Big Freedia, openly gay rapper, reality star, and self-proclaimed “Queen of Bounce,” is a big fan of breaking down barriers. And butts. And now, fresh off of her biggest mainstream exposure to date—That’s Freedia you hear talking about cornbread and collard greens on Beyoncé’s ”Formation”—she’s fighting authorities in Mississippi for the freedom to shake what your mama gave you.
The Guardian provides an overview of Freedia’s brush with local authorities in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, who shut down one of her shows earlier this month on the pretense that it violated a decades-old law prohibiting the intersection of lascivious shaking and hard liquor. (Her entourage of scantily-clad professional twerkers is a big part of Big Freedia’s act.) According to Mississippi’s head of beverage control, “You can’t wear a thong … And you cannot simulate a sex act“ at a venue that sells liquor in the so-called “Hospitality State,” although that doesn’t sound very hospitable at all. (The word “gyrating” was specifically invoked.) And while Freedia’s performed in Hattiesburg before, the authorities were notified of this particular potential fun-code violation after watching videos of her on YouTube, having presumably only recently heard of her.