Say It Ain’t So, Hannah Montana!

Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m a grown man and I love Hannah Montana!

My 17 year old stepdaughter first introduced me to Hanna about a year ago. She’s a little out of the Hannah demographic, which just makes it even more fun to poke fun at the other for digging this show. And, as most parents would know, it’s a bonding thing.

Why is Hannah so popular? There’s a multitude of reasons that 14 year old girls could give you, but I’ll give you my 33 year old reasons…

First, it’s a creative story line. What teenager doesn’t dream of living a double life as a rock star? The writing strikes a good balance between little kid humor and adult witty-that’s a hard line to walk and, as you’d expect, the Disney writers do a fabulous job of it.

Hannah, unlike Brittany and Paris and the other female pop icons of late, has kept a clean nose. I cross my fingers we won’t see Dr. Phil sticking his nose in where it doesn’t belong with Miley Cyrus any time soon. In fact, I think Hannah is just such good, clean fun that most thinking Americans are hoping the same thing; i.e. that Miley won’t follow the path of the trash.

Miley/Hannah seems to have a solid grounding due to her parents. Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather eat a Gold Bond popsicle than ever listen to “Achy Breaky Heart” again, but ya gotta admit, Billy Ray Cyrus seems like a stand up dude. Plus, with the little inside jokes about mullets and dance shows that make it into episodes of “Hannah”, you know he doesn’t take himself too seriously.

So, you can imagine my surprise at what I found yesterday. See, my stepdaughter and I have a fun little bonding thing about Hannah, and I don’t mean just watching the show.
When she’s out with her friends, if she comes across a Hannah Montana trinket, she buys it, brings it home and presents it like a hunter bringing food back to the den.

When Marvelyne and I were shopping yesterday, we spotted Cosmo Girl by the check out lane. Who’s on the cover? Miley Cyrus! Bingo! I’ll bring it home and get major points for this! That is, until my wife picked it up, opened it at random and found some pretty shocking stuff.

We all know Cosmo itself is intended for mature viewing audiences, like they say at the movies. But you’d figure Cosmo Girl would be a little more like Seventeen or YM, right? Negative!

When we flipped open the mag, the first article is an instructional on how Cosmo Girl readers can have fun. By themselves, if you catch my drift. An article perfect for Cosmo…but totally unexpected(and unappreciated) when Cosmo Girl is aimed at a younger demographic. Miley Cyrus, the single most known female face in America, dons the cover of a magazine aimed at teenage girls and then that mag is filled with sex articles? Am I the only one who sees a problem with this?

Do I blame Miley? Nah, I doubt Cosmo Girl asked her what other articles they could print. It just felt really deceptive to tout a magazine for underaged girls, then fill it with content most parents would find objectionable. I really, really hate to be duped at all, but pulling the wool over the eyes of parents to make a buck off a teen icon is a new low.