Miley Cyrus syndrome: Where have all the grown-ups gone?
Meghan Daum wrote this article for the LA Times on October 10, 2013. Her article was written to explain how the culture of today has changed since she was a young girl, evolving to the point where adulthood no longer can exist. She opens the article strongly with an opening paragraph describing scenes from the movie "The Big Chill", a movie from her childhood portraying how adulthood is like with baby boomer pining for their lost youth in a vacation house, sprawled on the floor listening to Motown music. She relates the movie to how adulthood should be; people with vacation houses and serious careers and grown-up problems like what to do about their fading ideals or dwindling fertility or lackluster marriages. After watching the movie Daum could not imagine becoming that old. Daum then goes on to explain how adulthood has changed, especially in part to the entertainment media, creating a scenario in which adulthood does not exist and should be avoided at all costs; that 40 is not the new 30, but the new 18. She gives the example of Miley Cyrus, whose twerking act at the MTV Video Music Awards in August caused thousands of reproachful postings and outbursts. Daum defends Cyrus, explaining that she is 20 and acting out, albeit in an unfortunate if predictable manner. Daum also states that we should have known better? Equally lewd was her 36 year old dance partner Robin Thicke, whose age and actions seemed to bother far fewer people, and maybe that should be no surprise, given our culture's penchant for letting men off the hook and, moreover, its affinity for bratty grown-ups. Granted, she says, 40 has been forced to become the new 30, 20, 18. Other support Daum gives are that how traditional signifiers of crossing into adulthood such as marriage, having kids and buying starter homes tend to come later in life these days, thanks in part to sexual liberation and assisted reproductive technologies that free us to have kids much later than used to be imaginable, the Great Recession, and exorbitant housing costs and student loan debt that can keep us in the world of rentals and roommates well into our 30's and beyond. That doesn't make the contrast between contemporary and old-school adulthood any less striking. But it does show how confused we've become about what's age-appropriate. Daum ends with a satirical quip: Wow, I am old!