The reason we Twerk

  Hundreds of years ago American ships banked upon the shores of an uncharted African nation. On many occasions they happened upon scantily clad brown skin people moving about to the thunderous beat of a drum and their own feet. Their masterful fluidity is not the first thing the sailors noticed as the dancers’ brown limbs whipped through the skies like a swift breeze in the night. It was the dancer’ state of undress that caught the eye for the African dancers were nearly nude in the blazing African heat. They were immediately deemed savages, heathens, and most assuredly oversexed by the holier than thou sailors and the mantra has stuck.

   Present day I’m starting to hear a lot of condemnation for what used to be one of my favorite past times, twerking. Ever since Miley Cyrus saw fit to try, and I say try because she failed miserably, twerking on a married man. Whether it was a poorly rehearsed part of the performance or spontaneous Robin Thick, who was the victim of Miley’s poor attempt at twerking, is no longer married and has publically begged his wife’s forgiveness on several occasions. It is highly doubtful that Miley’s spastic jerking caused the rift. Still since then everyone has had an opinion on twerking.

 

Well take it from someone who actually knows how and enjoys it. It’s meant for the sheer amusement. It’s not mating dance, a hood ritual, or least of all the habit of the oversexed. Yes each of the various forms of twerking involves lots of bending over and gyration bringing attention to the butt but it does not make you a whore. What does make one a, hoe, (we've got to talk about how whore came to be hoe when they sound nothing alike but that a whole nother blog), is doing as you please. A woman making her own decisions on what to wear and how to behave is not something society is ready to contend with so they have to call you something nasty to force you into obedience. You can't expect to have fun dancing unless without it being centered around a man. Everything a woman does has to be centered around a man, duh.

If a man happens to see me and think me a whore I know that’s just wishful thinking on his part. If  a women stands in judgement of my dancing because she thinks it makes me look like a whore that’s probably because she considers herself a whore. So she can’t risk twerking because she's afraid everyhave will findout she's the whore she considers herself to be. Its sad really. Furthermore if you’ve noticed the pictures of African dance sprinkled throughout this article you can see that the moves involve lots of bending, squatting, shaking of the thighs, and rolling of the hips. 

The moves depicted were not meant to entice as the sailors dirty minds concluded. They were actually witnessing a sacred act, a religious experience. Hundreds of years later the descendants of those dancers do not remember the meaning of their moves. We do not know our language or legends. Yet when we hear the thunderous beat of the drums it seems our feet, our backs, and our thighs remember. So before you judge the twerkers who are likely just dancing to have a good time and blow off steam ask yourself are you on the outside looking in. Do you know anything about hip hop culture and dance? If not please keep your comments and your judgements to yourself.