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Lizzo is opening up about her road to loving herself unconditionally, revealing that twerking has helped her learn to embrace her “least favorite” body part.
Last week during a recently released TED Talk, the three-time Grammy Award winner delved into the history of twerking and explained how the dance move helped her embrace her butt, a part she revealed was her “least favorite body part.”
“I used to think that only asses like J.Lo’s or Beyoncé’s could be famous,” Lizzo said. “I always felt like my body type wasn’t the right one or the desirable one growing up because I grew up in an era where having a big ass wasn’t mainstream.”
In regards to the support she’s received over accidentally becoming the face for the body-positive movement, the “Rumors” artist reveals that despite her derriere being the topic of conversations the support she’s received from her celebrity colleagues like Rihanna has helped her embrace the parts she didn’t like about herself.
“My ass has been the topic of conversation,” Lizzo continued. “My ass has been in magazines. Rihanna gave my ass a standing ovation. … How did this happen? Twerking! Through the movement of twerking, I discovered my ass is my greatest asset.”
Lizzo also took time to explain the origin of twerking and how it evolved from West African dance styles like mapouka, to being made a staple in Black club culture since the 1980s. the “Truth Hurts” singer also pointed out how Miley Cyrus’ 2013 MTV Video Music Awards performance pushed twerking into the mainstream ― but not before adding that since the exposure the widely popular ye criticized dance has been widely “misunderstood and taken out of context.”
“I wish that a Black woman could have popularized twerking in the mainstream,” Lizzo said. “Everything that Black people create, from fashion to music to the way we talk, is co-opted, appropriated, and taken by pop culture. I twerk for fat, Black women because being fat and Black is a beautiful thing. Black women invented twerking and twerking is part of the revolution. We’ve been doing it, we going to keep doing it because we have and always will be the blueprint.”
Check out Lizzo’s TED Talk below.
