Last week, Mummy Buzz wrote a piece about Robin Thicke's newest single Blurred Lines in which she talked about objectification and rape based on a piece written by The Independent.
I have to respectfully and completely disagree.
The song, which is incredibly catchy and popular seems to have a lot of people's tongues wagging. The video is ridiculous and features Thicke, Pharell Williams and T.I. dancing around with models in plastic lingerie with hashtags popping up now and then.
But does the song promote rape? I don't think so.
Yes, there are lyrics with phrases like, "you know you want it," or "He don't smack your ass or pull your hair like that." But to me, those sound like sexually aggressive come ons, and not like rape glorifying commentary. Not all sexually charged language that comes out of a man's mouth is because he wants to rape a woman. Some people (men and women) are more into strong sexuality and use language and enjoy sexual behaviour that not everyone else finds to be a turn on. But rape? Nope. Not here.
The way the song sounds to me is that Thicke is telling a woman to drop her phony "good girl" persona, and boring, yet disrespectful man and go after what she really wants. He sounds more like a cocky guy than a rapist. A rapist doesn't tell a woman to go after what she wants in her sexual fantasies. And yes, women can have raunchy sexual fantasies, too. And Jennifer Lai at Slate agrees.
There are far more vulgar R&B songs than Blurred Lines (Hello I Wanna Sex You Up or anything by R. Kelly). These are songs designed to get us in the mood and they won't work for everyone because we all have our own sexual interests.
Catchy with a good beat to dance to? Yes. Rapey? No.
So, spill it! What do you think — is Blurred Lines about rape or just sexual expression?
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