Depends how you look at it

Doing a bit of traveling this week, and although I do some work while flying, what I really enjoy when airborne is perusing gossip magazines (as I’ve said before, I’m a huge (HUGE) pop culture junkie). So, I’ve been catching up with the whole Miley Cyrus brouhaha, which I find utterly fascinating.

First things first. Here is the “offending”photo:



I don’t want to belabor the point, as the mainstream press has taken care of that (last weekend it seemed like CNN updated the story every 7 minutes). But as a basis of comparison, observe below a shot of Ms. Cyrus from the Teen’s Choice awards a few months back:



I frankly think she’s exposing more skin in the latter shot, and I find the Vanity Fair photo rather ethereal and much prettier.

The larger point, I think, is that Cyrus’s Disney handlers realized, much too late, that the more mature image presented by the Vanity Fair cover might alienate her largely tween audience (or, more likely, their parents).

We live in an increasingly visual world, and it is no surprise that the music world is so image-driven. Now, lest you think that image issues are strictly a pop music phenomenon, observe the below:



Violinist Sarah Chang’s first album cover. Compare to this:



Chang’s latest release. Is the image appropriate? Sure, it’s an attractive shot of Chang. Does it have anything to do with the music? Well, I guess she’s holding a violin, and there are falling leaves…(“Autumn”?)

Image certainly carries weight in the classical scene, and probably has for longer than we care to admit. (Think of Franz Liszt, the 19th century piano virtuoso/composer whose rock star good looks and charismatic stage presence made the ladies swoon.) Cyrus’s photo reminded me of another rather controversial picture, this one of violinist Lara St. John:



St. John’s first album cover. Some people cried pornography; St. John maintains that she was expressing how nothing came between her and her music (echoes of Brooke Shields ?). What’s certain is that the image generated a lot of press, which I’m sure boosted album sales and helped launch her career. (In St. John’s defense, that would have been the beginning and end of it if she didn’t have the goods to back it up – she’s a fine violinist with a thriving career.)

The image game is a tough one, and it always feels like women come under more scrutiny than men. On one hand, we are expected to present an attractive image of ourselves; on the other, if that image is deemed to “cross the line", our talent is put to doubt because we are thought to be relying on our feminine wiles. And that line keeps shifting, drifting with political and cultural winds.

I know I spend an inordinate amount of time figuring out what to wear on the podium; women don’t have “uniforms” in the way that men do, so I can’t just slap on a tuxedo and call it a night. How do I maintain both my femininity and sense of style while still remaining “appropriate”? The only certainty for me are my 4-inch heels; whatever you think of them, I love them, because they make me tall. And it’s great to cut an imposing figure on the podium.