Miley and Misappropriation (#1)

Oh, Miley.  

The post-teen-queen of excessive tweets, tongue, and twerk.  Not to mention cultural misappropriation, perpetuating stereotypes, and blatantly racist performances, but hey, who's keeping track?  Not many, as all anyone can seem to focus on was the sexual nature of the act and not the racialized undertones of Miley asserting her sexuality by the subjugation of an already oppressed population of women.  When a little, bitty white girl can use stereotypical black culture and make millions while others are systematically kept from participating actively in society, it's exploitation and misappropriation   Plain and simple.  She's making money while others are discriminated against for displaying the same attributes.

I knew I couldn't avoid weighing in on this topic, but I didn't want to harp on the obvious.  The hypersexualized, sophomoronic display meant to signal the end of her Disney days.  No, I want to take it a step further and deconstruct what initially came to my mind during my first viewing of this appalling performance and incorporate an intersectional, feminist approach that includes a critical look at race, sexuality, and culture. 

It took a minute for everything to sink in.  At first, I didn't know what I was seeing.  It felt like a drug-induced, nightmarish coma in which this young girl was trying on a piece of black culture and claiming it for her burgeoning sexual self.  How can I make this assertion, you ask?  Well, I just looked to popular representations of black women in our culture and how they have historically been viewed as having this wanton sexuality, but also viewed as being property and having no governance over their own bodies.  Unfortunately, black women are rarely represented in a positive light, and when people are reduced to pieces instead of a whole, it's dehumanizing and reductionist.

When Miley did this, my heart sank.  While I have not had the same experiences as black women living in American society and would never speak for an entire community, I felt like this was a slap in the face to black women.  It felt like this woman's body was completely fragmented and taken out of context.  It was a stereotypical representation of the voluptuous black woman, strictly meant to be pleasing to the eye and to the flesh.  I felt like she was used as an inanimate object, solely meant for Miley's use and enjoyment, and of course, to assert her sexuality.  It just felt wrong... and bad.  I am not claiming to be an authority on the subject as I can only be an outsider looking in, I just knew what my guttural reaction was and that this wasn't the right message for young black women to internalize about themselves. I looked to the online community to see if others had anything to say about it.  Here are two really great pieces, both by women of color, on the subject.    

#solidarityisformiley
The Origins of Twerk

They articulate their critiques beautifully and call into question systems of oppression built into our culture, media, and black representation.  Enjoy and educate.  Until next time.
                                                       
                                                             Observation
Last week I saw that fast-food workers mobilized in Austin and participated in a strike on August 29th.  They are modeled after the "Fight for 15" group out of Chicago, a collection of fast-food and retail workers demanding the right the unionize without prejudice and receive a pay increase.  You can check out more here and sigh their petition - http://fightfor15.org/en/