What kind of name is Miley, anyway?

By now I'm sure everyone's seen the supposedly controversial picture of 15-year-old pop star Miley Cyrus that caused a media tempest last week. If not, here it is. 

I don't know. My gut reaction to the shot is an emphatic "meh." Maybe that speaks to how pervasive the sexualization of young girls is in popular culture. Maybe I've been desensitized. But I certainly feel like the after-the-fact "outrage" manufactured by Cyrus and Disney is just that - manufactured. They signed up for this shot, and even a 15-year-old knows when she's topless and tousled, and what that might ever-so-coyly suggest to the viewer. I'd be interested to hear what others think.

For an interesting point of view on teen sexualization, here's a great piece by music journalist Elizabeth Bromstein, who argues that the young stars who sell purity are actually, by implication, selling sex.