My thoughts on the performance were as such: firstly - why was no one commenting on Robin Thicke's part in the duet, being a 36 year old, married father of two? Secondly - the lyrics and choreography of the musical train wreck that is "We Can't Stop" struck me as hugely offensive to black women, reducing them to the size of their curves and how they use them. She appropriated black culture as a means to an end: publicity = money.
Tressie McMillan Cottom, a PHD student in sociology at Emory University, has written an incredibly insightful piece detailing her experiences of objectification as a black woman in the United States. Given the current situation in the Middle East, much of the media has been quick to dismiss Cyrus' twerking as the trivial actions of an attention seeking child star, deeming it not worthy of serious discussion. Cottom's article highlights how, in fact, such events demonstrate a concerning trend in America - one which, intentionally or not, undermines black progress and equality and thus perpetuates social injustice.
"She gleefully slaps the ass of one dancer like she intends to eat it on a cracker. She is playing a type of black female body as a joke to challenge her audience’s perceptions of herself while leaving their perceptions of black women’s bodies firmly intact. It’s a dance between performing sexual freedom and maintaining a hierarchy of female bodies from which white women benefit materially [...] The cultural dominance of a few acceptable brown female beauty ideals is a threat to that [white] privilege. Cyrus acts out her faux bisexual performance for the white male gaze against a backdrop of dark, fat black female bodies and not slightly more normative cafe au lait slim bodies because the juxtaposition of her sexuality with theirs is meant to highlight Cyrus, not challenge her supremacy."
Read the whole article here.
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