*Lizzo served up a lesson on the history of twerking for a TED Talk that was reportedly recorded at the TEDMonterey in early August.
“If you follow me on social media before you’ve probably seen my heinie before,” she joked at the start of the talk, per Complex. “I used to hate my ass, believe it or not. I have my father’s shape and my mother’s thighs, so it’s big, and long. I used to think that only asses like J.Lo’s or Beyoncé’s could be famous. I never thought that could happen to me.”
The talk sees Lizzo explain how she learned to appreciate her body through twerking, as reported by People.
“I grew up in an era where having a big ass wasn’t mainstream,” she noted.
“How did this happen? Twerking. Through the movement of twerking, I realized that my ass is my greatest asset. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my TED Twerk.”
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Lizzo learned how to twerk at a club in Houston as a teen, and noted that the dance is heavily inspired by West African dances such as Mapouka.
“We made twerking the global cultural phenomenon it became today,” she said.
“Everything that Black people create, from fashion to music to the way we talk, is co-opted and appropriated by pop culture,” Lizzo continued, adding that twerking is not “a trend,” it is a celebration of “sexual liberation.”
“I twerk because I’m talented,” she explained. “Because I’m sexual, but not to be sexualized. I twerk to own my power, to reclaim my Blackness, my culture. I twerk for fat, Black women because being fat and Black is a beautiful thing.”
Watch Lizzo’s full talk via the clip above.
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