Wednesday, August 28, 2013

ROBIN ICK: WHY 'BLURRED LINES' IS SO PROBLEMATIC


If you have a radio, or two ears for that matter, you've probably heard 'Blurred Lines' by Robin Thicke. When I first heard it, it was in June. My 12-year-old cousin was playing it in her room at our lake house, and as I passed by, I couldn't help but listen in. The beat was very catchy and felt very funky, very 1970s. Although I didn't know the lyrics, I found myself humming it the next few days. It was then I decided to look up a lyric video... That's when my opinion of the song changed. 

You're a good girl
Can't let it get past me
You're far from plastic

Talk about getting blasted
I hate these blurred lines
I know you want it
I know you want it


I was instantly disgusted. 

This song, which has been topping the charts for 12 weeks straight, is basically justifying rape simply because the girl is so "good", she's blurring the lines of consent. Can I repeat that? The "blurred lines" that Thicke speaks of are the blurred lines of consent. This song and it's popularity spreads the horrible message that even if you are not clear on someone's consent, you should still pressure them for sex. The lyrics are frightfully misogynistic, appallingly sexist and propagate rape culture to the extreme... Robin Thicke, this is 2013, not 1913. 

Now onto the video.

I don't even know where to begin.
There are many beautiful girls in this video. Now, beautiful girls and music videos go hand in hand. However, not many music videos blatantly objectify their female stars like Mr. Thicke's.
If you haven't seen the video yet, here's a basic idea of what the entire video consists of.





Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the female body- Absolutely nothing wrong with it. However, these girls were objects of desire and nothing more. They were simply there to dance around topless and in nude g-strings. The video could have been perfectly fine as the original version, which had the girls wearing white ensembles, but no... They had to dehumanize the models for the commodification of breasts.
Don't even get me started on the whole "#thicke" campaign. 

This song, while being dubbed the "song of the summer", should really be called "The borderline rape anthem of the century". 
It's a shame that such a catchy beat had to be turned into something so damaging.

What are your opinions on 'Blurred Lines' and Robin Thicke?




10 comments:

  1. fINALLY SOMEONE SEES IT LIKE I DO. ROBIN THICKE IS A MARRIED MAN WITH A FAMILY AND HE DOES THINGS LIKE THIS, I AM PRAYING FOR HIS CHILDREN, HE EVEN HAD THE BALLS TO SAY THIS WAS A FEMINIST MOVEMENT!?

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  2. I felt so proud of my boyfriend when he recognised that the original version with clothed girls was anti-feminist.
    And thank you for addressing this.

    But the fact it has come to light at all and has met such success is a disgusting reflection of society

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  3. I honestly don't know how this man is still married. I personally couldn't stand to share a room with a man such as Robin Thicke,much less a bed. To know that that was how your husband thought of women... damn, if I was Mrs. Thicke, I would have left that guy a long time ago. I wonder how she feels about it?

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  4. I feel like throwing up everytime i hear that song :(

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  5. Apparently his wife approved the whole topless model thing.

    But have you heard that quote from him, I think it was along the lines of 'what a pleasure it is to degrade a woman'.

    I thought this song was problematic the first time I heard it, what with the whole 'domesticate ya' part, which is what I caught from just one listening. Then everyone I knew was loving it from what I could tell, so I turned a bit of a blind eye to it, whilst not being entirely comfortable. Then I found out the rest of the lyrics and discovered the music video and decided that was enough was enough, and that my first instinct was entirely correct, and that they entire thing is despicable.

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  6. This song is so gross, I can't stand it. I haven't given it a listen because of the awful lyrics.

    Your comment about it not being 1913 was rlly true. In my history class, we learned about the Era of Domesticity, where women were put on a pedestal but also shoved into the background, made to do everything yet nothing and couldn't ever complain about it, and all the guys in my class said they wanted that.

    The line about "domesticating ya" is that very thing! The Era of Domesticity that followed the Industrial Revolution, making a disgusting comeback in the present.

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  7. This song is horrible and I nearly went ballistic when Robin Thicke claimed he was creating a feminist movement because one of the lines is 'That man is not your maker' while a line just before that it 'let me liberate you'.

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  8. This song is very catchy but horribly sexist and rapey. I really get your post.

    styleriottt.blogspot.com

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  9. This pretty much sums up my exact feelings about the song and video. He (Thicke) tried to say it's OK for him to make a video like this, because he's married, but is it OK when a non-famous married man hits on a young girl and keeps hitting on her even after she's rejected his advances? Of course not. Thicke is totally full of it and seems to be enjoying every moment of the backlash.

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