“[Miley] Cyrus’s twerk act gives minstrelsy a postmodern careerist spin. Cyrus is annexing working-class black “ratchet” culture, the potent sexual symbolism of black female bodies, to the cause of her reinvention: her transformation from squeaky-clean Disney-pop poster girl to grown-up hipster-provocateur. (Want to wipe away the sickly-sweet scent of the Magic Kingdom? Go slumming in a black strip club.) Cyrus may indeed feel a cosmic connection to Lil’ Kim and the music of ‘the hood.’ But the reason that these affinities are coming out now, at the VMAs and elsewhere, is because it’s good for business.”
- Jody Rosen, at New York (via bblackkblobb)
- Jody Rosen, at New York (via bblackkblobb)