They Say "Twerk Twerk Twerk". I Say "No No No".

Oh god, it’s happening everywhere! I see a bunch of girls (and guys) wearing “booty” shorts and doing this god awful trend on Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube. People do this on the floor and shockingly on the wall. I see a rap artist wearing a thong in this position on her album cover. I also see it happening on TV by a pop singer with short hair who seems to be dancing in her underwear with a foam finger. Lastly, and most unfortunately, this is occurring in Taylor Swift’s latest music video. This is such a tragedy! If you haven’t guessed yet, this trend I’m talking about is called twerking. 

So what exactly is twerking? Well, according to Oxford Dictionaries, a twerk is defined as a dance where “sexually provocative manner involving thrusting hip movements and a low, squatting stance” occurs. Generally, this type of dance is associated with rap music; for example, Nicki Minaj’s song and video Anaconda is about girls with “fat asses” twerking in short shorts and thongs. Not so shockingly, this trend has leaked to other music genres like pop. Miley Cyrus decides to twerk during her controversial performance at the 2013 VMA Awards. Twerking has also occurred in Taylor Swift’s Shake it off video. This was devistating because her videos don’t normally consist of these behaviors. Lastly, these artists suggest that twerking is cool which explains why people are posting themselves doing this on social media!

So why would I care about twerking so much? I’m mostly concerned about the younger generation. An article states that twerking is usually associated with strip clubs and prostitutes. It could also be an invitation to sex. Since teenagers see twerking performed by their favorite artists, they will copy them because it looks cool. This is dangerous because if these kids start twerking in videos or public places, they will catch someone’s attention in a wrong and sexual way. In order to prevent kids from twerking, the article states that some schools enforce “face to face with space” dancing at school dances. I think it’s good that schools created this rule. If you were a parent and had a daughter, would you want to see her twerking in front of some random guy? I definitely wouldn’t. 

Although I’m totally against twerking, I’m aware we can’t make it go away. Unfortunately, it has become a part of popular culture. People are going to continue twerking. A normal argument they have for anybody who speculates against them is “Fuck the haters!” – sorry for the language. We’ll have to except the fact that sexuality continues to be an element in pop music and other genres. Although twerking seems to be inescapable, you have the power ignore it. Just look away.