Julianne Hough has responded to Amber Rose's accusations that the dancer body-shamed Rose on Dancing With the Stars. Hough told Entertainment Tonight that her comments were "solely reacting to the quality of the dance I was judging,”
She continued, “I have been a strong proponent of female empowerment and an antibullying advocate for years and I take that very seriously. Any kind of body-shaming is the furthest thing from who I am and what I stand for.”
This story was originally published on September 30, 2016 9:40 a.m.
On Monday's Dancing With the Stars, Amber Rose moved to J.Lo's "Booty" with professional dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy, and there was some backlash from judge Julianne Hough.
"It was a point in the dance where I had to lift my leg up and Maks dipped me," Rose recounted on her Play.It podcast Loveline with Amber Rose, according to People. "[Hough] said, 'Oh, I'm uncomfortable,' and instantly I felt — I did feel body-shamed."
Rose questioned why other Dancing With the Stars contestants get away with sexual moves and she doesn't. "All the beautiful professional dancers that are on Dancing With the Stars," she said, "they dress very sexy and they do the splits and they grind up on these guys and they look absolutely stunning and get a standing ovation."
Chmerkovskiy also believed the routine was unfairly criticized. "I want to come to Amber’s defense here as much as possible because I think she killed it in that dance," he wrote in Entertainment Weekly. "The bottom line is the song says 'booty, booty, booty' about 70 percent of the song, so there's no way we weren't going to work that into the dance!"
Hough told E! News her issue was less about the moves and more about the lack of technique. "My 'uncomfortable' comment was about the fact that I felt like I wanted more out of the performance," she said. "When someone is doing a hot, sexy dance like that without the right amount of energy that is required, it can be uncomfortable to watch."
Last week, Chmerkovskiy and Rose performed a dramatic routine set to the Game of Thrones theme song. They did an impressive job waltzing across the stage as Daenerys Targaryen and Khal Drogo. We're excited to see what they come up with next, whether it's sexy or not.
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