Rape Culture in Media; A Thicke problem
Blurred Lines, written and performed by Robin Thicke, T.I, and Pharrell Williams, was one of the most popular songs of 2013, becoming the longest running number one single on the Billboard Top 100 that year. In spite of its catchy, popular tune, the song received a substantial amount of criticism and accusations of lyrical promotion and reinforcement of social attitudes about rape culture. Tricia Romano, a journalist for the Daily Beast points out that, “The song is about how a girl really wants crazy wild sex but doesn’t say it—positing that age-old problem where men think no means yes into a catchy, hummable song,” (Romano, 2013). Between its lyrics and its controversial music video, which included …show more content…
The unrated version of the music video, now removed from YouTube, featured three almost completely nude female models, dancing around the three, fully clothed, male singers. The girls pranced around the guys and in doing so they were gawked at, the singers grabbed their hair, and pointed at their bodies. Over all, the girls were completely objectified in their portrayal. “The three fully-clothed men touch and gawk at them in whichever way they choose, without any reaction from the women. As a result, the women seem more like sex dolls for the amusement of the men than actual women,” (Hughes, 2013). In using nude models for the music video of an already controversial song, the over-sexualizing of the girls in the video made the scandal worse off than before the video was released. “They are celebrated as sexual objects. Not only are the models stripped of their clothing, they are stripped of their voices, stripped of their individualities, stripped of everything,” (Hughes, 2013). Because the women were flaunted in such a sexualized way, with lyrics that were already accused of promoting rape culture, it made the video come off as worse then it was intended. “The nudity might be fine if the song was called, “Let’s All Have Some Fun,” but it’s called “Blurred Lines,” and the subject itself is enough to make some female music fans uncomfortable,” (Romano, 2013). Sexual objectification of women is another issue of its own, however, is a huge component of rape culture. “This assumption that women’s purpose is to serve a man’s fantasies, reinforced by violent male dominance, has been termed “rape culture",” (Hughes,
Blurred Lines, written and performed by Robin Thicke, T.I, and Pharrell Williams, was one of the most popular songs of 2013, becoming the longest running number one single on the Billboard Top 100 that year. In spite of its catchy, popular tune, the song received a substantial amount of criticism and accusations of lyrical promotion and reinforcement of social attitudes about rape culture. Tricia Romano, a journalist for the Daily Beast points out that, “The song is about how a girl really wants crazy wild sex but doesn’t say it—positing that age-old problem where men think no means yes into a catchy, hummable song,” (Romano, 2013). Between its lyrics and its controversial music video, which included …show more content…
The unrated version of the music video, now removed from YouTube, featured three almost completely nude female models, dancing around the three, fully clothed, male singers. The girls pranced around the guys and in doing so they were gawked at, the singers grabbed their hair, and pointed at their bodies. Over all, the girls were completely objectified in their portrayal. “The three fully-clothed men touch and gawk at them in whichever way they choose, without any reaction from the women. As a result, the women seem more like sex dolls for the amusement of the men than actual women,” (Hughes, 2013). In using nude models for the music video of an already controversial song, the over-sexualizing of the girls in the video made the scandal worse off than before the video was released. “They are celebrated as sexual objects. Not only are the models stripped of their clothing, they are stripped of their voices, stripped of their individualities, stripped of everything,” (Hughes, 2013). Because the women were flaunted in such a sexualized way, with lyrics that were already accused of promoting rape culture, it made the video come off as worse then it was intended. “The nudity might be fine if the song was called, “Let’s All Have Some Fun,” but it’s called “Blurred Lines,” and the subject itself is enough to make some female music fans uncomfortable,” (Romano, 2013). Sexual objectification of women is another issue of its own, however, is a huge component of rape culture. “This assumption that women’s purpose is to serve a man’s fantasies, reinforced by violent male dominance, has been termed “rape culture",” (Hughes,