April 29, 2008. Yesterday, during their daily e-mail discussion of news topics for editorial commentary, members of the National Post editorial board discussed the controversy surrounding Annie Liebovitz’s “nude” photo of Miley Cyrus for Vanity Fair magazine. What follows is a partial transcript of their exchange.

Colby Cosh  There are days you open up the newspaper, sigh and ask, “When did grown-ups go extinct?” The controversy over Annie Liebovitz’s “nude” photo of Miley Cyrus for Vanity Fair — the words “nude” and “topless” have apparently been redefined — strikes me as another such occasion. People. Help me out here. What we have is an over-processed chiaroscuro photograph of a blandly cute 15-year-old casting the camera a sleepy, dyspeptic look over a bared shoulder. I can’t see anything in it that would have pursed the lips of the crusadingest Victorian.

The real question is why we are only now concerned about the sanctified purity of a teenaged superstar who struts around in mini-skirts selling concert tickets on the all-but-explicit promise, “Your kids will thank you, and Dad won’t necessarily be bored.” Somehow, Cyrus’s Vanity Fair photo has become the cue for a moral panic. An Associated Press writer explained: “It’s what the photo suggests rather than shows — the idea that she might be nude, perhaps even in bed — that bothered some parents.” When these people find out that we’re all nude under fabric all the time, how can the heavens fail to fall?

Marni Soupcoff  There, there, Colby. The photo has widely been described as “semi-nude,” which I think is accurate, given that Ms. Cyrus seems to be wearing a grand total of one, strategically-draped satin sheet on her torso. People generally consider “tops” to be articles of clothing, rather than bed linens, which would make her topless in most books. Help me out. What’s so hysterical about finding it distasteful to see a kid who’s not even old enough to drive posing like a sex kitten? I can’t speak for crusading Victorians, but it definitely made me uneasy.

Miley Cyrus has every right to go out and bare her, er, back. But that doesn’t mean the public — particularly Cyrus’s preteen female fans — have to be happy about it. 

Yoni Goldstein  Let’s apply my fail-proof test: the Britney Spears Index (BSI). Britney was 17 when her first single, Baby One More Time, and an accompanying video wherein Ms. Spears pranced around in a schoolgirl outfit, were released. 
 

It’s part of a formulaic marketing ploy. The problem here is the age of the girl. Should Vanity Fair use a minor this way to ratchet up sales? I say no.