Making money off of cultural appropriation-

adopting twerking as her thing

o #twerkteam something like that on a picture
o talking about it in interviews, explaining it like its her own
viral videos
took a dance from another culture, performed it and claimed ownership of it,
gained popularity through it.

Using people from that culture

-

minstrelsy
o black women being used as props in the video/performance

Treysuggests,"twerkingisoneofthosethingsyouknowwhenyou
seeit,ratherthannecessarilybeingabletowriteadefinitionofit."

History of twerking- heavily quote from Baskerville thesis

Mostintervieweesresistedthisnotionthattwerkingis

inherentlysexualandinsteadarguedthatitis
hypersexualizedinitscurrentrepresentations.Pg24
-

Thenameisrelativelynewbuttheconcepthasbeenaroundformuchlonger
Page24tanishascotttalkingabouthistoryoftwerkingcomesfromtraditional
Africandances.
PopularizedinblackAmerica1990sand2000s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HT7yFYXyk

Cultural appropriation in pop music

-

selena gomez wearing a bindi on her head during a music video

lady gaga wearing a burqa
katy perry - geisha
o while these are examples of cultural appropriation, like mileys, the
question of if they are problematic depends on how the culture is used.
Katy perry dressed as a geisha- less offensive than miley twerking
because historically, African Americans are a more oppressed

minority in America than Asian Americans, who are often seen as a

privileged minority.
Madonna borrowed from Indian, Latin American, black, etc. She also borrowed
from gay culture and was less criticized because she made political statements and
supported homosexuality outside of her music and performances. The other
cultures (countries) that she borrowed from were used for superficial reasonsfashion, music, photo shoots.
Artists who borrow from black culture (especially black fashion) are seen as
quirky, cute, interesting but black women who wear the same clothes are often
seen as ghetto, which is problematic.

Mileys VMA performance

-

find the quote about her music sounding black

o not respectful to black culture. Is saying she wants to sell more music and
will use black culture to do that.
Backup dancers as sexual objects. (props) Black women (find stats about how
much they make in comparison to white women, find something that shows they
are an oppressed minority)
Using other cultures to reinvent herself instead- short cut
Calls black music/urban/hip hop music hood music- obviously offensive and
not very informed.
Talks about how she loves hood culture but clearly is not a part of it.- offensive.
Cyrus as a young, wealthy, white woman from the South (kind of important)
doing an imitation of black music with black women in the background. She was
the main focus, they were supporting her-this makes it offensive. They are dressed
in the same thing, blending into the background so that she can stand out more.
Reducing hood culture, aka black culture to asses, twerking, etc
playing at being a minority

If Miley is inspired by gold teeth and bounce music and has

friends who are rappers, that's not a problem. But when she
uses these things to re-style her own image, she veers into
dangerous territory.

Counterargument

Miley expressing herself as an adult- breaking away from her Hannah Montana
image
Pro-woman expression of sexuality? Maturity through sexuality

Celebrating other cultures, borrowing from it- how is what she did not offensive?
Talk about the woman that is on tour with her?