Miley Cyrus: Twerking is less offensive than Breaking Bad's gory violence
The Wrecking Ball singer believes she could have pushed the boundaries even further in her controversial performance
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Miley Cyrus has defended the sexually charged performance she gave at the MTV VMAs last month, claiming her dance moves and drug references were nowhere near as offensive as scenes in the Emmy-winning TV show Breaking Bad.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, the "Wrecking Ball" singer said: "America is just so weird in what they think is right and wrong. Like, I was watching Breaking Bad the other day, and they were cooking meth. I could literally cook meth because of that show. It's a how-to."
The star couldn't understand why there was such a sustained furore over her performance – which introduced the world to the twerking dance craze – when gory violence is freely accessible with a click of the remote.
Cyrus continued: "They bleeped out the word 'f***'. And I'm like, really? They killed a guy, and disintegrated his body in acid, but you're not allowed to say 'f***'? It's like when they bleeped 'molly' at the VMAs. Look what I'm doing up here right now, and you're going to bleep out 'molly'? Whatever."
In the interview, the former Disney star said she felt there had been a "double standard" in the media's reaction to the performance.
"It was a lot of 'Miley twerks on Robin Thicke', but never, 'Robin Thicke grinds up on Miley'," she said.
However, she suggested that despite the controversy, the performance that millions of viewers saw was not as outrageous as it could have been.
"Honestly, that was our MTV version," she said. "We could have even gone further, but we didn't."
After seeing her in rehearsals, an impressed Kanye West apparently visited Cyrus's dressing room and told the star: "There are not a lot of artists I believe in more than you right now."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments