Taylor Swift recently released a music video for “Shake It Off,” a clip that features the singer backed by several types of dancers, including ballerinas, interpretive dancers, cheerleaders, breakdancers and twerkers. The Taylor Swift video has garnered criticism and has been deemed “inherently offensive” by Earl Sweatshirt.
“haven’t watched the taylor swift video and I don’t need to watch it to tell you that it’s inherently offensive and ultimately harmful,” Sweatshirt says. “perpetuating black stereotypes to the same demographic of white girls who hide their prejudice by proclaiming their love of the culture…for instance, those of you who are afraid of black people but love that in 2014 it’s ok for you to be trill or twerk or say nigga.”
Miley Cyrus received similar criticism during performances promoting her album Bangerz.
“It’s really funny how serious people take it,” Cyrus said at the time to MSNBC. “And they’re like, ‘You’re racist’. And I’m like, ‘Really?’ We’re like a bunch of kids dancing around in, like, bears, but we don’t do choreography. They’re just like dancing, doing these cute moves and they’re awesome dancers like just on their own. It’s not me telling them how to be. We’re making them feel sexual and beautiful.”
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However, as NME points out, dancer Hollis Jane, who once supported Miley as a performer, said she felt degraded during a show.
“I was a bear in Miley Cyrus’ VMA performance and it was my first time doing anything like that… anything where I was being used because of my height, not because of my talent,” she said. “And I will be the first one to tell you that standing on that stage, in that costume was one of the most degrading things I felt like I could ever do.”
Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” is below.
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