小天后麦莉·塞勒斯的成长烦恼

　　The performance from Miley Cyrus at MTV's Video Music Awards not only quickly lit up the social Web but also proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the former Disney star is all grown up. And then some. Fans were shocked to see Hannah Montana, America's ultimate good girl, get raunchy.

　　小天后麦莉·塞勒斯（Miley Cyrus）在MTV音乐电视颁奖礼上的表演不仅迅速传遍了社交网络，也证明了这位之前在迪斯尼（Disney）频道热播情景喜剧《蒙塔娜》中担纲主角的童星毫无疑问已经长大成人了。不止于此。粉丝们还震惊地发现，美国终极好女孩汉娜·蒙塔娜（Hannah Montana）变得卖弄风骚、不修边幅了。

　　When the 20-year-old twisted her tongue, twerked and touched herself, social media went nuts; as the U.K.'s Mirror noted, young fans on Twitter branded Cyrus “scary, ” “embarrassing” and “disturbing.” Brooke Shields, who played Hannah's mom, weighed in, too: “I just want to know who's advising her.”

　　当这位二十岁的女孩开始搔首弄姿时，社交媒体难以自持；正如英国《镜报》（Mirror）所指出，Twitter上的年轻粉丝们称塞勒斯的表现“吓人”、“令人尴尬”和“让人不安”。剧中扮演汉娜妈妈的波姬·小丝（Brooke Shields）也在认真掂量：“我只想知道是谁在给她提供建议。”

　　Cultural critics from Camille Paglia to Jody Rosen opened up their laptops, debating everything from whether the performance was degrading or empowering to Cyrus' sloppy use of African-American symbols. (Sasha Weiss wrote a good summary of that response in The New Yorker, also making the case that “Miley … in her spastic mayhem, anticipated the imminent online feeding frenzy. It was [as] if she were saying, ‘GIF me now.'”)

　　从卡米尔·帕格里亚（Camille Paglia）到乔迪·罗森（Jody Rosen）等一干文化评论家开始撰文进行全面讨论，该表演对于塞勒斯草率地运用非裔美国人元素来说会起到抑制作用还是鼓励作用。（在《纽约客》杂志中，萨莎·韦斯对这种反应做了很好的总结，“麦莉……在其神经质的自毁形象中料到了网上即将恶评如潮。好像在说，‘快转发我的照片吧。'”）

　　Less highfalutinly, the Mirror suggested that her “raunchy performance … sparked fears she will be the next American teen star to go into meltdown.” That puts her squarely in the company of Britney Spears, Mischa Barton and Amanda Bynes. All those stars had hugely successful brands as child and teen stars, only to trash them as they tried to grow up in public.

　　《镜报》不带夸张地认为，她“不修边幅的表现……让人担心她将成为下一个堕落的美国青少年偶像。”而这番点评将她与小甜甜布兰妮（Britney Spears）、米莎·巴顿（Mischa Barton）和阿曼达·拜恩斯（Amanda Bynes）归到了一类。这些昔日获得了巨大成功的童星或少年明星，当他们竭力想在公众面前长大时却作践了自己。

　　When your brand is based on being relentlessly wholesome, innocent and adorable, it's hard to transition into new brand attributes that suit a worldly, experienced adult. For girls becoming women, flaunting their sexuality is an easy way to show they aren't a little kid anymore—and a way that has historically (when used judiciously) enhanced women's likability. The problem is, it often backfires, especially when the girls go too far too fast.

　　当你的品牌形象是基于永远健康、天真和可爱时，就很难转型以迎合现实、事故的成人观众。女孩要成长为女人，卖弄性感是表明他们不再是一个黄毛丫头的一种简单方法，而且从经验来看这种方法（当运用有度时）也能提高女明星的受喜爱程度。问题是，它常常事与愿违，尤其当女孩们做得太过、太急于求成时。

　　Cyrus didn't help her case when she showed up “stumbling around, ” in the words of the Mirror, waiting to catch a private jet at New Jersey's Teterboro Airport sporting a cellphone, Chanel bag, goofy pajamas and fuzzy unicorn slippers. It was as if she was trying to be an innocent, wholesome little girl again. But it was too late—Pandora's secrets don't go back into the box—and she more than overcompensated with the outfit, which would have been weird on anyone older than 4.

　　当塞勒斯“跌跌撞撞地四处亮相”（用《镜报》的话说）时，当她在新泽西的蒂特波罗机场故意展示她的手机、香奈儿手袋、高飞狗睡裤和毛茸茸的独角兽拖鞋时，这些都没能帮她扭转局面。好像她想试着重新做回那个天真无邪的健康小女孩。但是一切为时已晚，潘多拉魔盒一旦打开便覆水难收，而且这次她又矫枉过正了，这身装扮放到任何超过四岁的孩子身上都会显得怪异不自然。

　　Brooke Shields is onto something: Cyrus needs an intelligent adviser to help her get her brand back on track, stat.

　　波姬·小丝说到了点子上：塞勒斯需要立即找一个聪明的顾问把她的形象拉回正轨。

　　She needs to find an equilibrium for her brand, one that's neither too sweet and innocent nor too scandalous and salacious. And she needs to do better than she has done so far, complaining to the Mirror that “I'm messed up…. I have so many f—ing issues…. I don't have a normal life. I take a hiatus every now and again, but I'm not good at that.” She told the same interviewer a few weeks earlier that she's a “workhorse” who “can sleep for just 45 minutes—I'm used to it.”

　　她需要为自己的品牌找到一个平衡点，既不能太清纯可爱也不能太放荡不羁。她需要做得比以往更好，向《镜报》抱怨说“我陷入了一团糟……我有那么多该死的事情……我没有一个正常的生活。我偶尔会抽离片刻，但并不善于自我调节。”几周前她在同一位记者采访时说，自己是一位“劳模”，“能够只睡45分钟的觉——而且习惯于此。”

　　In other words, it's so hard being famous and successful. Cue the world's smallest violin. Plenty of young girls, teenagers and millennial women work just as hard without dressing like showgirls and twerking before an audience of millions.

　　换句话说，要出名并取得成功相当不易。想想世界上为数不多的小提琴手吧。许多年轻女孩、青少年以及千禧一代女性都同样卖力，却不能身穿表演服在数百万观众面前演奏。

　　Cyrus is no doubt hardworking, and there's no question that fame at age 14 can mess with a girl's head. But her VMA performance wasn't a matter of exhaustion or burnout. It was an attempt to slough off an outdated young brand with one that's much more outrageous.

　　赛勒斯无疑工作非常努力，而14岁就扬名立万无疑会冲昏一个小女孩的头脑。但她在MTV音乐录影带大奖颁奖礼上的表演不是由于身心俱疲的关系，而是尝试以更加离谱的形象来摒弃滞后的青春美少女品牌定位。

　　As the New York Daily News put it, “Now that she's coming into her own womanhood, the ‘We Can't Stop' singer is going full throttle with her bad girl image and said that's more like who she is than any good girl persona previously portrayed on television.”

　　正如《纽约每日新闻》（New York Daily News ）所说，“由于她即将成年，这位‘势不可挡'的歌手将以坏女孩的形象全速发展，并且说比起之前在电视银幕上刻画的任何好女孩形象，这才更像她自己。”

　　Cyrus has said that all along her Disneyfied brand was out of sync with her true identity. But now it's time for that brand to grow up along with her. The question is whether she can make it appealing and dignified at the same time.

　　随着迪斯尼频道为她打造的品牌与她真实的自我不再同步，赛勒斯已经表明了其中的分歧。但现在是时候让品牌形象和她一起成长了。问题是她是否同时能让新品牌高贵而且具有吸引力。