Miley Cyrus Blurs Line at VMAs

Xelebes said:

Thrice now!

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There ya' go.

robeiae said:

Well, I think a strictly physical activity that represents part of a career is a very different thing then playing dress-up or the like.

Surely, we can't justify the prejudice exhibited against, say, Tiger Woods by claiming he's appropriating a cultural activity of WASPs, right?

ETA: And I'm helping, too!

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I don't know anything about dancing, and I don't know a great deal about black culture, so I don't have a dog in the appropriation/not appropriation fight. Far as I'm concerned, if it was appropriation, it's problematic. If it's not, whatever. My only bone to pick was with the body shaming.

Although as a side note, as far as I'm aware, you can't appropriate the dominant culture. I could be wrong though.

Persei said:

This is where I have a problem with people saying MC culturally appropriated "twerking". Firstly because it's not a native african dance, not anymore. It's a dance that sorta looks like what native african women do.

They say Miley "twerking" is disrespectful because she's white and it's an african dance, but how come "twerking" at clubs and completely bastardizing what "twerking" originally was -- and then claiming it is just like an african dance -- is any respectful at all?

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Third time I'm pointing this out now, but the performance was racist in context, not just because she's white and the dance is popular within AA subcultures. I think the post I quoted a few pages back explains it really well but people keep going back to "She can't do this just because she's white? That's dumb/racist/doesn't make sense."

Seriously when a 20 year old, very rich white girl says that she wants to make "black music" and "hood stuff" and all other sorts of really stupid comments on her views of what is "black" and *then* culminates her tour of asshattery by "twerking" to a back drop of black lady-props (including smacking one's ass)....I mean come on. It was black face without black-face.

Seriously when a 20 year old, very rich white girl says that she wants to make "black music" and "hood stuff" and all other sorts of really stupid comments on her views of what is "black" and *then* culminates her tour of asshattery by "twerking" to a back drop of black lady-props (including smacking one's ass)....

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Yeah. In this context, it's more than a bit dodgy. Must've missed this the first time around - apologies.

crunchyblanket said:

My only bone to pick was with the body shaming.

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And I don't really care about the "body shaming." If someone tells me my ass is too small to twerk, I can get over it. IMO, there are much more important issues concerning body shaming than this.

Oh, I missed it, too. Fourteen pages of long posts, it is hard to keep track of everything

I still think cultural appropriation is a misguided term no matter how you slice it and not what Miley did, even though in context it is very easy to see why her actions were offensive and racist.

missesdash said:

Seriously when a 20 year old, very rich white girl says that she wants to make "black music" and "hood stuff" and all other sorts of really stupid comments on her views of what is "black" and *then* culminates her tour of asshattery by "twerking" to a back drop of black lady-props (including smacking one's ass)....I mean come on. It was black face without black-face.

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But if she had done it well, then it would have likely been praised as a tribute.

Celia Cyanide said:

And I don't really care about the "body shaming." If someone tells me my ass is too small to twerk, I can get over it. IMO, there are much more important issues concerning body shaming than this.

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well, bully for you. I'm pretty sure Ms Cyrus couldn't give a toss either. My point is that policing women's bodies is so par for the course nowadays that evenin a mundane pop culture thread about a silly girl doing a silly thing someone still feels the need to engage in it. It's pervasive.

Sure there are worse examples, and if/when a relevant thread pops up about them I'll be right there.

Why am I still talking about this anyway? It's not a compliated concept.

crunchyblanket said:

Why am I still talking about this anyway? It's not a compliated concept.

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I really don't think it's because it's way too complicated for anyone to understand.

crunchyblanket said:

well, bully for you. I'm pretty sure Ms Cyrus couldn't give a toss either. My point is that policing women's bodies is so par for the course nowadays that evenin a mundane pop culture thread about a silly girl doing a silly thing someone still feels the need to engage in it. It's pervasive.

Sure there are worse examples, and if/when a relevant thread pops up about them I'll be right there.

Why am I still talking about this anyway? It's not a compliated concept.

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I don't know. A dance celebrating big butts done by a person who doesn't have one and trainwrecks it probably should have it pointed out that they don't have the butt to do it and that they trainwrecked it. In dance, it is always "dance with what you got."

and yet, it's perfectly possible to twerk well with a small butt, as Gale Haut's earlier YouTube videos demonstrate.

She did it badly because she's a godawful dancer.

I don't even like Miley Cyrus. I'm honestly not sure why I'm still here.