While the rest of us were off celebrating the lives and love of our mothers yesterday with flowers, dinners, gifts, memories, etc, others decided to show their love in a more non-traditional way.

A young woman decided to show her appreciation for her mom and all the moms out there whose hard work is unappreciated, by filming and posting a video of herself twerking on the floor, in a thong … for Mother’s Day. Set to the beat of Juvenile’s “Mama Got Ass” because, to quote the young woman, “some of ya’ll mamas got ass,” this appreciative daughter popped her booty for several minutes in tribute with no shame in her game.

Now while I can appreciate thoughtful gifts and gestures that are outside of the box…twerking? Really? Twerking is great for entertaining and as many women are discovering, it even makes for great exercise, but twerking for a cause? No, ma’am. This is not the first cause worthy twerk video that has popped up, when the Trayvon Martin case hit the media people were #twerkingforjustice.

The problem is, you only take away from the seriousness of a cause when you posts videos like this. No one is going to take you or your cause seriously if you’re grinding on the floor half naked like you’re looking for dollars.

Do we need justice for Trayvon? Yes! Do we need to support and acknowledge all the mothers out there breaking their backs and sacrificing for their families? Yes! But posting twerk videos in tight leggings, booty shorts or thongs is just the wrong way to go about it.

If people really want to support a cause or have their voices heard, they need to find more intelligent and constructive ways to go about it. Twerking for a cause is just a straight up #fail, an entertaining fail, but a fail nonetheless. We’ve got to do better people.

What do you think of twerking for a cause? Would you do it?

around the web

15 Comments

  1. before you start with the body-policing and shaming, it might do some good to read an interview with strugglingtobeheard here: http://leonineantiheroine.tumblr.com/post/23152240593/black-womens-bodies-ourselves-and-a-twerkin-for

  2. Yup read it, ^^^ and I still think she is a damn fool. Showing your naked ass for Mother’s Day? And slapping your ass…LIKE A STRIPPER? No bitch, you were “twerking for attention” stop lying to people. # FAIL BOO

  3. First, there’s nothing wrong with being a stripper. Second, when did Mother’s Day become a “cause”? I just feel like this whole article is shaming and useless. YOu did absolutely nothing with writing it, it accomplished nothing except for shaming someone because you didn’t agree with their video. On top of that, you didn’t even contact the person who made the video and let them know you were portraying them in a negative light with your writing. Way to have manners, be decent, and show solidarity for women. Way to go, bud.

  4. this is body-policing at literally its most inane. you really wasted your time with this ish. if the girl wanna twerk, that’s her business. she a grown ass woman. and you don’t know that she didn’t send her mama flowers and a $50 box of candies on mother’s day. seriously, i think you’re the one who needs to find something better to do.

  5. leave the judgment to god

    It’s really messed up that you wrote this judgmental and dismissive article on someone and didn’t even bother to contact them. What kind of writer are you? You should be ashamed of yourself.

  6. This author is a body-shaming bigot who literally took the time to write an internet article criticizing someone for dancing on film. How, in ANY way, does this woman dancing impact your life, your business, or your health? It doesn’t. So with all do respect.. Piss off.

  7. This article is stupid and so is the author for even bothering to write this fuckery.

  8. How exactly were you being remotely constructive and intelligent here? Different people express their appreciation in different ways. For someone who seems to believe they were bringing the world something intelligent and constructive…would’ve thought you’d’ve thought on that before typing this little thing up.

  9. What the hell is wrong with you? You wrote an entire article judging someone b/c they express themselves in a way you don’t like and you don’t even tell them? Why don’t you just open your own version of the dirty or something since clearly you’re more interested in talking shit about strangers than writing nuanced articles.

  10. Wow, the author of this must have selective hearing. She didn’t say she was making this video FOR her mom, she said she was making it to help herself feel better and to hopefully help other people feel better. Not TO her mom. Just because she made the vid on mothers day doesn’t mean it was a mothers day gift. She probably didn’t even show it to her mom. And even if she did, who the hell cares? Danielle, you are a judgmental asshole. This is “article” is shit and if you have any human decency you will not only take it down but apologize to the lovely lady that you dragged through the mud with this disgusting post.

  11. Wow, so you really needed to shame her and pull that respectability politics BS and then didn’t even have the nerve to contact the person you are shaming? Lord forbid anything be done in a way that is body positive, women aren’t entitled to that, we need to always be “upright” and prudish in our “causes”. Autonomy? What’s that? The fact that you decided to slut shame a bunch of women for doing something that is fun and positive to them, on a site that talks about health and lifestyle, shows just how wrong this is.

  12. How about instead of writing an article to slut shame a woman… you actually write an article apologizing for being rude, disrespectful and for using her content without contacting her or even talking to her.
    Tired of respectability politics and you are not the gatekeeper on what should be considered a “cause”. Women get enough unsolicited advice and rules on their body from media & society. No one needs you to add your one cent to the pile.

    • exactly this won’t help or curtail this horrible and strange fad it’ll make it worse much worse we should be educating young mother’s and yes girls that is un acceptable behavior shaming it will only make it worse later on

      • Here’s the problem. This is not a fad or unacceptable behavior. There have been versions of “twerking” within our culture for decades. What may be unacceptable behavior to one is acceptable behavior to another as long as that person is not hurting themselves or others. It’s not up to any one person or group to decide what’s best for an individual in this case.

        She wanted to do this video to regain autonomy over her body. I applaud her for taking action in trying to regain that control. Most people are too busy trying to satisfy a patriarchal system where we will NEVER win cause the rules were never fair in the first place.

        She is a grown adult and people are treating her as if she this special case that needs our saving just because she twerk in a video. People are more concern about her twerking instead of respecting her as a person & individual. If respect for a living HUMAN BEING is so dependent on how much clothing they have on & if they are abiding by your standards of what’s acceptable, I need some of yall to go back & figure out how to be a good world citizen. You can not like what she does but you need to respect her choices & her as a person.

  13. hey man i love you guys no slut shaming ok it’s wrong besides were all human being’s some are just well more lost than other’s

Leave a Reply to jennifer stewart Cancel reply