Miley Cyrus remains ever the iconoclast. In a world where we’re so used to celebrities making personal statements through a Notes app screenshot to the point the format has become a source of fascination and study unto itself (Philosopher Marshall McLuhan was right: the medium really is the message), Cyrus just broke her silence on rumors surrounding her recent split from Liam Hemsworth with a Twitter thread. “Big ups to Miley for threading instead of Notes Apping,” wrote Who? Weekly co-host Bobby Finger on Twitter. “We stan a surprising format.” Unfortunately, the popular reaction to Cyrus’s statement might just prove why so many celebrities prefer to stick to a simple Notes App screenshot instead.
Cyrus’s statement spans 11 tweets, but comes in at a relatively scant 329 words (hardly a manifesto). Taken out of the Tweet thread format, it reads as a pretty thought-out and (rare for so many celebrities) self-aware statement. She recounts her passed indiscretions (real or perceived), and write, “I can accept that the life I’ve chosen means I must live completely open and transparent with my fans who I love, and the public, 100% of the time,” but empathetically denied that she cheated on Hemsworth. Given how many hundreds of thousands of words have been spilled on the recent developments in Cyrus’s personal life, it seems like an appropriate reaction. Shouldn’t she get the chance to give her two-cents and set the record straight?
Unfortunately, probably because of the format, Cyrus’s statement was characterized as little more than a “rant.”
“Miley Cyrus Denies Cheating on Liam Hemsworth in Lengthy Twitter Rant: ‘I Have Nothing to Hide’,” blared Us Weekly.
“Miley Cyrus Denies Cheating on Liam Hemsworth in Candid Twitter Rant,” wrote Entertainment Tonight.
“Miley Cyrus Denies Cheating on Liam Hemsworth in Wild Twitter Rant,” declared The Cut.
Cosmopolitan, which prides itself “the biggest young women’s media brand in the world, also characterized the statement as “Massive Twitter Rant” in their headline. Sister site Seventeen, devoted to a younger audience, also called it a “a Whole Twitter Rant” in their headline as well.
Oxford English Dictionary defines “rant” as to “speak or shout at length in a wild, impassioned way.” Synonyms include a diatribe, tirade and pontification. So, the choice of words here paints Cyrus as some woman whose emotions are out of control wildly typing away at her iPhone. Even if that wasn’t really the case.
So that’s while you’ll probably continue to see the Notes App screenshot used as part of the celebrity PR arsenal over Twitter threads. The former, with it’s sense of cohesion and the use of calming filters projects the sense of a though-out statement, while the later gets called a “rant.”
