• ELIXHER
• On October 14, 2013

Over the weekend, Big Freedia, the New Orleans-based Queen of Bounce, appeared in #Nerdland to talk about New Orleans culture and the Bounce music movement. (In the past, Freedia has stated, “I am not [transgender]; I am just a gay male… I wear women’s hair and carry a purse, but I am a man. I answer to either ‘he’ or ‘she.’”)

“Bounce is an up tempo, heavy response type music, definitely born and raised out of New Orleans,” she explains on MSNBC’s Melissa Harris Perry. “It’s been around for over two decades. It’s time for the world to know about it.”

When MHP inquires about twerking, Big Freedia responds:

“Twerking is one of those words in the vocabulary of Bounce, and it’s just exciting to be able to teach people about this and about New Orleans and where it comes from. It’s been around a long time. People have been twerking and for it to be coming to the mainstream and for Miley [Cyrus] to open that door, I’m excited about it.”

“I know that, undoubtedly, [there are] folks watching right now, and who may even watch the Fuse reality show, who are going to say, ‘Professor Perry, you have somebody who’s talking about twerking and bounce music and hip hop, and those are negative representations of blackness,’” says Melissa Harris-Perry. “I always feel like, no, this is who we are, good, bad, all of it.”

Watch the interview below and tell us what you think. Are you a fan of Big Freedia and Bounce music?

Also, peep MHP’s discussion on images of black women in the media (a.k.a. why ELIXHER exists).

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