Time To Unblur The Lines

So I've attempted to steer well clear of the whole "Blurred Lines" thing this summer; I heard the song once and was so repulsed by what I managed to decipher (and what I saw on the video - because of course every song needs a topless girl crawling around on a leash in it, this is 2013 after all!) that I basically refused to even acknowledge its existence.  It's the most vile and basic misogyny and quite frankly I've now lost all respect for Pharrell Williams after his association with it. I heard all the furor about it being basically a Hymn to Rape but hadn't examined it closely enough to really get to the bottom of it.  Until now.  Since autumn is almost upon us and the utter repulsiveness of the song is once more in the headlines thanks to this utterly wonderful article, I thought I'd examine it in a little more detail...

Well.  Quite frankly I wish I hadn't bothered as it's even more vile than I'd first thought.  How, in the name of all that is right and good in the world, can radio stations which bleep out the word "fuck" in rock songs and refuse to play gangsta rap because of its violence and misogyny (and violent misogyny) seriously give this song airplay?!!  "Oh no, we couldn't possibly let Slipknot say 'fuck' in a song but let's play the Rapist Anthem because it's catchy and summery, yo!"  Odin on a popsicle stick, the normalisation of sexual violence and the objectification of women is further gone than I thought; abandon hope, all feminists who enter here, because quite frankly we're never going to get out of this bloody mess!!

If you examine the song on a line by line/verse by verse basis, the full horror becomes glaringly apparent.  I can deal with the initial "hey, hey, hey" thing because, sure, it's catchy and summery and has been used in about a million songs before, so although you could suppose it acts as some catcall requiring a Hollaback! we'll let that one slide.  If only the rest was so easily explained away...

"If you can't hear what I'm trying to say

If you can't read from the same page

Maybe I'm going deaf
Maybe I'm going blind
Maybe I'm out of my mind"

Or maybe the woman you're trying to talk to here is actually just not interested in you, Robin.  I'm not sure your ego could handle such a thought but still, it needs to be said.  You aren't God's Gift to women, mate; it is possible that the female of the species isn't going to fall at your feet and let you do whatever you want.  Date Rapist Score Number One: Unable to handle being ignored/rejected by the object of your desire.

"Ok, now he was close
Tried to domesticate you
But you're an animal
Baby, it's in your nature
Just let me liberate you
You don't need no papers
That man is not your maker"

So the fact this girl maybe has a boyfriend is no obstacle either?  Wow, Robin, you're quite the considerate lover, aren't you?  "Boyfriend - pffft!  Let me drag you away from your clearly humdrum cozy little existence with your current boyfriend and show you just how wild you could be if you were with a real man!  He doesn't own you; we're only animals, after all, so let's unleash our wild side!"  Date Rapist Score Number Two: not giving a flying fuck about the wants/desires/situation of your intended victim and projecting your own wants/desires onto her instead.  Classy.  Oh, not to mention the fact that this is the 21st Century and so most girls are actually quite capable of 'liberating' themselves, thanks.

And so to the bridge/chorus.  God help us...

"And that's why I'm gon' take a

Good girl"

Oh look, the Madonna/Whore dichotomy!  How depressingly familiar...

"I know you want it

I know you want it
I know you want it"

...said every single Power Rapist ever.

"You're a good girl

Can't let it past me"

Because of course it's all about what you want, Robin...

"You're far from plastic"

Actually, this line is just plain weird.  It could be construed as the fact the woman in question hasn't had a boob job or whatever, but is completely and utterly irrelevant either way.  Maybe this is Thicke's "MacArthur Park" moment...?  (Incidentally, it's taking all the maturity I have as a writer to not point out the connotations of this guys surname.  Be impressed at my restraint...)

"Talk about getting blasted
I hate these blurred lines
I know you want it
I know you want it
I know you want it
But you're a good girl
The way you grab me
Must wanna get nasty
Go ahead, get at me"

Dear god, where to even begin?  Saying "no, fuck off and leave me alone, you creepy pervert; I don't want to have sex with you" is 'getting blasted' is it?  Rather than, say, a woman's right to assert control over her own sexuality?  Well, thank god you cleared that one up for us, Robin; we women would have spent the rest of our lives thinking we had the right to say "no" to sex otherwise!  Then there's the whole "blurred lines" thing, which is just misogynistic code for "she was dressed in a mini-skirt/had been drinking/kissed me in the club and then refused to fuck me because she's a goddam slutty tease", also known as Bullshit, Victim Blaming, and The Rapists Excuse List.  And finally, after the whole "I know what you're thinking" Power Rapist thing again, we have another stab at the Madonna/Whore dichotomy coupled with an assumption that the girl clearly wants to "get nasty".  Only if it involves castrating you with a pair of blunt nail scissors, Robin.  Otherwise I'm fine with ignoring you.

And so to verse two!

"What do they make dreams for

When you got them jeans on
What do we need steam for
You the hottest bitch in this place
I feel so lucky, you wanna hug me
What rhymes with hug me?"

Firstly, the use of the word "bitch".  *shudders*  Unless he's referring to the fact his female dog is suffering in the extreme heat of the summer we just had then this is nothing more than a drearily-familiar pejorative attempt at debasing the female population.  Jay-Z and Snoop-Dogg were doing this 15 years ago and it wasn't big or clever then, so get a bloody grip on yourself and refer to women as, er, women why don't you?  Moron.  I'm ignoring the first three 'masturbation-fantasy' lines of this verse because there isn't enough hot water in the world to scrub me clean of the feeling that conjures up, but then we hit the piece-de-resistance: I feel so lucky, you wanna hug me.  What rhymes with hug me?  'Bug me', actually, which is what you do, Robin.  'Fuck' doesn't rhyme with 'hug', which is what you were clearly insinuating.  Maybe you'd have more luck with the ladies if you could write poems that rhyme; it seemed to work for that Lord Byron, after all...But inept rhyming aside, these two lines make me want to vomit.  It's that whole Victim Blaming thing again: "she hugged me therefore she must have wanted me therefore it wasn't rape even though she was screaming at me stop".  Yeah, obviously.

Luckily for you, Dear Reader, you are spared having to go through an analysis of the bridge/chorus again because, after all, it's just "same bullshit, different place in the song".  Unluckily for you, and indeed for all of us, we come to the 'rap'.  Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night...

"Hustle Gang Homie
One thing I ask of you
Lemme be the one you back that ass up to"

On the plus side, he is at least asking if he can have anal sex with us...

"From Malibu to Paris boo

Had a bitch, but she ain't bad as you
So, hit me up when you pass through
I'll give you something big enough to tear your ass in two"

Wow.  Just...wow.  Yet again the implication the girl is 'bad' and therefore must like rough sex.  Also make your mind up - earlier it was all "good girl" and now no one's as "bad" as her?  Jesus wept...oh, and let's not forget the graphic implication of that last line.  Because nothing says "I love you" quite like anal rape.  (Also spot the typical bragging about how big he is.  Classy again).

"Swag on 'em even when you dress casual"

Yes, he means your tits.  No, he will not be "swagging" on them, casually dressed or otherwise.

"I mean, it's almost unbearable
In a hundred years not dare would I
Pull a Pharcyde, let you pass me by"

Face it, girls; what we want doesn't matter.  he's gonna have us anyway.  Oh look, that makes him *gasp* A Rapist...

"Nothin' like your last guy, he too square for you

He don't smack that ass and pull your hair like that"

No, that's because a) he's a gentleman and b) he gives enough of a damn about me to make sure when we have sex he's not raping me.  I'm all for people expressing themselves with a bit of rough sex if that's what turns them on; it's the implication here that any guy who doesn't do that automatically isn't a "real" man because that's what all women want which annoys the fuck out of me.

"So I'm just watching and waitin'
For you to salute the true big pimpin'
Not many women can refuse this pimping
I'm a nice guy, but don't get confused, this pimpin'"

So, you're a pimp?  You know that's illegal, right?  Also again with the ego - "not many women can refuse this pimping".  Right, because most women want nothing more than a man who treats them like a whore and forces them to have sex with strangers for money.  Who in their right mind would rather be with a guy who treats them with respect and dignity?!  All women are ho's, yo! *facepalms*

"Shake your rump
Get down, get up-a
Do it like it hurt, like it hurt
What you don't like work"

This is just inane babbling with a vicious streak of misogyny and sexual violence thrown in for good measure.  Oh, and apparently during this vicious sexual assault, girls, we are going to have to "work", presumably to get him off because otherwise we haven't done our "job" properly.  At least we know, right?

And so to the last verse where, after all those implications that you're a whore who likes it rough and is going to have sex with him whether you want to or not, Robin Thicke attempts to drug you with some date-rape drug he got from Jamaica so you can enjoy the start of a beautiful relationship together...

"Baby, can you breathe
I got this from Jamaica
It always works for me
Dakota to Decatur
No more pretending
Cause now you're winning
Here's our beginning
I always wanted a..."

(repeat inane rape-y bridge/chorus and fade out until the end)

Oh well, now that I've looked at it line by line I can completely see it's not a Rapist Anthem at all...for the love of...how the fuck did this get passed for release?!!  I feel sick just reading it; my skin's crawling and I feel like I want to go shower in bleach.  Now I know there have been plenty of gangsta rap songs, and songs in other genres (maybe not easy listening...), which debase women and glorify sexual and physical violence towards them, but you sort of know what you're getting with those.  I mean for gods sake, no one is going to listen to "She Swallowed It" by N.W.A and be surprised by the content, right?  But that sort of violent bullshit seems to a) have fallen out of favour and b) not get airplay these days, on mainstream stations at least, whereas this summer you literally couldn't move for radio stations and TV music channels placing "Blurred Lines" on heavy rotation.  Did they just not listen to it?  Not see the video?  or do they just genuinely not give a damn about the glorification of sexual violence towards women?  

Now I've analysed this song, I'm never having anything to do with it ever again.  It's disgusting.  If it ever comes on my radio, I'm turning it off.  I will not talk about it.  I will not have it played in my hearing.  I will walk out of any shop which plays it.  It's abhorrent and should never, ever have been released...