Miley Cyrus has never been one to shy away from a public controversy or a big feminist issue. Long gone are the days of Hannah Montana and Disney Channel innocence. Many years ago, Cyrus proved she is much, much more than all of that when she grew up right in front of the media and all of her fans. Since then, Cyrus has had more than her own fair share of controversies, but she has also used her platform to speak about the issues that are most important to her: LGBTQ rights, animal rights, and feminism. She definitely isn’t shy about speaking out against the patriarchy!
So, the pop star’s latest move on Instagram shouldn’t really shock anyone who knows her — but the backlash she’s getting for doing it just might. People are pretty angry with her right now, and it’s not because of the statement she was trying to make.
People are mad at Cyrus for the cake she just licked for a different reason. They think she’s ripped off the design.
Earlier today, Cyrus posted an Instagram photo to announce her Happy Hippie Foundation partnership with Planned Parenthood and Marc Jacobs.
But Cyrus didn’t just do this with a simple photo and caption. No, she did it in a way that only she would. She posted a photo of herself licking a giant cake that says, “ABORTION IS HEALTHCARE” in big pink letters.
The message was clear: Cyrus is going to do something about the anti-abortion laws that have been popping up in various states throughout the United States. Great news, right?! Well, kind of.
Not long after Cyrus posted her own image, Becca Rea-Holloway of The Sweet Feminist posted on her own Instagram to call Cyrus out for stealing her cake design. That’s when people got angry.
Hi Miley!! Major fan over here. In case u didn’t know, this is an exact copy of thesweetfeminist’s work on insta. Pls give credit where credit is due, v excited for the collaboration for repro rights but really sad to see thesweetfeminist getting slighted pic.twitter.com/C7Mv3qDjrn
— the working man’s dua lipa (@annieluella) June 4, 2019
Rea-Holloway posted a side-by-side photo of Cyrus’s cake and her own. Rea-Holloway’s cake is indeed pretty much exactly the same, from the colors to the decorations to the font, and even the underlined “IS.”
In the caption, Rea-Holloway wrote, “@mileycyrus just announced a collaboration with @marcjacobs @plannedparenthood@happyhippiefdn using this image. It is a direct theft of my own original art work from May 2018, with no credit. It’s literally my exact handwriting, message, and concept. Swipe for comparison! Cake art is for everyone, but this is inexcusable.”
If you scroll through The Sweet Feminist Instagram page, you can see that the original cake was posted on the page on May 15th. It definitely looks like something weird has happened.
Fans of The Sweet Feminist were pretty outraged. One commented on IG to say, “I came to your page right after she posted this thinking you were asked to do a collab or something. So disappointed you weren’t involved! I recognized the cake as your design immediately.”
People on Twitter also responded to Miley about the cake.
To her credit, Cryus did respond directly to The Sweet Feminist on IG.
She commented on the post to explain, saying, “Hi, we saw the image online and didn’t realize it was yours. We will absolutely tag you for your work. This image is not on the Marc Jacobs x Planned Parenthood hoodie we made to raise money and awareness for Planned Parenthood which I know is also close to your heart. It is just on the post and not on the merchandise but we will absolutely tag you and give you the credit for your art. If you could please correct your post, as we’re going to make sure you have all the credit you deserve… thanks for sharing your art and inspiring us. 🎂”
After the comment, Cyrus tagged The Sweet Feminist on the original cake photo on her page.
Still, Rhea-Holloway wasn’t happy with the response. She left her own comment, saying, “This was not an oversight, it was blatantly and willfully neglectful and deceitful. I would have been more than happy to work with you on a collaboration for this project, but instead my work was just copied without compensation.”
Many other people jumped in to say that Cyrus shouldn’t have let this happen from the beginning. They still feel that Rhea-Holloway deserves more credit and monetary compensation.
she tagged her AFTER people complained/called out the lack of recognition. no original posts had the sweet fem credited (also, pay artists for their work???). i love Miley endlessly but it’s fair to tell her when she is making a mistake
— the working man’s dua lipa (@annieluella) June 4, 2019
Cyrus fans jumped in on Twitter to defend their queen. Some felt The Sweet Feminist was just using the situation to get attention.
The sweet feminist it's just hungry for fame, none knew her, was her username in the art? If it was on it Miley and her team would've definitely contact her.
— Smilers Nation (@dSmilersnation) June 4, 2019
Others felt The Sweet Feminist didn’t have to get so angry about the problem. They tweeted their thoughts with GIFs like this one:
And some people felt like, in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t really an important issue. They felt the larger issue was abortion rights.
People are deliberately ending the lives of countless children, and you guys are griping about who gets credit for some words on a cake. It’s sociopathic!
— Amanda Hugginkiss 🐊 (@AmandaHuggin1) June 4, 2019
It’s definitely true that Cyrus should have searched harder for the source of the cake design she used. Or better yet, she should have given credit originally if she did know where it came from.
Very special collab with @PPFA @happyhippiefdn @marcjacobs TO BE ANNOUNCED veryyyyyy soon! #WomensRightsAreHumanRights #DONTFUCKWITHMYFREEDOM 🎂💒🚺 🎂💒🚺🎂💒🚺 pic.twitter.com/aYLqenQ2vq
— Miley Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) June 4, 2019
We’ll have to see if anything else comes out of this situation.
