People Think I’m Sex Freak Who Pops Molly and Does Lines All Day - Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus opens up about accusations of racism, her new sex- and drug-fueled infamy, celebrity friends and more in a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times.

Responding to criticism of her MTV Video Music Awards twerk-fest, Cyrus says, ''It’s actually really funny how many people could watch my performance, and they think it was, like, sexist and degrading to women, and somehow people found that it was racist, which I couldn’t even wrap my mind around.''


The pop star explains that people would have found fault whether she’d used white dancers or black dancers.
She adds, “People got a rise out of me saying that I was a feminist, but I am. I’m telling women be whoever you want to be.”

This year, the VMAs (along with Cyrus’ racy music videos) changed many observers’ attitude toward the performer.

She tells the Times, “I went from people just thinking I was, like, a baby to people thinking I’m this, like, sex freak that really just pops molly and does lines all day.”

Cyrus is baffled by the backlash.

“It’s like, ‘Has anyone ever heard of rock ’n’ roll?’ There’s a sex scene in pretty much every single movie, and they go, ‘Well, that’s a character.’ Well, that’s a character,” she explains. “I don’t really dress as a teddy bear and, like, twerk on Robin Thicke, you know?”

Asked whether she pays attention to her pop star peers, Cyrus says, “I watch everyone’s music videos, to the point where I’m O.C.D., looking at every single thing they’re wearing and what they’re doing.”

She explains that before she was her “own personal self, it was hard for me to watch that kind of stuff. I was so jealous of what everyone else got to do, because I didn’t get to truly be myself yet.”
Apparently, Cyrus is not the only celebrity whose freedom has been limited.

“You don’t have to be signed to Disney Channel to be put in a box, or to be rated PG,” says the onetime “Hannah Montana” star. “I’m with artists sometimes, and I’ll take a picture of them or whatever. They make me delete it.”

She explains that she’ll sometimes get someone to “flash me” before immediately telling her to trash the photo.

“I don’t have a bunch of celeb friends, because I feel like some of them are a little scared of the association,” says Cyrus, specifically citing Ariana Grande as someone who still has to “respect” and “answer to” her Nickelodeon overseers.

Cyrus recalls, “Things came out that happened — like, you know, bong videos — when I was on Disney. But I never wanted to do that to Disney. When I was no longer employed by anyone, that’s when I was like, ‘O.K., I’m going to do my own thing.’”

What about Joe Jonas’ recent allegation that Cyrus and Demi Lovato got him to try marijuana?
“If you want to smoke weed, you’re going to smoke weed,” says Cyrus. “There’s nothing that two little girls are going to get you to do that you don’t want to do. I thought maybe he was saying that like it was going to make him look badass.”

That said, the singer makes a point of saying she does not want to glamorize drugs for kids.
Cyrus says, “I’ve got a little sister. I don’t want her to smoke weed, and it’s not because I think weed is bad, but [she'll make the choice when she's old enough].”

She tells the newspaper that she’s not willing to compromise who she is to score a certain kind of press coverage.

“I don’t know how to not talk the way I talk,” explains Cyrus. “I would rather have everything I do be 100 percent honest. I just want to be who I am.”