Lizzo Reveals The Aftermath Of Her Twerking History TED Talk

After Lizzo's viral TED Talk last year, many people received adulations, including singer Miley Cyrus.

As she described how widespread the dance had gotten, she noted that Black people were erased from its history. She added that the dancing was majorly misunderstood and taken out of context.

"I mention Miley Cyrus in my TED Talk. And I'm very delicate with how I mention her because, at the end of the day, I didn't want to have any bias in the way I talked about how she brought twerking to mainstream," she explained. "The messenger is kind of how this thing spread like it did — seeing her at the VMAs. And I saw her recently and she was like, 'I watched your TED Talk and I really loved it. Thank you for that.'"

Since hitting popularity in recent years, Lizzo credits her family for preparing her.

"I grew up in a family that was very proud of our Blackness," she tells People Magazine. "They taught me at a very young age how America treats Black people. How it treats Black women. And I saw very quickly how we treat fat people."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlSzEw0vmQ0

Lizzo references Miley Cyrus in her TED Talk, who shed her Disney image after twerking on the 2013 VMAs.

"Miley Cyrus would perform what seemed like the twerk heard around the world. Y'all remember that. In 2013, within a month of each other, I released my debut Lizzobangers and Miley Cyrus released her project, Bangerz. That same year, Miley released the single We Can't Stop and she was twerking in the video. I remember being like, 'This is crazy.' Hannah Montana twerking all over the place."

She continued, "The media described twerking as, I quote, 'disturbing and disgusting.' Critics blasted twerking as something that was exploiting and over-sexualizing young women. Once mainstream, twerking was misunderstood and taken out of context. It was bittersweet. For one, I wish that a black woman could have popularized twerking in the mainstream."

In the same interview, she admitted to having learned to love her body through dance– this is a theme that will be explored on her new show, "Watch Out For The New Girls," premiering next month.

"If you follow me on social media before you've probably seen my heinie before. Used to hate my ass, believe it or not. I have my father's shape and my mother's thighs, so it's big, and long. I used to think that only asses like J.Lo's or Beyoncé's could be famous. I never thought that could happen to me."

Lizzo added, "I grew up in an era where having a big ass wasn't mainstream. How did this happen? Twerking. Through the movement of twerking, I realized that my ass is my greatest asset. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my TED Twerk."

Lizzo also provided historical context to twerking, emphasizing that there shouldn't be an erasure of black history.

"Everything that Black people create, from fashion to music to the way we talk, is co-opted and appropriated by pop culture," she said at the time. "I want to prevent the erasure of Blackness from twerking. What was starting to bother me is every time I say, 'Twerk,' people start giggling. I'm like, 'Yes, it is a fun thing.' But I didn't like the way some people giggled. And I didn't like the way some people — you know, a lot of white dudes behind cameras being like, 'OK, now twerk for me. Twerk.' And I'm like, 'No.' A lot of times, I have to go, 'You don't tell me to twerk. I'll twerk if I want to.' Because I'm like, 'That's not for you.'"

Her reason for sharing the TED Talk was to prevent the erasure of people of color and share its history.

"For me, twerking ain't a trend. My body ain't a trend," she says. "I twerk because of my ancestors, for sexual liberation, for my bitches, hey girls. Because I can. Because I know I look good. I twerk because it's unique to the Black. I twerk because I'm talented. Because I'm sexual, but not to be sexualized. I twerk to own my power, to reclaim my Blackness, my culture. I twerk for fat, Black women because being fat and Black is a beautiful thing."

She also added that the dance was here to stay. "Black women invented twerking and twerking is part of the revolution," she says. "We been doing it, we going to keep doing it, because we have and always will be the blueprint."