Oh enough.

The depressing thing about the latest Miley Cyrus headlines from the MTV Awards in Amsterdam - and yesterday's headlines about Lily Allen's satirical video response to the whole twerking phenomenon - is that this is still, in the 21st century, a story.

Frankly in the end it's irrelevant if Cyrus decided to shuck off her Disney image by posing in her underwear for porno-chic photographer Terry Richardson herself or was manipulated it into her by her record company. The fact is she - or they - knew that the easiest way to controversy and the associated headlines was to take her clothes off. And she's hardly alone. Even Lady Gaga, an artiste more known for her visual elan than her musical ambition, has been willing to use her body to sell her image. Sex sells. Who'd have thought? Apart from pretty much everybody.

And in the end that's not simply a reflection of a sexist music industry (though clearly it is that). That's a reflection of a sexist society. Nudity - or its near equivalent - has a currency. And not just on MTV and 4Music. It's one you can see being spent in TV showbiz round-ups, on tabloid front pages, in broadsheet opinion pieces (like this one). In one paper yesterday X Factor judge Nicole Scherzinger jokingly asked one reporter "I squeezed into an extra tiny catsuit for you ... why wasn't I on the front page?"

The music industry has long been an outlier for public opinion. It was in pop in the eighties that gay artists first began to speak out against the culture's opprobrium (and remember this is a time when the government was promoting basically anti-gay policies such as Clause 28). Twenty years earlier pop had spoken out for racial equality in the US or simply showed up America's race issues by selling black sounds to white kids.

But the industry has reactionary tendencies too, and the whole Miley Cyrus story is simply the latest iteration of an approach that has been the industry standard for most of this century. You can trace it back to the infamous Britney Spears Rolling Stone cover or no end of New Lad photoshoots for Loaded. For every Adele, Sinead O'Connor, Patti Smith and Kate Bush that have managed to carve out a career in pop that is not predicated on how good they look in a bikini, there are many, many more who are willing - or are cajoled - to give it a go because it might sell some more records and it will certainly get publicity.

In the end pop can only get away with this because the wider culture accepts it. Because while we pay lip service to sexual equality we don't have much interest in making it work. You want an example? Here's an easy one. Count how many women appear in The Herald today. Half as many as men? A third? None of them in bikinis at least, I'd imagine.

As for Miley Cyrus, sexuality remains one currency young women have to spend. And the rest of us keep taking the money shot. She is simply the most obvious signifer of the hugely unequal society we live in. This is an issue that touches on everything from pay structures to childcare options. In the end, I guess, squeezing such things on to the front page isn't that sexy when it comes right down to it.