If There’s A Line, Miley Cyrus’ Shocking New Photo Shoot Just Crossed It

Look, we're not trying to get down on Miley Cyrus. Her exhibitionist style appears to be part of a carefully crafted persona intended to liberate young people from the traditional demands of social convention — and, the vast majority of the time, it's awesome. That said, there's something sort of sleazy going on with her latest Interview magazine spread. And we do mean spread. According to E!, the singer is featured in the publication's upcoming issue masturbating and provocatively licking the floor, among other things. She's also reported to have been photographed while sexting over FaceTime with photographer Mert Alas, so we'll be keeping an eye out for that. And the only text attached to the photos of the former style star features the phrase: "Sometimes you have to reach out and touch someone-slash-yourself." We can get on board with all of this, at least conceptually. The Interview issue, which hits stands September 8, is dedicated to the subject of social media, so it makes sense that the singer would be heavily featured in its pages, since she's pretty much the queen of pushing boundaries via her own personal channels. Cyrus also isn't a stranger to putting herself out there in the nude, either, so this feature spread didn't exactly come out of left field. And yet ... It's still leaving us with some funky feelings, most revolving around the question of where empowerment ends and pornography begins — not that there's anything intrinsically problematic with porn, or masturbating, or sexting, per se. Maybe it's just that these photos are a bit heavy handed, not playful like the singer's Instagram imagery. Maybe it's just that once you see Miley Cyrus engaged in an act of erotic self-love, you can't un-see it. Either way, our emotions about these photos are jumbled — and then again, maybe that was the point of them in the first place. But you can make up your mind for yourselves: Check out the full spread here.