Is Taylor Momsen’s pantless jailbait act worse than Miley Cyrus?

NEW YORK - JUNE 22: Taylor Momsen and The Pretty Reckless perform during the NYLON Party at The PUMA Social Club at PUMA City NY at the Seaport on June 22, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for PUMA)

Here are some new photos of little 16-year-old Taylor Momsen performing in New York last night. This is taking her pantless brat act to a whole new level, I think. Sure, she’s been without pants many, many times before. But the rare times she’s actually been on stage, performing with her band (she’s worked so many years to put together) The Pretty Reckless, she’s usually been wearing a little bit more than this. The last time she actually wore a cute little dress. This time it’s just garters and a t-shirt!

So, here’s the question: Who is the worst of the jailbait, Miley Cyrus or Taylor Momsen? If Miley performed in a t-shirt and garters, we would be talking about her outfit, as would every moralistic pontificator on cable news. But with Taylor – who is, albeit, nowhere near Miley’s level of fame and infamy – I get the feeling she gets more of a pass on her sketchy jailbait act than Miley. Is it because she’s seen as more authentically “hardcore” and angsty, and because Miley used to have a cute, wholesome image? To be fair to Taylor, however, I found Miley’s near-vadge-exposure much more disturbing than Taylor’s outfit here. Probably because Miley was performing for a large international audience of tweens, while Taylor was performing for a smaller venue of adults. Hmm… so which is worse?

NEW YORK - JUNE 22: Taylor Momsen and The Pretty Reckless perform during the NYLON Party at The PUMA Social Club at PUMA City NY at the Seaport on June 22, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for PUMA)

U.S. singer and actress Miley Cyrus performs at the 2010 MuchMusic Video Awards in Toronto June 20, 2010. REUTERS/Mike Cassese (CANADA - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT)

NEW YORK - JUNE 22: Taylor Momsen and The Pretty Reckless perform during the NYLON Party at The PUMA Social Club at PUMA City NY at the Seaport on June 22, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for PUMA)

20 June 2010 - Toronto, Ontario, Canada - Miley Cyrus. 21st Annual MuchMusic Video Awards held at MuchMusic HQ. Photo Credit: Brent Perniac/AdMedia

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47 Responses to “Is Taylor Momsen’s pantless jailbait act worse than Miley Cyrus?”

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  1. Snarf says:

    Yes it’s worse, only becuase it’s been done. We need to find a nickname for Taylor, like TTH (Tries Too Hard).

  2. bnice says:

    Becoming famous at a young age has its own set of problems and struggles, I’m sure–but I don’t listen to music by teenagers. “Got to pay your dues if you wanna sing the blues,” and all that–I’m kind of a fan of someone having an inner life and that coming out through their lyrics–and that most often comes through experience and struggling to make it, and embracing poverty in the name of your art for at least a few years before you make it big. I don’t want to be sold an entertainment package put together by promoters–I want someone who was talented and then discovered and promoted on that basis. I know, it’s rare anymore!

    On an unrelated note, who told this Taylor girl that the Beetlejuice look is sexy in any way? Weird.

  3. Mrs K 2 be says:

    Ok, so I wouldn’t be happy if my teenage daughters left the house dressed like this, but since when were 17 year olds sensible and dignified??
    I myself gave my parents many worried nights when I was that age with my outfit choices.
    Still, these are STAGE OUTFITS not regular wear.
    I do think its very unfair that Miley still gets judged by her Hannah Montana image. She can’t stay 11 forever. I also think its unfair that Taylor gets a pass on her antics when the whole world judges Miley.
    I have two daughters who love Miley, and I do too. There are enough disillusioned teenagers out there. Its good to see her enjoy herself.

  4. Fluffy Kitten Tail says:

    Why can’t people wear pants anymore.

    Performing on stage- No pants.

    Out to a sporting event- No pants.

    Shopping on Rodeo- No pants.

    Going to see your grandma in the nursing home- Heck, why wear pants!

  5. Blaster says:

    The things Taylor says like, “she’s been working years to form” her band and the whole:

    “I don’t need Trigonometry or need to go to school because [she’s] already mature and learned all [she] would from college”

    Or how she can’t date guys close to her age because she “would eat them alive” and the whole smoking and 15 and not bothering to hide it and that she “doesn’t give a shit..”

    I think Miley is a brat yes, but she’s never said things that truly offended me. She’s always nice to her fans and doesn’t try to act above it all.

    I think Taylor gets more of a pass because she never had a wholesome image to maintain. I mean she was 14 years old posing in her underwear on New York magazine with the cast of GG and there was barely a ripple of outrage!:

    http://cdn.buzznet.com/media-cdn/jj1/headlines/2008/04/gossip-girl-new-york-magazine.jpg

    So which is it? Are we upset with the ovver-sexualisation of the youth or are we upset with the over-sexualisation of our youth when they have a younger audience and proclaimed at 15 that they wanted to “save themselves” for marriage. Because the overall consensus on Taylor seems to be “Ugh, what a poseur! Racoon, pantless brat” but with Miley, people seem to get more more fired up.

    The main reason people can’t stand Miley is because she became famous and had the bio of a sweet southern girl who loves Jesus and want to wait till marriage to have sex. And not she’s sort of dressing and living the opposite. (Granted she isn’t stumbling out of clubs underage or in rehab.) But she was…14/15 when she was saying all that. Who are we to hold that against her when she’s almost 18 now? I said a lot of things at 14 that I never held up to.

    I personally can’t wait till Miley turns 18. Because legally by that point, she’ll be an adult and they’re be less of the “SHE’S JUST A CHILD!!!” comments and we’ll see if she fades into obscurity because she won’t have that hype anymore or whether she can climb above that.

  6. Kimberley says:

    Taylor is much much worse.

  7. Ben says:

    Taylor Momsen isn’t a tween popstar so it is different.

    She’s not really dressed much different from how the Runaways Dressed and she’s trying to market her music to the same sort of audience.

  8. NayNay says:

    I think they are both trying too hard, and they should just be themselves.

  9. Beck says:

    Taylor’s makeup makes her look like the Joker. Is that the look she is going for now?

  10. Danielle says:

    I think it’s not only the outfits, but the gyrating and touching herself that bugs people about Miley.

    Miley looks like she’s trying to be sexy. Taylor just looks….well…I don’t know what but it’s not sexy.

  11. Jackson says:

    In a word, yes.

  12. denise says:

    They’re both looking quite trashy, but Taylor looks horrendous. She looks like the joker with all that make up.

  13. andrea says:

    dear taylor, deborah harry called…

  14. Lynnie says:

    Who is this chick and why does she keep getting photographed?!

  15. GatsbyGal says:

    So she’s a 16 year old girl in a band with a bunch of grown men? Yeahhhhh…something tells me she’s banging at least one of those dudes.

  16. denise says:

    At least Miley looks clean 🙁

  17. Penguen says:

    I like pants. For one thing, they keep me from flashing my underwear to the rest of the free world. They have pockets I can put my stuff in. They have loops I can use to accessorize with cute belts.

    The best part is they’re not hard to put on. I just have to put a leg into each hole, and I’m good to go.

    So why, oh why, are these celebukids not wearing pants? Is it too hard? They have catalogs out there that can match people up with suitable pants, you know. Please, will someone think of the pants?

    (try to imagine that last line muttered by a pleading Sally Struthers.)

  18. chunkstyle says:

    I think Taylor would loooove to have the press Miley gets for anything she does. She’ll end up in pasties and body paint before the end of the year
    “Do you guys see me now?? Now do you care?? I’m not wearing ANYTHING!!”
    sobs and goes into pantless support group to thrash around

  19. annaloo says:

    @ Andrea, I think it’s more:
    “Dear Taylor, Alice Cooper called….”

    why, oh why am I seeing him when I looked at these pics of her? She’s just a hair color away…

  20. Bodhi says:

    Ahahaha! @ Penguen!! Hilarious!

  21. JaisyMaisy says:

    I always try to reconcile that this pantsless little turd was once the adorable Cindy Lou Who. Guess Cindy Lou really fell in with the wrong crowd.

  22. bellaluna says:

    @ bnice – Well said! I want substance in music AND musicians, not some act by “performers,” as they are so generously called nowadays.

    @ Mrs. K – Actually, she dresses like that all the time. There are numerous pix of her sans trou on the street.

    That being said, I find them both obnoxious, but TM wins the prize for most obnoxious, IMO.

  23. sassenach says:

    I don’t like either girl but to me it is different. Miley is trying to be sexy and Taylor isn’t. Miley almost exposing her privates while gyrating to her horrendous music is much more offensive. Taylor wears alot of awful makeup and long tee shirts knowin g that her look isn’t “sexy” or “appealing”.

  24. lucy2 says:

    Yes and no – TM certainly goes pantless a lot more and says and does a lot of stupid things. But she was never marketed as a wholesome Disney girl, as far as I know.
    The other day I saw two little kids looking at a bunch of cute, innocent Hannah Montana stuff in some store, and I instantly though about Miley and all her recent shenanigans. It may not be fair to her to be stuck with that image for so long, but it’s what made her famous and wealthy, what her fan base was built on. To go SOOOO far in the opposite direction just seems wrong.

  25. Goose says:

    I am all for ‘kids’ expressig themselves but I think this is getting ridiculous. Both of their parents need to get involved and start setting some boundaries for these two. I feel a Lindsay coming on in about ten years. Shutter to think…..

  26. Gwen says:

    I find Miley far more annoying because she was marketed for so many years as a good little Christian girl, spouting crap about ‘morals’ and ‘values’, while Taylor, to my knowledge, has only ever been portrayed as a skank. She seems to be slowly covering her face with more and more black eyeliner. One of these days she’s going to come out with an entirely black face and nothing on below the waist…

  27. HaphazardlyStudious says:

    To be fair, I haven’t seen Taylor:
    1. grind in the air in for a bunch of preteens
    2. give a 40 year old man a lapdance
    3. push her tata’s up to her chin in a corset for a video
    4. almost flash her entire ladybird
    5. run her hands up and down her tata’s, tummy, inner thigh, etc
    6. dress nearly as provocatively as ms. cyrus.
    Yeah she’s in stockings, but she’s paired it with an oversized baggy t-shirt. I don’t think she’s going for sexy-sexy-va-va-voom as much as she’s just trying to be outrageous (imitating madonna, gaga, etc).
    Which is sad and inappropriate in it’s own way.

  28. Pleister says:

    Yes, it is worse.
    The make-up in the picture is fugly btw.

  29. Little.grrl.lost says:

    In the immortal words of the 20th/21st century philosopher homer simpson: don’t you hate pants?!

    The answer, apparently, is a resounding YES!

  30. ViktoryGin says:

    Needless to say, the outfit is horrid. On any age. She was probably f*cking her drummer before the gig and couldn’t be bothered with redressing.

    Personally, Momsen crawls up my ass because her image is so annoyingly prosaic, as seems to be the case with most of them. Debbie Harry was doing this 30 years ago. I think that I would have less of an issue if she weren’t on a teen show. Hopefully, she doesn’t return so she can focus on trying too hard with her band. I’ll admit it, however, her music surpasses Miley’s bubblebum pop. Maybe I’d actually like Momsen’s band if she’s weren’t fronting it.

    I think that you hit the nail on head with the consistency of Momsen’s image vs. Miley’s skank-ho advent. It’s VERY difficult to experiment with subversiveness if that’s not what audiences are accustomed to from more streamline acts, particularly if the “edgier” procliviities lack substance. Yes, I’m thinking of you Rhianna. I don’t think that Miley will survive the transition, honestly.

  31. horizonte says:

    in that picture with her mouth open, taylor momsen looks a lot like courtney love!

  32. original kate says:

    nothing beats miley wearing a giant pair of wings and writhing around in a bird’s nest. that shit is epic.

  33. Mouse says:

    They’re both big headed, talentless, pretentious teenagers exploiting themselves and they’ll both be washed up by age 20. Is there one redeeming quality between the two of them?

    Taylor seems immature trying to be so hardcore and angsty, typical annoying teenage crap that no one is going to take seriously. Miley on the other hand has some serious issues. Bloggers like Perez Hilton are getting slammed for posting her skanky pics, but has anyone looked into why Miley, an underage kid, is being allowed to get away with this behavior?? Oh right, it’s all about the $$. She’s trying so hard to be the Britney Spears of country music, it’s vomit inducing.

  34. andrea says:

    really? this was cindy lou who? damn.

    are these girls any older/younger than when britney started her stripping on stage phase? just curious.

    my sister and i were talking over the weekend about how to make a billion dollars and never work again. we decided to make a pop tart performer girl, only dark brunette, not blonde. i have an adorable teenage girl cousin with dark hair who is a good dancer. i figure we could slut her up, get her out of that ivy league geriatric medicine program she’s in asap(would be bad for her image), make up a cheesy name for her and pimp her out. hahahaha!

  35. di butler says:

    Wellll, Momsen is almost 2 yrs younger than Miley….And Miles didn’t start the sexier dressing until recently. Momsen has been doing undie dressing w/ a ciggie hanging out of her mouth for a couple of yrs now. She is also a “role model” in a way. Many, many teen girls watch Gossip Girl, and Miley’s problem is, of course, outgrowing Disney. Also, holding Miley to some special standard because she spoke of her religion when she was 14 is hardly fair. People go thru stages as they mature. I hope she makes it. We don’t need another LiLo or Brit.

  36. ligeia says:

    its probably because miley actually looks hot while taylor looks like a homely homeless ragdoll. miley is also toned while taylor looks like she sits on her ass all day smoking fags.

  37. serena says:

    Both.
    But at least Taylor isn’t an ipocrite.

  38. M says:

    Taylor needs to lay off the eyeliner already. I get that you’re “edgy”, but you seriously look like raccoon.

    And both of their looks are inappropriate, but I agree that at least Taylor doesn’t claim to be so “Christian” like Miley does.

  39. Jo 'Mama' Besser says:

    Nothing sexy about lingerie until you’re old enough to fill it up properly–if you’re so inclined.

  40. Julia says:

    I just find it funny that she says she’s been doing anything band-related for “years”. Does she mean like 2 years? I’m thinking yes, because Mozart she’s not. No way she was pulling this shit when she was 8. “Years” my ass.

    There’s a double standard here, to be sure, but there’s nothing wrong with finding Miley’s brand of oversexualization irritating because of its element of “monkey-see-monkey-do” for her young audience. Taylor Momsen is an annoying whore, but because Miley gained parental acceptance and a fanbase with her cutesy Disney past, she’s already known to (and admired by) an audience that has no idea who Taylor Trashface is. Plus Miley wears pants offstage. I’m going with Miley being a stage-skank because it pays the bills and Taylor Momsen being a pretentious brat who thinks she’s worldly (but is obviously not because she’s been sheltered and never wears pants.)

  41. Julia says:

    Oh, it also strikes me that Miley is dressed for stage by bigger budget handlers/costumers while TM chooses her own skankery. That makes her the bigger ho, imho.

  42. My2Cents says:

    Taylor looks more of an idiot than Miley. What is with that make up. Does she really think it looks good?
    Heavy done eyes and red lipstick does not work!

    Did anyone see the close up of Miley over at Perez’s site yesterday? O-M-G.
    There is about 1cm of fabric holding in her labia.

  43. Persistent Cat says:

    I just don’t hate TM. I like Little J. She’s not constantly in my face and she’s pretty much had that look for as long as I remember. And so what if she’s copying a look, Debbie Harry had a great look, it’s tribute. When I was 16, I only wore black and smoked (I’ve since quit) and I never gushed on and on about what a good, moral girl I was.

    Miley, on the other hand, bugs the hell out of me. She’s just fake and annoying and that first picture of her up there makes me want to punch her so badly. Everything she does is blogged about so she’s always in my face and she’s a hypocrite.

  44. emma says:

    While they’re both young, delusional, annoying and trying too hard, I think it’s less of an outrage that Taylor is dressing like this because she’s not as in the spotlight as Miley. Because she makes music more suited to that look- she is playing to an older crowd and plays “grittier” music while Miley is playing to a bunch of screaming tweens. Because it didn’t come out of nowhere- it seems more authentic because she dresses like a desperate ho on the streets and on stage, whereas Miley looks (relatively) normal for a 17yearold offstage. And because Taylor isn’t grinding and humping around on stage…. she may be younger but she seems more mature (in her look at least). Miley touching her boobs and humping all over the place makes it just look way too forced.

  45. Sally says:

    My main problem here, asides from the pantlessness and the eye makeup, is she’s wearing hold-ups, so she doesn’t even need those damn garters!

  46. MSat says:

    Christ on a Segway, who did this child’s makeup? The Insane Clown Posse?

  47. sophia says:

    aha! what wrong with everyone on this thread?? miley is dressing like a prostitute, whilst taylor is wearing something stylishly unique, a rocker-lingerie style which i actually think suits her a lot and can be carried as a fashion statement:S

    how i know this? i actually study fashion.