Influenced by the MTV Video Music Awards, the act of “twerking” has gained attention at AHS.

Twerking is a dance move that involves shaking one’s hip to cause the buttocks to bounce. It gained notoriety after singer Miley Cyrus engaged in the dance move during a Robin Thicke performance at the VMA’s over the summer.

Many fans and viewers expressed their distaste in the days after the show. However, some students find twerking enjoyable and harmless.

“I think people should be able to twerk because they are expressing themselves,” sophomore Tammy Tran said.

Although viewed as an innocent joke for some students, others see no humor in the dance move. They believe that the increasing popularity of the dance move sheds a negative light on teenagers, especially girls.

“I think twerking is a bad influence, because younger girls tend to try it out to feel mature, senior Suzie Laime said. They are trying things that are too [age inappropriate] before their time.” Twerking though, is not mature in anyway. What does someone get from shaking their but in all directions? It’s nothing new really, but it gets more and more disturbing as girls post videos of them trying to twerk. Also, twerking can be stereotypical because a lot of people say you need to have a big butt to twerk which pretty much gives people a bad idea.”

Even so, some students can agree that the scrutiny and debate towards twerking is unnecessary, considering that twerking isn’t a new craze.

“It hasn’t done any harm and usually people do it to be funny, so I don’t think it’s so bad,” alumni Lyly Lieu said.

It’s unclear if the fad of twerking will remain at AHS in the long run. Nevertheless students will have opposing opinions towards shaking one’s butt.

“It’s one of those trends that are funny but take too seriously,” sophomore Almaz Abedje said.