Late For Twerk: Our Infatuation with Beauties Bent Over

Twerking. 

With its recent explosion to mainstream media, just the mere mention of the word causes a multitude of opinions and emotions. It has become a pastime of sorts; women can now do the dance for leisure, recognition, or even income. Their public displays are an enigma; they can simultaneously  be enthralling yet demeaning and embarrassing; though the dance can be considered in many ways classless, it is also incredibly erotic and very hard to ignore. 

This sight causes more hypocrisy in men the political office.

I commonly find myself torn on how I feel about twerking.  From an early age, my elders taught me not only to treat a lady with respect and act chivalrous, but seek women who acted with class themselves. Despite this, it would be deceitful to state that watching a woman (especially a nice-bodied woman) gyrate is not arousing. Men love this ability for a woman to express her sexuality to almost degrading levels; we just desire that in relation to our own mates it remains private knowledge. It is the age old misogynistic mantra classically described by Ludacris in Usher's 2004 hit, "Yeah!": A lady in the street, but a freak in the bed. 

By most standards, I qualify as a nice guy, a gentleman, in some eyes a nerd (not a geek though; I'm too stylish and handsome). Yet in still I at times play into double-dealing thoughts: Do I ever want my woman to show me her wild side and twerk for me only? Absolutely; on anniversaries, holidays, Tuesday, Wednesdays, and Fridays (Not during Monday or Thursday Night Football...well, if the Redskins aren't playing, I guess it's cool). Do I want her to upload her talent or practice in front of others? Hell no!

It is this hypocrisy that is recognized by attention-seeking twerkers and has been manipulated by the entertainment industry, advertising companies, and others for generations: Men love to see women objectified, as long as it is not a family member, or their mate (in public). The blame does not fall solely on the male species however; while we certainly established the standard, women have long used their assets to gain power, money, and in certain instances like megastar Beyoncé, respect. Let us not ignore arguably the biggest star of the 2000s has captivated audiences with her posterior (see "Video Phone") nearly as much as her pop smashes. As a result sexuality, in this case twerking, is promoted, highlighted and displayed daily on our television and computers. Female celebrities like Cyrus and Nicki Minaj spend less time facing the camera in their songs and performances, as rap stars such as 2 Chainz, Busta Rhymes, Nelly (all of which coincidentally released recent videos featuring Minaj twerking) provide audiences with videos highlighting girls, women, mothers, and daughters "twerking something". Our youth, both the most impressionable and biggest determinants to popular culture, grab their cameras and cell phones and propagate this behavior all over YouTube, creating an awkward booty bouncing cycle. Demand for girls dancing inappropriately was so high that scholarship money was offered by rapper Juicy J to the best 'twerker'. Great; when giving my future daughter asks how to get into the college of her choice, I'll advise her to work diligently in her classes, join different school organizations, and "throw it back" on camera to Tyga. The biggest issue, however, lies in the aftermath of the *ss shake: when is twerking, as an act and the willingness to do so for strangers, a detriment to those doing it? When has it gone too far?

For the record, twerking is not new; if we were to attack it from a historical perspective, traces of it can be drawn from traditional African dances, such as Mapouka (ed. note: The Motherland version is just as freaky). While the term twerk dates as far back as the early 90s, I vividly remember southern rap group Ying Yang Twins and their brand of "strip hop" songs, initiated with their first hit "Whistle While You Twurk". Further evidence stems from the 2003 controversial music video "Tip Drill" from rapper Nelly, featuring women dressed in swimsuits dancing provocatively. With the recent wave of social media, the sexually themed dancing has caught on more rapidly than other fads in the past, but as do many trends of America, its introduction by a popular personality brought it into millions of households. While Miley Cyrus' performance at this year's Video Music Awards has made twerking a hot topic in otherwise unfamiliar neighborhoods, the routine is no Michael Jackson at Motown 25 by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it is a safe assumption many parents would prefer their daughters upload videos of themselves performing an outdated Moonwalker as opposed to turning around and aggressively gyrating in tight sweats, short shorts, or less. 

Bent over while fans cheer loudly is not
exactly the position I'd like for the ladies in my life.

When it comes to our women and this trend, one must wonder about how those who 'twerk' publicly are perceived, and their willingness to still do it. With the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech just passing, it should be fresh in our minds to judge people off the content of their characters. This does not always hold true, however, and certain trends result in unfortunate stereotyping. Twerking succeeds such styles as wearing sagging pants that immediately generate ignorant, incorrect, and STUPID assumptions about a person and their lifestyle. Yes, common sense tells us not to participate in trends if we wish to avoid them, but what about those who receive second hand stereotyping? Consider a recent article published by the New York Times on the dance and how teens should discuss with your parents.

Writer Teddy Wayne, a white author and college educator, advised children to tell their parents "twerking is a dance associated with low income African American women". So please explain Mr. Wayne, what is the correlation between being black, having a low income, and dancing bent over? Why are you encouraging teenagers to tell their parents there is such a correlation? Furthermore Theodore, if this dance is associated with low income Black females, why (as Jay Z eloquently puts it) Miley Cyrus is still twerking?

Twerking takes different meaning for different people. For Cyrus, it's an incredibly popular dance craze that allows her to express herself and maximize her exposure as an 'artist'. That definition may hold different for Greg Horn, who caught his pre-teen daughters Horn filming themselves performing the dance. Enraged and embarrassed, he brutally beat the daughters with a cable wire resulting in child abuse charges.  For Atlanta-based dance group Twerk Team,  twerking symbolizes a money making venture, as they are paid (according to many, rather handsomely) for well...shaking their posterior. To other African-American women however, it has quickly become another opportunity for outside parties to demean and categorize them under such horrible generalizations as women lacking class or sexual objects.

No matter what your stance on twerking may be, it is helpful to have a realistic outlook on the dance. Girls shaking their bottom will always generate attention. The female body is one of God's most aesthetically pleasing images and will captivate its audience. For those performing, realize that by gyrating perversely in your shorts or less for a huge audience without receiving pay, you're stripping for free. If that's cool with you, then who am I to judge? That stage is all yours. The attention you receive, however, may not be the attention you request. An honest man will tell you the things he lusts for and the things he loves are not one and the same. So ladies, as you prepare to touch them toes and wiggle for a world wide audience, please note that first impressions can be lasting ones. There is little respect in us clapping at you "clapping". 

Ceddy P