TWERKING

Crazy Gubment Ish: Woman Detained In Russia For Twerking, Notorious Parchman Prison Slammed By DOJ

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Russian Twerker

With views from the intersection of wackness and anti-blackness, here’s a roundup of the crazy and the WTF happenings in government and the impact on the culture.  This week, a Zambian woman gets locked up for twerking in Russia, and Mississippi’s infamous Parchman Prison gets slapped by the DOJ. Twerking Equals Nazism? A 21-year-old Zambian […]

The post Crazy Gubment Ish: Woman Detained In Russia For Twerking, Notorious Parchman Prison Slammed By DOJ appeared first on SOHH.com.

Apparently, Miley Cyrus Thanked Lizzo For Her TED Talk On The Black History Of Twerking

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Lizzo might be the modern expert on twerking, never afraid to get her “heinie” (as she calls it) out there and get it shaking. And that’s especially important because of the Black history of twerking that has been all but erased from the modern understanding of it, where young white teens are imitating the dance on TikTok with no real understanding of the context they’re appropriating.

That’s part of why Lizzo felt so compelled to make a whole TED Talk about the history of the dance, rather gently bringing up how Miley Cyrus’ lighting rod performance, which included some twerking, at the 2013 VMAs catapulted the dance to mainstream attention — and did so in a way that didn’t do the best job of honoring its origins. And apparently, Miley actually took the conversation in stride, mentioning to Lizzo that she watched the TED Talk herself and “really loved it.”

“I mention Miley Cyrus in my TED Talk,” Lizzo told People in a recent interview. “And I’m very delicate with how I mention her because, at the end of the day, I didn’t want to have any bias in the way I talked about how she brought twerking to mainstream. The messenger is kind of how this thing spread like it did — seeing her at the VMAs. And I saw her recently and she was like, ‘I watched your TED Talk and I really loved it. Thank you for that.’”

Stay classy Miley, that’s the appropriate response. If you haven’t watched it yet, check out Lizzo’s love letter to twerking up top.

Lizzo’s Ted Talk On The History Of Twerking Is Everything You Hoped It Would Be And More

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Lizzo has been one of the most vocal proponents of body positivity in pop music in recent memory. As a Black woman of size, she’s been very open about the cultural pressures she’s faced, not only growing up, but even after making it as a global star. So, she took it upon herself to help share the history of twerking with the world, since this ass-shaking dance also represents a major component in her own acceptance of herself. In the talk, she lets fans know that her butt was her least favorite part of her own body, and that embracing twerking was what helped her see it as a positive.

But she also wants to be clear about the rich twerking of history, which was derived from Black people and culture, with a direct parallel to West African dances like mapouka. As Lizzo explains, the dance was carried over to America through the transatlantic slave trade, and she traces it from Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith to Josephine Baker and more. “Black people will not be erased from the history, the creation, and the innovation of twerking,” she asserts. And it’s definitely stars like Lizzo that will make sure this history remains intact. Check out the full talk above.