Selene Luna, a stand-up comic and burlesque dancer, took offense to Miley Cyrus's recent performances of "We Can't Stop" in Germany and England, in which the ex-Disney princess sang on-stage with a band of little people that Luna believes she used as props.
"All eyes are on me, and I'll do what I wanna do so people remember me," Cyrus said earlier this week, and it's certainly working. Her VMAs performance with Robin Thicke raised eyebrows for more reasons than one, as many, including a writer for Slate magazine and blogger Tressie McMillan Cottom ,were put off by what they described as blatant sexuality and her use of black women as sexualized props.
Cyrus also appeared naked in her latest music video for "Wrecking Ball," and while many fans praised the singer's vulnerable performance, others found it distasteful.
However, it wasn't so much the sexuality in Cyrus's performance that Luna found offensive so much as what she describes as using little people merely for shock value.
At 3'10'', Luna, who has performed with burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese and appeared on Margaret Cho's "The Cho Show," is a little person herself, and recently spoke to Radar Online about the performances that she found to be offensive and degrading.
"Miley's performance struck a chord with me," Luna told the gossip site. "As much as I'm all for being anti-victim, it's offensive to me that little people are still the go-to butt of the joke. I don't understand why it's ok that she's like, 'Oooh look at my prop!' I could never get way with doing a show surrounded by a band of people with Down Syndrome. You couldn't do a show with Chinese people and be like, 'Look at my Chinaman!' Why is this ok? It's like little people are the last acceptable blackface in showbiz."
Though the Little People Association of America did not respond to Radar Online for comment, Luna was more than willing to share her opinion on what she believes to be a "culture of silence" surrounding the societal treatment of little people.
"I shouldn't be shocked or anything at this point, but I just don't understand why she finds it funny to have these short-afflicted people performing," Luna said. "And I don't want to be patronizing to the little people with her because they have every right to make that money. It just makes me sick. Nobody's saying anything about it because it just shows that society really does not value little people as individuals with thoughts and feelings. Little people really do not matter in society. I'm not on some anger thing about it. But I have the right to voice myself in a public platform just the same as Miley does."
Luna's new radio talk show, "Lunatic Fringe," airs Sept. 19 on the Universal Broadcasting Network.
