Cultural Appropriation Essay
Cultural appropriation is often described as when somebody takes something of significance from a culture that is not their own without showing respect for what they have taken. While some people do this on purpose for personal gain, that being profit or just popularity, many may not even know what cultural appropriation is. Miley Cyrus has shown evidence that she either does not know about or does not care about cultural appropriation at her 2013 Video Music Awards performance on live television where she used black women’s bodies as sexual props, performed a song that she explicitly wanted to feel black, and degraded a vast population of black women in the process. Something noticeable about Miley Cyrus’s performance was her use of black
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However, her twerking was not the only thing she used to make her performance feel black. The song titled “We Can’t Stop” was given to and performed by Cyrus after she said she wanted something that “felt black”. Seeing as the song was originally written for Rihanna, a black music performer, one can say that Cyrus definitely got her wish. Furthermore, Cyrus allegedly said she feels like Lil’ Kim inside, another black music artist, and that she likes “hood” music (Freeman 2013). This only further illustrates the idea that Cyrus may not know what cultural appropriation is because it makes no sense for her as a white woman to say she is a black woman inside without purposefully disrespecting black culture. However, it could also be the case that Cyrus simply does not care about cultural appropriation, but instead cares about her own personal gain from attempting to act like a black woman.
Tressie McMillan Cottom talks about twerking in her article as well. She states that immediately after Cyrus’s performance, many black women called her out on the appropriation that is the black dance of twerking. Simply attempting to dance as a black woman may further prove that Cyrus could be attempting to feel more black. If that is not the case, then she at least wants to be comparable to the black dancers that are behind and around her during her
However, her twerking was not the only thing she used to make her performance feel black. The song titled “We Can’t Stop” was given to and performed by Cyrus after she said she wanted something that “felt black”. Seeing as the song was originally written for Rihanna, a black music performer, one can say that Cyrus definitely got her wish. Furthermore, Cyrus allegedly said she feels like Lil’ Kim inside, another black music artist, and that she likes “hood” music (Freeman 2013). This only further illustrates the idea that Cyrus may not know what cultural appropriation is because it makes no sense for her as a white woman to say she is a black woman inside without purposefully disrespecting black culture. However, it could also be the case that Cyrus simply does not care about cultural appropriation, but instead cares about her own personal gain from attempting to act like a black woman.
Tressie McMillan Cottom talks about twerking in her article as well. She states that immediately after Cyrus’s performance, many black women called her out on the appropriation that is the black dance of twerking. Simply attempting to dance as a black woman may further prove that Cyrus could be attempting to feel more black. If that is not the case, then she at least wants to be comparable to the black dancers that are behind and around her during her