The video is really fun too, it shows Taylor in a variety of scenes basically making a fool of herself. She stumbles around a group of ballet dancers, attempts to keep up with break-dancers, and jumps alongside cheerleaders.
The different scenes appear to have preferences of racial groups depending on their activity; e.g. the gentle ballet dancers are all white and the twerking dancers are predominantly black.
I'm very interested to see whether the social justice activists on social media jump on this video and kick up a fuss on the racial stereotyping. Similar to Lily Allen's Hard Out Here controversy, I can see some people finding the fact black dancers were cast to twerk 'racist', an allegation that is clearly insane!
Twerking developed from traditional African dances (for instances the Mapouka) and made it's way into popular culture via hip hop videos in the 1990's. Therefore it's only natural to cast appropriate dancers to carry out the dance for the music video!
Another argument that may surface is the fact that Taylor uses the dancers as 'accessories' in her video; instead of twerking alongside the dancers, she stares in awe. And when the break-dancers create complex moves, she stands awkwardly beside them. To this, I say: Taylor has made it clear through public appearances, videos and interviews that she encompasses the 'awkward' role; she dances (intentionally) bad on stage, and concentrates on having a good time as opposed to trying to look cool. In the video for Shake It Off she stands as awkwardly by the white ballet dancers as the black twerking girls. So really, there isn't an argument to have.
Have a look at the video, see what you think:
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