8 smart people searching for lessons in Miley Cyrus' twerking

Critics can't accept that she's just being Miley

Miley Cyrus
(Image credit: REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)

By now, you've likely heard about Miley Cyrus' fantastically awful MTV Video Music Awards performance. The former Disney star's sloppily sexual rendition of her own song, "We Can't Stop," and Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" at the VMAs has been called everything from "raunchy" to "disgusting sexual exploitation." But while commenting on a former child star's antics may seem low-brow, critics everywhere have been waxing philosophical about Miley's twerkstravaganza (especially in regards to race).

So what does Miley's gyrating say about racial inequality, sexism, pop culture, child stars, hip-hop, and Janis Joplin? Here are the answers:

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Samantha Rollins

Samantha Rollins is TheWeek.com's news editor. She has previously worked for The New York Times and TIME and is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.