Not the person you're asking directly, but I am a mother with a seven year old daughter and I do consider things like this as I know her future will be here faster than I can imagine. This particular question of yours is relevant to me in that I'm only twenty-six myself, so I'm technically of the age group to be out there twerking my butt off, if I wanted to. So I feel like I've got a foot on either side of the fence, in that I'm a mother to a daughter, but I'm also still a ~youth myself.

My take on it is this: Hiding something away from our children and youth, telling them it's dangerous and bad will only serve to drive them to it. What our children need is all of the facts and a support system that is willing to sit down and listen, and have dialogue with them, as they slowly find their way through life and learn who they are as an individual. So if we, as parents, look at this and see only the shock value to it and refuse to look any further into the issue, of course we'll have that knee-jerk reaction that says "this is horrible! this is awful! this is going to lead to some sort of risky, bad behavior! this is so inappropriate!"

But why is it inappropriate? These girls are old enough to masturbate, and probably even participate in safe-sex with their peers. What's so wrong with allowing them to go to a closed environment and explore their bodies, their sexuality, and figure out what any of this means to them? Caging them up and telling them it's wrong to, as the example is here, go to a twerk class and dress in skimpy clothing only teaches the girls that what matters about who they are is what others think of them. It reinforces in them this idea that sex and a woman's sexuality is a simultaneously dangerous and precious tool that needs to be safe-guarded for some archaic reason entirely inapplicable to the reality we live in.

It teaches them that they have no personal agency: no real say in their sexuality, in their self-image, or in the way the world views them. Giving them the freedom to discover who they are and explore their personal limits in a safe environment will empower them and help them learn to make decisions and take control of their lives, and to find their own self worth instead of trying to find it through the approval and validation of others.

Just because a young woman is testing her personal limits with her sexuality does not automatically mean she's out there having un-safe sex with anything that moves. If anything, having a space where she can go and celebrate her body, with fellow young women, and enjoy being young and pretty and flamboyant is a great thing. Instead of a bunch of girls being mean and hateful, tearing each other down because this one is 2lbs too heavy, or this one is 2lbs too skinny, or whatever. There's a chance a class like this is helping other girls see different body types, and that they can all be sexy and found worthy - even if that isn't the goal, it'll be noticed by any girl who walks into that room.

This fear we have of our youth exploring their sexuality needs to end. The world isn't going to stop spinning just because young people start to decide for themselves what is the right level of sexuality for them - and sometimes, it takes experimenting with extreme levels on either end of the spectrum to figure out where they fall.

In the end, our children grow into teenagers and then young adults, and we reach a point where what our sons and daughters do with their bodies behind closed doors, or amongst friends, or even in classes like this is not really any of our business. Not unless you want to be one of those parents who are terrified about letting a child grow into an adult by learning what it means to be human at every junction. This does not mean we should turn a blind eye to the activities they enjoy and have no communication with our children. Instead, we should, at all times, be active in their lives in a way that is supportive and guiding, not controlling. Especially if we want to raise a next generation that isn't sexually repressed.