In the most recent issue of Paper magazine, Miley Cyrus proves she’s more than a punch line to a cheesy Robin Thicke joke. In fact, she’s a social activist, a vegan, and a woman who doesn’t want to be judged for who, or how, she loves. And she doesn’t want anyone else to be judged for this either. Here are ten awesome things we took away from the article:
1. Miley Cyrus is one hundred percent comfortable with her sexuality — and she doesn’t feel a need to label it. “I am literally open to every single thing that is consenting and doesn’t involve an animal and everyone is of age,” she says. “Everything that’s legal, I’m down with. Yo, I’m down with any adult — anyone over the age of 18 who is down to love me.”
2. She is also one hundred percent comfortable with gender fluidity — and again, she doesn’t feel a need to label it. “I don’t relate to being boy or girl,” she says. “And I don’t have to have my partner relate to boy or girl.”
3. After her darling dog was attacked by a coyote, she became a vegan and is now passionate about animal rights.
4. Miley cares deeply. No, seriously, she does! Especially about kids who get bullied and persecuted for their sexuality. After Leelah Alcorn committed suicide when she was forced to undergo “conversion therapy” for being transgender, Cyrus started a non-profit called the Happy Hippie Foundation, which raises funds and awareness for homeless and LGBT teens. She says: “We can’t keep noticing these kids too late.”
5. She is not at all down with the super judgy, super moralistic, super hypocritical, super invasive tactics of the Religious Right. And this despite being raised on a farm in Tennessee, despite being brought up as a Christian, and despite having a mullet-wearing country singer for a father. “That’s fucking insane,” she says about fundamentalists who take the Bible literally. “We’ve outgrown that fairy tale, like we’ve outgrown fucking Santa and the tooth fairy.” Also, she gets that religion isn’t just a personal matter: “[They shouldn’t] get to make our laws.”
6. She loves her parents deeply, despite all their faults — and she’s not blind to their faults, either. She admits they are “conservative-ass motherfuckers” (not a compliment in Miley World) but still calls her dad a “cool hippie psycho freak” (definitely a compliment) and says her mom is “a complete optimist, the fucking cheerleader of the universe” (who wouldn’t want to be thought of in that way by their kid?!).
7. She is a shining example for how to communicate with parents who see things differently (ditto, her mom on communicating with kids who don’t see things the same way). “I remember telling [my mom] I admire women in a different way. And she asked me what that meant. And I said, I love them. I love them like I love boys. And it was so hard for her to understand. She didn’t want me to be judged and she didn’t want me to go to hell. But she believes in me more than she believes in any god. I just asked for her to accept me. And she has.”
8. Dolly Parton is her godmother. Just think about how awesome that is for a second. Cyrus says: “She taught me how to treat people well.”
9. She cares about poor people, too. She says: “I can’t drive by in my fucking Porsche and not fucking do something. I see it all day: people in their Bentleys and their Rolls and their Ubers, driving past these vets who have fought for our country, or these young women who have been raped.” Sure, she’s still driving that fucking Porsche, but at least she’s driving it to the Happy Hippie Foundation.
10. She’s still the Miley you love (or the one you hate, or the one you love to hate). “I was doing a show two nights ago, and I was wearing butterfly nipple pasties and butterfly wings,” she says. “I’m standing there with my tits out, dressed like a butterfly. How the fuck is that fair? How am I so lucky?” Because even socially aware, LGBT superhero vegans like to wear nipple pasties sometimes.