The self-proclaimed Queen of New Orleans’ Bounce music, Big Freedia, has been all over the news this as he recently set a Guinness World Record for most people twerking simultaneously in one place when he held a twerk party in New York this week. More recently, Freedia paid a visit to HuffPost Live to discuss his gender-bending style and gender identity.
While talking with Huffington Post Gay Voices Editor Noah Michelson and fielding questions from fans, Freedia, who doesn’t identify as trans, discussed his acceptance of being called both female and male pronouns and explained that he’s comfortable in his skin regardless of how he’s addressed.
“Well, like I said, I’m comfortable with who I am,” he responded. “I stand firm in who I am. If one of my fans might want to say he or she, it doesn’t matter. I don’t have a preference, you know? I’m very much strong in who I am. That doesn’t bother me at all.”
Freedia also discussed his publicized critique of Miley Cyrus’ twerking skills and explained that he was angered that Cyrus, who is a young white pop artist, was the person who got mainstream America’s attention for a dance that has been popular in the African American community for years.
“I’ve been all around the world, national, internationally, making people twerk , one twerker at a time. And for her to get up there like she’s the brand of twerking, it pissed a lot of people off. It pised me off, it pissed a lot of people off in New Orleans, especially because we’ve been twerking for so long,” said Freedia.
And although Freedia disapproves of Cyrus’ twerking fame, he explained that he’d still like to teach her the proper way to twerk.
“I mean, she’s an amateur at it so I definitely would like to teach her and give her a lesson and then let her take another shot at it and then see what the world says to her,” he said.
We must say, we’d like to see Freedia give Cyrus some twerk lessons as well. But until that happens, check out some other gender benders below. –nicholas robinson
