India Arie slams the mainstreaming of adult-only entertainment

Award-winning singer and songwriter India Arie has come under fire for seemingly throwing shade at Megan Thee Stallion and Janelle Monáe's twerking shenanigans. 

Megan and Janelle recently performed at the Essence Fest in New Orleans, which is considered the "largest African-American culture and music event" in America. 

Megan and Janelle invited several women from the audience on stage to take part in what appeared to be a twerking competition. 

The musicians encouraged the women to show off their moves.

"Hot girl bootcamp was in full effect last night. It’s @janellemonae with the encouragement for us," Essence captioned a clip of the performance. 

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Warning: The video below contains a lot of twerking!

Some festivalgoers reportedly left when Megan came on stage, with many social media users saying there is a time and place for everything - and twerking on the Essence Fest main stage just ain't it! 

The music festival, which started in the 90s, is billed as "the preeminent experience of all things Black". The first festival celebrated the 25th anniversary of African-American women's magazine Essence.

But many women feel that the festival is losing its essence and twerking is starting to overshadow the real meaning of Black culture. 

"No disrespect but I’m definitely disappointed….. I grew up on Essence and I thought there was a standard of black excellence. I still don’t understand why nudity, twerking, etc has to be named Culture and displayed publicly. I’m a Mother of multiple girls and it’s disappointing the amount of sexual behavior that is being pushed publicly….." entrepreneur Chanita Foster commented. 

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Another Instagram user added: "I'm getting sick of this being the beginning and end of all dance black women do on stage. We all love to dance and twerk, but.... this shouldn't be our mainstream. This shouldn't be the international image of our culture. Same goes for black men glorifying guns, drugs, and violence in our music. Wanting us to do better isn't hating. There's literally just a time and a place."

A third person commented: "Maybe I’m too old, but I’m tired of looking at cheeks twerking!!!"

India Arie also weighed in on the situation.

"The issue is what is CONTEXT. Humanity does EVERYTHING. But does EVERYTHING BELONG IN A STAGE? No. is everything for KIDS? No. Is everything for EVERYBODY? NO. So, when we as a culture make something like this mainstream ~ it shows a lack of discretion and discernment," she wrote. 

But the 47-year-old also made it clear that she had nothing against Megan and Janelle. Her issue is the mainstreaming of adult-only entertainment. 

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Scores of people attacked India Arie, accusing her of trying to spoil other people's fun. 

One social media user told her that not everyone wants to dress like Mojo Jojo - a character on the 'Powerpuff Girls'.

"India Arie made a song that literally said not to judge women, regardless of what they wear and do, but she goes on ahead and does the complete opposite. LMAO!" one Twitter user wrote.

The 'Brown Skin' singer took to the comments section of a post on The Shade Room to clarify that she was not criticising Megan and Janelle. 

"I criticized Essence and the patriarchal systems that create these agendas! Dont @ me] because I dont care /, especially when you literally don't listen. I spelled it our very clearly and ya'll still pushing this narrative that I have a personal beef with Jane who is my friend and Meg who I respect. SMH," she wrote. 

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Main image credit: Instagram/@indiaarie, @megantheestallion

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