Opinion

5 Hollywood heroines for ‘feminist’ Miley Cyrus to look up to

Fellow singer Beyonce doesn't just encourage women to "Run the World" with her music, she uses her airtime to impart wisdom, as she did in her 2013 HBO documentary "Life Is But a Dream": "I truly believe that women should be financially independent from their men. And let's face it, money gives men the power to run the show. It gives men the power to define value. They define what's sexy. And men define what's feminine. It's ridiculous."

Fellow singer Beyonce doesn’t just encourage women to “Run the World” with her music, she uses her airtime to impart wisdom, as she did in her 2013 HBO documentary “Life Is But a Dream”: “I truly believe that women should be financially independent from their men. And let’s face it, money gives men the power to run the show. It gives men the power to define value. They define what’s sexy. And men define what’s feminine. It’s ridiculous.”  (Rob Hoffman / Invision for Parkwood Entertainment / Associated Press)

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Miley Cyrus is “one of the biggest feminists in the world.” That’s according to the pop singer herself, who said during a BBC radio interview that she empowers women by telling them to “not be scared of anything.” That includes going topless, as Cyrus did in her “Wrecking Ball” music video. Guys get to show their chests, she pointed out, so why can’t women? That’s not the first argument I consider when I think about equality, but she makes a good point nonetheless. And I have praised Cyrus in the past for taking control of her own body. But while Cyrus’ heart is in the right place, she still has a ways to go on her path toward being a feminist icon – especially considering that she recently let a radio DJ use her derriere as a bongo drum.

Here, then, are five feminist celebrities who, in 2013, empowered women. May they influence Cyrus too. --Alexandra Le Tellier

Follow Alexandra Le Tellier on Twitter @alexletellier and Google+

Angelina Jolie

In an effort to raise awareness about breast cancer, Angelina Jolie shared a deeply personal story in a New York Times op-ed article. In May, she wrote about testing positive for BRCA1 and BRCA2, known as the breast cancer genes, and, consequently, electing to have a double mastectomy to drastically decrease her chances of getting cancer. “I am writing about it now because I hope that other women can benefit from my experience,” she wrote. “Cancer is still a word that strikes fear into people’s hearts, producing a deep sense of powerlessness. But today it is possible to find out through a blood test whether you are highly susceptible to breast and ovarian cancer, and then take action.”   (Facundo Arrizabalaga / EPA)

Jennifer Lawrence

When the first installment of “The Hunger Games” came out in 2012, Jennifer Lawrence was criticized for not looking hungry enough to play heroine Katniss Everdeen. So, in advance of the film’s second installment, “Catching Fire,” out in the U.S. on Nov. 22, she’s made a point to talk about her body in positive terms during interviews. Lawrence, for example, told BBC News that she made a conscious decision to make her character strong instead of svelte so that she could be a positive role model for her young, impressionable fans. “We have the ability to control this image that young girls are going to be seeing,” she said. So she took this “amazing opportunity” to make a statement: “It’s better to look strong and healthy.”  (Vittorio Zunino Celotto / Getty Images)

Anna Gunn

Anna Gunn took to the New York Times opinion pages in August to talk about Skyler White, her character on “Breaking Bad,” and shed a harsh light on the misogynistic views that still, maddeningly, exist. Frustrated that Skyler had elicited such vitriolic, misogynistic responses from the show’s fans, Gunn asked: “Could it be that they can’t stand a woman who won’t suffer silently or ‘stand by her man’? That they despise her because she won’t back down or give up? Or because she is, in fact, Walter’s equal? [...] But I finally realized that most people’s hatred of Skyler had little to do with me and a lot to do with their own perception of women and wives. Because Skyler didn’t conform to a comfortable ideal of the archetypical female, she had become a kind of Rorschach test for society, a measure of our attitudes toward gender.”  (Robyn Beck / AFP/Getty Images)

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