Abstract
ABSTRACT In conversations about appropriation and appreciation, twerking is illustrated as a medium that non-Black people are celebrated for (with awards and global tours), while Black people – especially Black girls – are not afforded just celebrations. Using the ‘Dunham method’ and the current critical discourses surrounding twerking, this essay explores the possibilities for self-expression and sexuality for Black girls. Using Beyoncé’s music video for ‘Sorry’ and Louisiana rapper Tokyo Vanity’s music video for ‘That’s My Best Friend’ (2015), in this essay I consider the possibilities for visible sexual self-expression for Black girls in a digital world. I argue that Black girls’ use of twerking videos to celebrate and challenge each other’s self-expression provides an opportunity to enjoy their bodies and reclaim the possibilities of pleasure in blackness and girlhood/womanhood. I extend contemporary Black feminist scholarship on Black women’s sexuality to consider Black girls as an epistemological imperative in the future of Black feminist scholarship.
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