Whether she was stripping to her underwear or twerking with giant teddy bears, Miley Cyrus left many in shock after her performance at the VMA's in August.
But it seems no one was more shocked than one of her very own back-up dancers.
Los Angeles-based performer Hollis Jane, who refers to herself as a little person, revealed on her blog: 'I was a bear in Miley Cyrus’ VMA performance and. . . for the first time I felt truly ashamed of being a little person.
'I will be the first one to tell you that standing on that stage, in that costume was one of the most degrading things I felt like I could ever do,' she said, singling out another offense to add to Miss Cyrus' recent controversies -- one based on size.
Miss Jane, who has been attempting to be a professional actress for the past three years, said that when she was asked to audition for the signer's tour, she was 'incredibly hesitant'.
'The money was great and I would have gotten a free trip to Las Vegas,' she admitted. 'My computer had recently broken and my car needed (and still needs) multiple repairs. I could have fixed a lot of that with the Miley money. So, I sent in my audition tape.'
But it was only after she was accepted for the job that she realized she was going to be put into a bear costume.
'I had never been in a performance where I was purely meant to be gawked or laughed at. I will never forget that performance because it is what forced me to draw my personal line in the sand,' she said.
'After our first dress rehearsal in the costumes with the crew, publicists, performers etc watching us, I walked out of the Barclay Center shaking and crying.
'I love being the center of attention, but that was something different. I was being stared and laughed at for all of the wrong reasons. I was being looked at as a prop…as something less than human.'
She goes on to explain that for 'decades little people have not been taken seriously'. And as an actress, she revealed she is given 'two per cent of the “real” auditions' that many other 'average-sized' actresses get.
'The longer little people agree to be used as shock value, the longer it is going to take for us to be taken seriously,' she said, adding that Miss Cyrus' choice to have someone of her stature in a bear costume only perpetuated the stigma.
'When I did the VMAs. . . we were being used simply because we were little. It felt like society still saw us as a joke, despite the fact there is literally nothing different about me other than the fact I am small.'
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