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CMU Beef Of The Week #224: Miley v Mexico

By | Published on Friday 19 September 2014

Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus has angered Mexico. Why? Well, apparently some people in the country thought that having two dancers spank her with the country’s flag while she twerked in a large prosthetic arse was in poor taste.

Actually, there seems to be some dispute over whether it was a “spanking”, “flossing” or “butt-flogging”. Whatever, someone might now go to jail. Briefly. We’ll get to that.

Cyrus was performing the first of two shows in the city of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon on Tuesday night. During the show, she (and a parade of other female dancers) donned big rubber butts and got a-twerkin. Miley, front of stage, offered her behind to two male dancers who used the Mexican flag to violently clean the prop before grinding against it.

Spanking people with the country’s flag is strictly prohibited under Mexican law. So bad luck her. And those angered by the stunt were doubly so because it happened to be Mexican Independence Day. And whether planned or not, an American wiping their behind on a Mexican flag on that particular day does come across a bit like an insult.

Nuevo Leon state representative Francisco Treviño told CNN: “I felt truly offended and annoyed by the fact that a foreign artist feels like she can come here and make fun of and mock our national flag on Independence Day, 16 Sep. She brazenly made fun of our flag”.

He added: “It’s important to notice that in her second concert Wednesday (also in Monterrey) she didn’t desecrate the flag. There were several flags on display at the concert venue, but their use was appropriate. I hope this incident serves to get the message out that we Mexicans don’t like it when our flag is made fun of”.

Nuevo Leon’s state congress then met to discuss the matter – a debate I would quite like to see – and unanimously voted for sanctions. A representative told Reuters that a warrant had been approved for the Interior Ministry to fully enforce criminal charges over the matter. This could mean a fine of $1200 or even a jail sentence (of up to 36 hours).

Woah! What? Miley might (very briefly) go to prison over this? Well, no. A spokesperson for Nuevo State told AFP that it would actually be the promoter of the show who would be punished, because they should have agreed the full content of the show prior to it going ahead. I’m not sure how that would work, but that’s apparently what’s been decided.

The company behind the Cyrus’s Mexican tour, Zignia Live, has not yet offered any statement on the matter. The next show on said tour is due to take place tonight in Mexico City.



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