Twerk: The Juxtaposition of Male Rap and Female Rap Videos
City Girls and Cardi B. recently released their video to the song “Twerk” which featured one-half of the duo, Yung Miami of City Girls, and Cardi B. in animal print body paint surrounded by other women skillfully shaking their assets on a boat, on a pole, in the dirt, in the water, everywhere. But, one thing different from this video from say, other videos that feature male rappers, such as Tyga’s video, “Taste”, or the infamous “Tip Drill”, the women were not being violated by men and oversexualized for their own enjoyment.
Too often we think of women dancing in videos as being an objectifying experience and ill-mannered, when in actuality, twerking - as we like to call it - is a form of dance that’s celebrated and common in African cultures. It isn’t seen as derogatory or made into a sexual fantasy as we see in rap videos that have slain our television screens for decades. The main reason we consistently argue against rap videos that have video girls is because we see men using the women as objects and tools for their own erotic fantasies. The women are rubbed on, sprayed with items we usually see on ice cream sundaes or usually poured into champagne flutes for consumption, as well as donned in dollar bills swinging from stripper poles with nothing but men readily ogling their bodies. Male rappers make a steady pace of using the women in their videos as sex objects instead of promoting a space for women to freely express their talent and be respected while rapping their lyrics.
I know you’re probably thinking that this makes no sense, but if we take a gander at “Twerk” you will be able to see women happily dancing with nobody swiping credit cards down the crack of their a**es, having whipped cream spread on their twin peaks, or having their cheeks smacked repeatedly and aggressively. City Girls and Cardi allowed us to view a video that had women accepting their sexuality and simply hyping each other up, the same way that most women who are out with their homegirls do when out on the dance floor.
Say what you want to about video girls, but their profession is no different than any other profession and they deserve to still be respected and viewed as nothing but women. Rap videos that are put on by men usually give us objects, where as Cardi and Yung Miami showed us women being women. They may not be your ideal image of what a woman is - if you think of women who are freer than other women as deplorable - but these women were not only given a safe space to have fun and let loose, they were also rewarded for their talents by having City Girls hold a competition that allowed a sole winner to be rewarded with 25k for her exceptional skills, judged by and viewed by other women. This is the kind of culture that I can stand behind.
Don’t agree? Argue the fact with your mother, not me. I send a big solute to City Girls and Cardi B. for blessing us with powerful twerk art and respect of women.
Twerk on.
View the “Twerk” music video here:
- Begum, Over and Out! ;)
(I don't own any copyrights to any photos/graphics used in this post)
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