Miley Cyrus Recalls Foam Finger VMAs Performance Criticism In New Thong-Centric Post

Few celebrities have had similar career paths to that of Miley Cyrus, who completely blew her wholesome childhood Hannah Montana image to pieces with her infamous twerk-heavy performance with Robin Thicke at the MTV Video Music Awards back in 2013. Over the years, Cyrus has reflected on her time in the spotlight, sometimes in serious, life-altering ways such as focusing on self-help and sobriety. And then sometimes it's with hilarious, non-life-altering jabs at those who were highly critical of that highly sexualized stage performance.

Miley Cyrus leaned toward the latter influence with a recent post shared through her Instagram Stories, where she clapped back at everybody who called her out for having a "turkey butt" during her VMAs dancing. And if you thought the sound of that clapping back was from the pop star's own butt cheeks, you might be onto something. Check it out!

There are clearly too many gobble-related comments to make about a post like this, but I might as well try to keep things hovering around classy. And can we all agree that Miley Cyrus' thong pic also falls more on the "classy" side of things, at least as far as eight-year-old retorts to butt-centric insults go. She could have easily gone with something far more crude, or far more vindictive. But instead, she just wanted to show off how far her backside has come since the days of crotch-grinding to "Blurred Lines" on MTV.

Of course, Miley Cyrus herself has come a long way over the last eight years, having survived the intense backlash that her twerking provoked (in part thanks to how much focus "Blurred Lines" got all on its own). And she survived such scrutiny not with regrets and apologies, but by wholly embracing her sexuality and wild child side on a regular basis. Thankfully, even though Cyrus did dabble in boozing and blazing up over the years, she never seemingly lost sight of making sure to enjoy herself, at least while in the limelight. And it's obviously working for her, as it was just four months ago when she performed ahead of this year's Super Bowl, and she's also hosted SNL, starred in her own Black Mirror episode, founded a charitable organization, released multiple top-selling albums, coached for two seasons on The Voice, and enjoyed many more accomplishments in the years since the turkey butt comments.

Speaking of the MTV Video Music Awards, the network announced this week that, following the remotely conducted broadcast that took place last year, the annual celebration will return to its in-person status for the 2021 telecast, which will be held in New York City on September 12. Stay tuned to see if Miley Cyrus will be one of the big acts performing that night while promoting her 2020 album Plastic Hearts.

Nick Venable
Assistant Managing Editor

Nick is a Cajun Country native and an Assistant Managing Editor with a focus on TV and features. His humble origin story with CinemaBlend began all the way back in the pre-streaming era, circa 2009, as a freelancing DVD reviewer and TV recapper.  Nick leapfrogged over to the small screen to cover more and more television news and interviews, eventually taking over the section for the current era and covering topics like Yellowstone, The Walking Dead and horror. Born in Louisiana and currently living in Texas — Who Dat Nation over America’s Team all day, all night — Nick spent several years in the hospitality industry, and also worked as a 911 operator. If you ever happened to hear his music or read his comics/short stories, you have his sympathy.