It seems twerking is all the rage, in that I have been hearing rather a lot over the last couple of weeks. Maybe I can get lessons in time to knock over some fine bone china with my rear end on Saturday night.
Seriously, though, I feel bad writing about twerking. I've come to the party so late that the empty bottles are being thrown out and the garbage truck cometh.
So apparently twerking is where a persona "usually a woman is shakng her hips in an up and down bouncing mtion, causing the dancer to shake, wobble and jiggle."
Sounds a trifle rude if you ask me...
It is practiced primarily in poor, black areas, which doesn't adequately explain why it has been made famous by Miley Cyrus, a rich white girl.
Miley Cyrus' sexually suggestive twerking performance at the VMAs caused widespread outrage across the media, maybe due to the fact it's less heavy than Syria. If reports are to be believed, even the maker of the giant hand she was sporting, has criticized her.
The sort of subtext here is Miley was a Disney girl, who influenced lots of small kids, and she's now gyrating her hips suggestively with her tongue out. And Disney girls don't do that sort of thing - right Britney and Christina.
As someone with a daughter who grew up sporting a Hannah Montana wig spouting the Best of Both Worlds, this does not bother me really - namely because I thought Miley was a talentless publicity seeker then as now.
Also America always seems to get so uptight about this kind of thing, as demonstrated by Janet Jackson's Nipplegate scandal at the Super Bowl.
Miley's just doing what Madonna and Lady Gaga did before her, only with less talent. The worst aspect of this is she seems to have propelled the word 'twerking' into the Oxford dictionary, along with selfie and FOMO, although red lines still appear on all of these words on my retro spell check.
FOMO is fear of missing out - like when you realize everyone is going on about a phrase such as twerking and feel obliged to blog about it two weeks later.
Frankly, I was more embarrassed for her than anything else. Like being forced to watch someone do a bad job at something they should never have been asked to do at all.
ReplyDeletePoor twit.
Pearl
I know Pearl - sorta like asking a one legged guy to run 100 meters in the Olympics.
DeleteThen I'm RMO (really missing out) because I didn't know twerking existed until the other day. I don't watch those award shows as I think some get awards because the organizers have a bunch to hand out. Anyway, it seems like twerking is what people with no talent do, kinda sad actually, as there's nothing for them to do later to get attention.
ReplyDeleteWe're back from our trip to Normandy. Visiting the five beaches was an incredible experience. Before we began with Sword Beach, we visited the British cemetery in Caen to pay our respects.
RMO could catch on Kittie I'd like to go back to the Normandy beaches - the only time I visited was when I was at school and you don't really appreciate the history.
DeleteThe backlash has been swift, hasn't it? I don't understand how no one says word one about the shows about toddler & little kid beauty pagents with the kids dressed up like little hookers, doing suggestive dances, but a 20 y/o acts no different from Madonna and Lady Gaga and that upsets them.
ReplyDeleteoh those shows - yeah kinda sick JoJo
DeleteThis is the best parent perspective I've read about the incident, really. She was pointless then and she's pointless now. But for some reason people are outraged. OUTRAGED! And what's even more tasteless is that she has no shame or embarrassment over the cringeworthy fiasco. She was bragging about it in the news the other day about how she "made history." Yup, let's update the textbooks now...
ReplyDeletethanks Jen - yep you are right, still milking the publicity :)
DeleteSo sad. But I just learned something new, something I could have lived with out but thanks for the definition of FOMO. Had no clue. When sex tapes, going with out underwear, and now twerking are the examples set for young women not to mention KK - it's just sad!
ReplyDeletenot like in our day Yolanda - but then I recall some risque stuff come to think of it.
DeleteYour last line made me laugh. Haha. You may have been late to the party, but you still have the funniest blog about it!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Dee - always good to hear from you.
DeleteMiley Cyrus - it'll end in tears before bedtime!
ReplyDeletewell it sure will at some point Sarah :)
DeleteYou made me laugh, as usual. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Jean - always good to have a chuckle I find.
DeleteWhat is really funny about all of this hullabaloo is I remember this nutty dance back when my daughters were in high school (early 2000s). It was called "grinding" then and the schools were aghast and threatening to disallow dances if the dance continued. Which, of course, it did. Continue I mean. :)
ReplyDeleteMiley is 20. And an idiot. As lots of 20 year olds are. I certainly was an idiot. I remember riding in my boyfriend's pickup and flashing my boobies at truck drivers for "fun". Eee gads. I cringe even now thinking about it. But I was 20 and thought myself lovely and who wouldn't want to see my boobies?
What we need to do is stop paying her any attention! Like a naughty child, the more attention the naughtiness gets the more the child will be naughty.
But I agree. I hate her and wish I never had to see her again. It's hard to avoid!
oh well guess I am falling into the playing her attention trap - really as the boobies thing a rite of passage re growing up in cold climates? :)
DeleteOh I didn't mean that (re: you falling into the attention trap), I mostly meant that we are idiots when we're 20 or so.
DeleteAnd . . . it isn't cold here all the time!
"You make me laugh," is the comment I should leave all the time, because that's what generally happens when I read your blog.
You know, I really don't mind the twerking. It's that tongue hanging out that gets me. Since when is that cool/attractive/sexy? I don't get it! (and I feel old saying that!)
ReplyDeletewell I do share the oldness thing there Amber - it's the kind of deliberate way it hangs out like some sort of demented spaniel..
DeleteI'm not sorry to say I didn't see her performance nor have looked it up on youtube.
ReplyDeleteoh I have...only for this post tho :)
DeleteThere's nothing rude about trifle! Unless you are eating it from a twerkers arse.
ReplyDeleteI don't care for Miley.
hmm Juliette never eaten a trifle from a twerker's arse - can't say it's on my wish list :)
Delete