Is All For Her

With her upcoming album, She Is Miley Cyrus, Miley Cyrus isn't performing for men anymore. That message was delivered loud and clear by the pop star herself in the new August cover story for Elle. Cyrus has finally found herself and this version is one who isn't afraid to show off her sexuality through her music, videos, and live performances. But, as she said in her interview, it's always for herself, not her male fans, and she really wants men to know that.

In her interview with Elle, Cyrus said she feels more powerful than ever before, and it comes from feeling comfortable in her body. "I like the way being sexual makes me feel, but I’m never performing for men," said Cyrus, who married Liam Hemsworth last year. "They shouldn’t compliment themselves to think that the decisions I’m making in my career would have anything to do with them getting pleasure. I don’t think that because some guy thinks I’m hot he’s going to buy my record. It doesn’t help me."

That is to say, Cyrus doesn't need men to like the direction her career is going in. In fact, with her new music, which will include her recently released She's Coming EP, the first part of a trilogy that will add up to a complete album, Cyrus is purposely pushing back against what men want.

In the interview, Cyrus teased a new song called "Never Be Me," which gets at this idea that she's not going to play the perfect wife for anyone, and she's not going to make music for men who might want her to. "I have a new song, 'Never Be Me,' and the chorus says, 'If you’re looking for faithful, that’ll never be me. If you’re looking for stable, that’ll never be me. If you’re looking for someone that’ll be all that you need, that’s never going to be me,'" she told Elle.

The singer continued, saying that the track immediately got some pushback from her producer Mark Ronson. "He was like, 'You can’t say that. You have guy fans, and they’re not going to understand what you mean. I don’t even understand what you mean.'”

Cyrus said she questioned Ronson's reaction, pointing out that if a male artist had played him that song, he wouldn't have thought anything of the messaging. "And then two days later," she said, "he hit me up and he’s like, 'You’re absolutely right. I totally get your perspective.'"

This new perspective is already on full display in her new video for "Mother's Daughter," her first single from this new era. The cherry-red clip also sent clear messages about female empowerment. The words "every woman is a riot," flashes across the screen just two seconds in, followed by other messages like "Not an Object" and "Tough Titties." The video is clearly meant to titillate, but not in the ways men might assume. This is about letting women know they have the power, they are in control of their body and their persona, no one else.

As Cyrus told Elle, “My record is called She Is Miley Cyrus. ‘She’ does not represent a gender. She is not just a woman. ‘She’ doesn’t refer to a vagina. She is a force of nature. She is power. She can be anything you want to be, therefore, she is everything. She is the super she. She is the she-ro. She is the She-E-O.” And get ready because she is coming.