Who Should We Worry About More, Cyrus or Bynes?
I grew up with Amanda Bynes and was in high school around the time Miley Cyrus became relevant. I would say I got to know the two pretty well over the course of their golden years on TV. But lately, my gal pals have been displaying some different social media activity than one might expect. But is it really cause for concern?
You know what? I’m kind of torn. One part of me says, “Your girl Amanda is acting kind of strange.” And the other part of me says, “You don’t know what happens behinds closed doors.” And it’s true; I really don’t.
I’m not that worried for Miley. In fact I think she’s just fine. Sure, she’s tryna get her Rihanna on and post some party pics on Instagram. Other than that, what’s the worst she’s done? Had her celebrity hairstylist give her an extremely trendy pixie cut? Honestly though! She didn’t pull a Brit and shave her head in the middle of the night. She just got a haircut. (I mean she CAN’T BE TAMED, y’all!)
Yes, yes. She seems to be doing her fair share of partying, but Miley and I are the same age and I don’t know many other 20-somethings who aren’t out doing the same thing. She just happens to have a lot more eyes on her. When she starts robbing banks or getting DUIs, then maybe I will show a bit of concern. But she seems to be doing all right for herself. And “Ashtrays & Heartbreaks” is my jam.
Amanda is the real question mark in my life. Manderz is maybe my favorite actress. I’m not saying that sarcastically. I know she’s never won an Oscar. But She’s The Man has been my favorite movie since the first time I saw it. I know all of the words and whenever I am in a bad mood, that movie does the trick. Even before that, I loved her on All That even though my parents thought her “Dear Amanda” sketch made me flip. And I watched What I Like About You religiously. The reruns still bring a smile to my face. In summary, I am a true Amanda Bynes fan.
So yeah, I was a little perplexed (to say the least) when she got that first DUI. And then even a bit more when the bizarre behavior followed. I still follow her on Twitter and I love her tweets, because most of them are pretty on point. Some of her twitpics make me scratch my head. But I’m not totally convinced she’s lost her marbles. For all I know, she could be planning the most successful PR scheme in years.
Let’s not forget that a few years ago, Charlie Sheen pulled a similar stunt with his #Winning and weird video rants. Talking about crazy Sheen was all the rage for a few months there. Then, we sort of moved on. Now, he is raking in the dough from his brand new show on FX and laughing at everyone who called him crazy. Maybe Amanda is bored and figured she’d screw with everyone’s heads?
Okay, okay. I know that is probably highly unlikely. But I can’t bring myself to judge her and say “Something’s definitely wrong!” when I can’t know for sure. It’s kind of none of my business even if she is crazy (which she maintains she is not). She seems with it enough to realize what people are saying about her. And I think I would be pretty pissed if the whole world were making claims about my mental health! Wouldn’t you?
Her “I need to lose weight” naked pics remind me of 13-year-olds on MySpace looking for people to say “OMG u r s0 skinii.” Her DUIs are concerning. Everything else is kind of up in the air. Truthfully, I never knew Amanda (even though I know we’d be BFFs). And I definitely don’t know her now. I think if I did know the back-story, I could be alarmed. But maybe she always had this wild side that never got out until now. Maybe she decided to retire and said “f*** it.” It’s not like she has much to lose.
I think we all need to take a step back and ask ourselves: Are they actually losing it? Or are they not quite living up to our expectations? More importantly: Do we even know them well enough to make that judgement? And lastly, it’s social media. Catfishing is real outside of online dating. (Don’t you remember MySpace angles?) People get all kinds of crazy for web-attention. Trust: I know plenty of normal people wilin’ out even harder on their Twitters and if you met them IRL, you’d never expect it. (Hell, I might be one of them.)
Featured image via @AmandaBynes & @MileyCyrus