To most, when hearing the word feminist, Miley Cyrus is not one of the first names to pop up. In fact, some people think she is the complete opposite of a feminist, assuming that she is just another fame-hungry monster, shaped and molded by the music business. Her tour Bangerz contains various displays of sexual innuendos, ranging from distorted Chuck E-cheese costumes, twerking, and of course, her tongue, to flying hotdogs and a lot of touching.  Her actions, however, have meaning: teaching her fans that being different is okay, and to push the boundaries of social norms.

Miley’s recent performance at the 2013 VMA’s left the whole country shocked and confused, but it did spark curiosity. Forbes.com’s statistics show that her groundbreaking performance set a record of 306,000 tweets per minute, and the day after there was a registered 10 million searches on google. Although receiving tons of support from old and new fans, she had many parents and children/teenagers criticizing her for being a bad role model. Some claimed she was a thoughtless puppet putting up a some crazy facade just for the sake of cashing in, whereas others justified her decisions to be symptoms of an ex-child star trying to break the barrier between child acting and a professional. Though as any other 21 year old, she is trying to find herself and purpose in life — she’s just taking a more drastic and extreme path.

In an interview with Tavi Gevinson, the 17 year-old founder and editor-in-chief of Rookie Magazine, Miley confidently proclaims her standpoint on her actions and their effect today’s pop culture. When asked if she would consider herself as a feminist, she replied with, “I’m just about equality, period. It’s not like, I’m a woman, women should be in charge! I just want there to be equality for everybody.”

This is the principal point that should be taken away by anyone who is trying to understand feminism. At the end of the day, all feminism is, is the fight for true equality.

Miley is not doing anything not seen repeatedly by viewers when listening or watching a majority of male performers. Unfortunately, men treating women like objects in the media has become a social norm, and Miley is one of the minimal few who are fighting against this.

She then goes on to justify her performances and passionately telling Tavi “I’m a woman — I should be able to have girls around me! But I’m part of the evolution of that. I hope.”

Miley is constantly faced with this double standard, and although solely wanting to perform crude actions isn’t the main idea of feminism, she, nonetheless, is supporting the fight for equality.  “Feminists” in pop culture are constantly being criticized or wrongly accused of not being a “feminist”, but how does one define feminism? People expect our pop stars’ feminism to be simple and just correct, but feminism is the complete opposite of this. There are multiple ways to represent feminism, it is a complex subject which can be interpreted for the individual. And isn’t that what feminism is? To have enough equality and female rights to be able to make decisions for oneself?