The Nipples Have Been Found

Years. It took years. Miley Cyrus has been systematically dismantling the Disney-princess scaffolding around herself piece by piece—the outfits, the stunts, the music, the public persona, the foam fingers, the VMAs performance that made your parents call you to ask if you’d seen it. Through all of it, the nipples stayed covered. T-shirts. Strategically placed hands. Chains. As an act of sustained restraint it was almost admirable, if you were reading it as anything other than extended foreplay.

The South African edition of YOU Magazine is where it finally ended. A photo shoot, a particular frame, and there they are—distributed across multiple photos, technically obscured but present if you’re paying attention, and you are paying attention. Let’s not pretend otherwise.

She knows exactly what she’s doing. She has always known exactly what she’s doing.