Image from http://www.back9network.com/

Twerking has been around for a while, and it’s been done by different people in the popular music industry. What is of note is that Miley’s twerking has been seen as unclassy, while Beyonce’s has been called “booty-licious.” Could it be because of Miley’s deflated butt?

This is a case of how reality is socially constructed. For instance, our constructions of “race” influence that way we imagine how certain “racial” groups should appear and behave. Twerking was originally done in mainstream popular culture by African-American artists such as Beyonce. It has thus become difficult to divorce twerking from blacks, and even more difficult to associate it with whites.

This struggle leads most of us to label things we cannot understand, and white twerking gets labeled as “unclassy.” What do you think of white Americans displaying cultural elements normally associated with marginal ethnic groups?