The catchy song “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke has received a lot of attention lately. Feminists are riled up saying his lyrics are arrogant, objectify women and even reference rape. On the other hand, people are arguing that Thicke’s intentions were simply to show the sexual relationship between men and women as many pop songs do.
In the video, half-naked models prance around, stare vacantly into the camera and act like sex dolls while straddling goats and dogs. As Thicke, T.I. and Pharrell are whispering to them “I know you want it,” and “I’ll give you something big enough to tear your ass in two” it is no wonder this could seem “rapey” to some.
However, I think it is unfair to take bits and pieces of the song to argue for either side. I looked at the song as a whole and found it to be silly as well as a way to feed Thicke’s ego about his apparently large penis, which was clearly stated in the video via giant balloons.
Here is a large portion of the most easily misconstrued lyrics and what I got out of them:
“OK now he was close, tried to domesticate you/But you are an animal, baby, it is in your nature/Just let me liberate you/You do not need no papers/That man is not your maker.”
Thicke is saying he believes that the girl’s ex tried to domesticate, or control her. Liberation, to Thicke, apparently means allowing her to have all the raving, kinky sex she wants.
“And that’s why I’m gon’ take a good girl/I know you want it.”
“I know you want it” is probably the creepiest sounding line, especially the way he says it while petting the models’ heads in the video.
This has been used as a victim-blaming phrase that rapists often say to their victims in order to justify their actions. Or, hey, maybe it could just mean Thicke is arrogant enough to believe that his dreamy blue eyes cause the unnamed girl in the song to be attracted to him. However, she thinks she needs to keep up the ‘good girl’ persona.
“You’re far from plastic/Talk about getting blasted/I hate these blurred lines/But you’re a good girl/The way you grab me/Must wanna get nasty/Go ahead, get at me.”
There are some lyrics that involve rough sex, but last time I checked, there are plenty of women who certainly do not complain about that. ‘Go ahead get at me’ clearly means he’s allowing her to make a move, giving her the power.
Thicke, who is the type of man who puts giant red letters across his video that say #THICKE, obviously has an ego and wants to make a pretty penny.
He wants #attention, he likes #boobs and he achieved that through taboos such as #nudity and #beastiality.
The logical conclusion I have reached is this: Sure, Thicke acts revoltingly cocky and provided us with an over-sexualized song, but he is not a rapist.
There is nothing in his song that references forced sex. I am a feminist. I believe in gender equality.
I put my opinion out here because I want to give more credit to feminists.
We ought to focus on things that truly are significant.
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