As the face of the twerking movement, Miley Cyrus has been a lightning rod for controversy. Her infamous MTV Video Music Awards performance last year, as evidenced by all those FCC complaints, was arguably the most scandalous music moment since Janet Jackson's Nipplegate. Even when she isn't on stage, she's still causing a stir, whether it's chilling topless in the desert or spending time with the Flaming Lips or sending a homeless youth to accept her Video of the Year award. Still, it's Cyrus' provocative moves – which were watered-down for her NBC special – that create the most trouble, but as Cyrus tells Australia's Sunday Night, she's just carrying the torch lit by Elvis Presley's gyrating hips.
"Elvis, he wasn't wearing the outfits I was wearing but he was coming out and he was doing like the OG twerking. Like, no one wants to admit that he was twerking, he was," Cyrus said (via NME). "He was like sex. He was a symbol of sex but no one would have ever called Elvis a shit because he wasn't a girl. It's that double standard and I think I'm doing something for the double standard."
Miley also has a message for the "concerned parents" riled up that might be sending a bad message to her young fans. "The only thing I'm an example of is freedom, especially in this time where the energy of the world is shifting from male energy to female energy," Cyrus tells Sunday Night's Chris Bath. "I think a lot of that was started by these girls that get to watch my show and see young people just being themselves and representing freedom."
