Phil Hendren, Dizzy Thinks blogger and tonight’s guest on Sky.Com News writes:

The world is going crazy right now over a little story about a ‘famous’ 15 year old girl.

I put famous in quotes simply because I’ve never heard of her, but then I am 32 and when you read the story it becomes clear why.

Her name is Miley Cyrus – daughter of the country signer Billy Ray Cyrus – and apparently she’s a bit of pop star in the US along with playing a character called Hannah Montana in a popular Disney Channel show who’s rating are only second to American Idol.

The fuss and furuore though is due to a photo shoot Cyrus agreed to do for Vanity Fair, where she sat for celebrity photographer, Annie Leibovitz.

Leibovitz has courted controversy before, allegedly asking the Queen to remove a tiara.

The problem with these photos is that many have reacted angrily to them for showing a little too much flesh of a 15 year old girl.

In one, Cyrus appears naked from the waist up, with a satin sheet covering her front and her back exposed. According to Cyrus she “took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be ‘artistic’ and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed.”

Well I’d say this… take a look at that photo and tell me that the soft focus and almost painted filter effect is not artistic in its look.

More to point, what exactly is an “artistic” photo and what does it say about the ever so wide defintion of “art” in contemporary Western society?

Is the reaction, and the PR damage limitation by Cyrus and Disney, not really an example of an ever-growing purtanical attitude towards how one chooses to perceive the aesthetic in the human form?

Surely any moral judgement of the photos should be made based upon what contextual knowledge there is on the part of the viewer?

However, the fact remains that Miley Cyrus – in those pictures – is beautiful. Saying that is not exploitation; nor does it make her a sex object. The photos do actually capture an aesthetic reality, which is, surely what Leibovitz was trying to achieve and why she is so good?

Let’s not forget as well, that The Disney Channel is in the business of creating false realities. The wholesome innocence, mom and apple pie is a marketable commodity.

But take a look at what the channel has produced in the past decade. Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguillara and of course, the car crash that is Britney Spears. If innocence really has been abused then surely Disney, and not just Vanity Fair have played a role too?

The truth is the photos do not represent some sort of degeneration into sexual deviency.

What do you think about the Vanity Fair photos of teen star Miley? Let us know by posting below.

:: For more details of what will be on Sky.Com News tonight, click here.