Shaking the Taboos

As every other system in the world, we subject the body to a hierarchy as well, claiming some parts of it are more important than others. It is sometimes science, sometimes society and sometimes the limited perception of our memories and meanings we attach to them. These usually meet on common ground and impose clear yet unspoken restrictions on us.

We are in fact associative beings, and we tend to react with the control of knowledge older than us and unconsciously. We observe the strongest expressions of this tendency in sexuality and subjects surrounding it.

I think we need to free our erogenous parts to which we give more meaning than necessary partly due to sexual selection but mostly due to our hierarchic perception.

Anus and therefore hips is a part of our bodies that need to be observed delicately because it is in a place where it can trigger a lot of taboos and our childhood simultaneously.

While it is where we dispose of waste, a symbol of humiliation and shame it also resembles pleasure, fertility. In heteronormative perception an intense fear is the basis of restrictions. It is the common absence of sometime desire and sometimes rejection, but one way or another it provokes us.

Twerk in and of itself is a very plain action, the only thing we do is to shake and move the tissues of hips, however its impact is quite big. It begins to shake all the reflections, all judgments, fears, desires, curiosity, admiration, disgust… and more, whatever idea the audience has with hips.

The person that engages in the act of twerk is only liberating their hips and experiences the effortless pleasure of the dialogue with the floor.

Many of the twerk participants say their relationships with sexuality softened, period problems disappeared, their confidence and life force increased.

Twerk becomes a tool for ancient rituals, purification and celebration.

Anatomically; twerk provides the technique to fully grasp the floor and increase the consciousness via releasing the hips. The belly and pelvis are activated, our relationship with our lower body awakens, trembling and shaking creates a calm and enthusiastic feeling. And I remember a line from the book In an Unspoken Word ‘The God is where we tremble’.

I receive messages from Instagram such as ‘You’re twerking, how can you be such an intellectual as well’. And these messages, where you place me in your minds show exactly how stuck you are under our taboos. The act of twerk embodies the idea that ‘nothing has that much meaning ‘and I think we need this idea in our bodies. I say we shake the taboos and choose to live instead of hardening.