Twerking

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Twerking is a type of dancing in which an individual, usually a female, dances to music in a sexually provocative manner involving thrusting hip movements and a low squatting. Though the term seems to be of uncertain origin with common assumptions suggesting it represents a contraction of "footwork" or a portmanteau of the words "twist" and "jerk".


A user on UrbanDictionary.com defined twerking as "basically a sl*tty dance. derived from strip clubs". Another user described it as "when a girls' as* moves like a bowl of Jell-O".


The dance move originates from West Africa (for instance the Mapouka dance) and has been around for several generations. It was then adopted by African American culture in the 1990s. The dance originally was not done with sexual intent until it hit the hip hop scene in America in the early 1990s, where it became sexualized as part of the hip hop industry performed by video models in rap videos. Twerking can carry both gendered and racialized connotations, given its origins and the dance itself it is often associated with Black women as the Samba dance is with Latino women.[9] In the United States, twerking was introduced into hip-hop culture by way of the New Orleans bounce music scene. In 1993, DJ Jubilee recorded the dance tune "Do The Jubilee All" in which he chanted, "Twerk baby, twerk baby, twerk, twerk, twerk."


Because twerking is fairly recent, there's much controversy surrounding it. For example, in the next video we can see how 33 high school students were suspended and banned from prom thanks to a twerking video they made.


I believe the twerking controversy started when Miley Cyrus decided to twerk on Robin Thicke at the VMA's (award show viewed by thousands of minors). I think it was major because of the fact that twerking was mainly known among African Americans, and Miley is a Caucasian.


Little by little, people are understanding of twerking. I'm not saying they like it or support people dancing it, but they understand is a dance style and there's always going to be people dancing it.

1 comment:

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