Miley Cyrus has quite the reputation for speaking without a filter. Sometimes, that bites her in the butt, and sometimes, she brings up points we really, really agree with. Take her Instagram from last night, posted while she was watching boxer Manny Pacquiao defeat Timothy Bradley Jr. at the MGM Grand, about the sexy, scantily clad ring girls at all such events.
Actually, we take back the no-filter statement — because a knee-jerk reaction might have just complained about the very existence of these ladies, known as the Top Rank Knockouts. Instead, she progresses through an entire third-wave feminism debate with herself. On the one hand, she's advocating for equal-opportunity ogling.
On the other, she writes the hashtag #mamasdontletyourbabiesgrowuptobetrophies. (This spoken by a singer who is often criticized for her minimal onstage wardrobe, btw.) And in the next keystroke, she tries to assure us that she's not dissing the models themselves, "#itsthelackofanoversexualizedmalepresence."
That about sums up many of our feelings when we see ring girls, cheerleaders, and dancers at sporting events. It's complicated. Perhaps, it's easier if we learn more about the TR Knockout women: The woman on the right, for instance, is Brittany Parks, who works as an orthodontic technician when she's not holding up ring cards. That makes her less of a trophy and more of a person with a rather diverse career (and probably not making anything like champion-boxer money at either job). But yeah, some ring men might make things entertaining, too.