The other night I dreamt that I was a young girl. I was about 10 years old, give or take a year or two – old enough to be pretty, but too young to be sexy to all but the most prurient interests. And I was pretty.

This reminded me of a famous anecdote from the Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi. I’ll quote it in whole here, since I don’t think Burton Watson (82 years old!) will be harmed at this point. For the sake of consistency I’ll take the liberty of using the pinyin spelling of Zhuangzi’s name.

Once Zhuang Zhou dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn’t know he was Zhuang Zhou. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuang Zhou. But he didn’t know if he was Zhuang Zhou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuang Zhou. Between Zhuang Zhou and a butterfly there must be some distinction! This is called the Transformation of Things.

What separates my experience from Zhuangzi’s is that when I was the little girl I had full recognition of myself as Jason. What I mean is that my mind was put in this little girl’s body, with all of my knowledge and experiences and none of hers. But I knew what I was and I knew what others perceived me as and acted accordingly. It was quite thrilling to behave in a way so contrary to my typical nature and demeanor, I must admit. I enjoyed being the girl.

But this has troubling implications for me. Whereas Zhuangzi was questioning the nature of experience and reality and a whole host of other things, my butterfly retained my identity. So I am either a little pixie who has quite psychotic fantasies of living 22 years as a lonely schlub, or I’m a 22 year old man less than 2 weeks away from graduating college who dreams of being a little girl. I am not sure which would be worse.

I’m going to segue here into a totally different, less interesting topic. But maybe it won’t seem totally different to you, I don’t know. I had the idea for this section the night of my dream, before I fell asleep. Interpret my own connection of them as you will.

It’s no secret to those who know me that I like Miley Cyrus, and I like Hannah Montana. I like her music and I like the show. But I’m not really going to discuss those, though I’ve categorized this under music. What I’m going to discuss are the new pictures that have surfaced, and the inevitable attacks on her that followed them.

To begin with, they just aren’t that “dirty,” even for a 15 year old girl. Even characterizing them as PG-13 overstates it, as the imagery within would easily conform to the standards of any film that targets children above the age of 5. They’re a 15 year old’s attempts at appearing sexy without actually showing anything.

But different people have different standards, I guess. What bothers me more is the inherent sexism in criticisms of her and other female celebrities who act “slutty,” and sexism is a word I never thought I would apply seriously. If a 15 year old male pop star posed shirtless in leaked pictures, would anyone have a problem with that? No. If one of the Jonas Brothers were shown cavorting in a sexual manner with girls, would anyone have a problem with that? No. Not even the Disney Channel. In the same way, if naked pictures of Zac Efron instead of Vanessa Hudgens had leaked onto the internet, it would have been a non-story.

This is stupid and indefensible. There is no legitimate reason we should have different standards for females as opposed to males. If it was OK for Lil’ Bow Wow to rap about how many girls he’s boned, and I think it is, then it’s OK for Miley Cyrus to pose for pictures lying on one dude’s lap. So leave Miley alone.

I’d also like to comment on the idea that celebrities have an obligation to be role models for their younger fans. This is dumb. I don’t know Miley, and she may well be an all-around person of virtue, but this is not why she is famous. People become famous either for having one or more extraordinary characteristics or simply by chance. Neither of these entail great virtue. If you are relying on celebrities and other extraordinary people – athletes – to be the role models for your child, then you are not being a good parent. Miley has not forfeited her right to deviate from conventional norms as she pleases simply because a lot of people bought her album. She can do whatever the hell she wants, and to suggest otherwise turns the celebrity into some sort of subhuman figure who exists only to serve your petty interests. QED.