Over the past few years many children of the ‘90’s have had their childhood ruined with the corruption of popular, young celebrities. Last year, former Disney stars Vanessa Hudgens and Selena Gomez were cast as promiscuous drug-using college students in the film “Spring Breakers.” This past summer, Amanda Bynes has rapidly moved away from her own innocent youth, posting bizarre tweets and nearly nude pictures online. At the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, another star of “tweenage” fame became a casualty to growing up too fast in front of too many people: Miley Cyrus.

Complete with purple bears and “twerking,” Cyrus’ performance has created a media free-for-all in which the 20-year old has been the target of plenty of warranted and unwarranted responses. On the comical end of these, the reactions of other stars while witnessing Cyrus’ performance have been all over social media sites. However, on the serious end of responses, the performance has been accused of having both sexist and racist undertones. In Cyrus’ defense, most complaints about sexism come from the lyrics to the song Cyrus performed with Robin Thicke entitled “Blurred Lines” in which Thicke sings, “I know you want it. You’re a good girl.” While Thicke’s video to this same song consisted of nearly naked women treated like props dancing around fully dressed men, it has not garnered nearly as much outrage as Cyrus’ performance with him at the VMAs.

The difference between Thicke and Cyrus lies in the fact that Cyrus has, for a good part of her life, served as a symbol for childhood. People appear to be uncomfortable with her trying to be like the women in Thicke’s video.

Junior Ariel May says, “Perhaps Miley desired showing her maturity by performing using symbols of childhood juxtaposed against her brazen sexuality, but the first thing that came to my mind was childhood pornography.”

More troubling than the performance’s awakening of society’s insecurities about growing up are the accusations that have surfaced about racism. During the performance, Cyrus was seen slapping the rear end of a black woman who, in the tradition of Thicke’s video, is treated very much like a prop during the performance. Further, the type of dancing Cyrus exhibited,“twerking,” has been attributed to black contemporary culture. Some consider Cyrus’ performance an attempt to mock and deride the culture.

While Disney has not commented yet on Cyrus’ performance, parents have. The Parents Television Council has complained vigorously about MTV rating the show appropriate for children as young as 14 years old.

However, not everyone has been against Cyrus since her performance. Freshman Shannon Spurrell says, “Even though it was it a little much I still love her because she doesn’t care what anyone thinks.”

Freshman Mary Kate Buckley says, “I was shocked.” And the shock of the show is still alive.