Unless you are living under a rock, you’ve heard about Miley Cyrus’s twerking debut at the VMAs. I didn’t watch the VMAs but was sure to catch her performance the next day on YouTube. Everyone’s jaw dropped as Cyrus, wild-eyed and pig-tailed, pranced around stage wearing practically nothing. Not only was she incredibly profane and inappropriate, but also the implications of her choreography on stage were terrible.

She flounced around on stage flocked by dancing women, at one point violently grabbing one of the dancer’s butts and slapping it for the audience to see. She treated these women—and herself—like sex objects. If anyone had been focusing on the enriching lyrics of “We Can’t Stop” (we can’t stop/we won’t stop this/our party we can do what we want to/its our house we can do what we want to) it would have been reminiscent of a bratty teenager yelling at her parents. Miley sent a different message to her audience and everyone watching on TV: We’re on stage because we can wiggle our butts, and for no other reason.

Miley needs to do a better job of making the transition from a Disney child to actress. As a celebrity, you are first and foremost a role model for the young girls who watch and look up to you, particularly as a former child star. There’s an argument to be made for “being true to yourself” and “not caring what other people think.” But as a celebrity, it’s your job to worry about what other people think. And after that performance, Miley should be worried.

Washington Post columnist Clinton Yates finished his VMAs recap with, “So, in 2013 in America, while we celebrate a young man from Seattle for having the courage to make a song out of exploring his thoughts on sexuality as a child, and eventually coming to the conclusion that hate is stupid, Miley doesn’t get such a luxury. Even though all she’s doing is precisely what we’re celebrating everyone else for: being herself.”

I disagree. The outraged public isn’t telling Miley not to “be herself”, but to not be inappropriate on national television.

In an article that was given out in AP Literature classes this week, English author and literary critic David Lodge says the following about being a celebrity: “It can bring great material rewards and personal satisfactions—but at a cost, a kind of commoditization of the self.”

Though he was referring to Charles Dickens, the basic principle of fame still applies today. If you’re a celebrity, you don’t get to go out on stage and ‘be yourself.’ Your job is to entertain the public while being aware of the message you are sending. In this case, that message exploited herself and others.