Analysis Of Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines

Improved Essays
Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams, and T.I.’s 2013 music video for their hit single “Blurred Lines” depicts three females in little clothing performing seemingly innocent acts that have sexual connotations while dancing around and engaging with the three well dressed men who seem to only be watching the women, which sets the tone that the women are only there to serve as eye candy for the men. The first thing the 503.3 million viewers of the “Blurred Lines” music video on Vevo saw was Thicke lying in bed with a topless model while his arm assumes a dominant position over her body almost completely blocking her from the view of the camera. While this position may be perceived as simply cuddling, in the realms of this music video that reflects …show more content…
In the text of the song, Thicke is making the argument that women need to be domesticated to protect themselves from their fragile, dumb, animalistic nature, yet this music video only seems to provide evidence that it is actually the men who have much to learn in order to prevent their animalistic nature from taking over as it does in the music video in the form of a predator versus prey scenario. These older, financially stable men are seen preying on these innocent, child-like women who supposedly can’t care for themselves which supports the notion that the men are actually the problem and they should be kept far away from any woman rather than being the dominant protector like Thicke is attempting to convey they should. Unfortunately, though, the popularity of the song itself and the video proves that Thicke’s perception on gender roles is one that is supported by many people. The notion of men as the protectors of women has been present for a good portion of history, but with feminist movements becoming more and more present and talked about it is sad to see the big players in pop music, such as Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams, and T.I., supporting the domestication of women which thus supports the loss of women’s rights. When young, impressionable girls and boys heard this song on the radio or

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    This documentary "Dreamworlds- Desire, Sex, and Power in music Videos" tries to explain how the popular culture influences contemporary music video and how this is affecting today’s culture. “Dreamworlds” insists that these narratives and cultural attitudes have shaped these music videos into sexualizing women, and filtering the identities of both men and women into “myths” about sexuality and gender. The subject group in these music videos tended to be mostly about women and how they are misrepresented and used in popular culture. Overall I agree with the film message that these music videos are misleading and only demonstrated with one point of view in which the audience can see through. For instance, the women are sexualized and presented as mere objects of for the video and men as well.…

    • 673 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Change is necessary but we all know change is sometimes hard and that everyone feels different about change. Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson is about changing her life. As she is changing her life she goes through different emotions said in the lyrics of the song. In breakaway she is happy and sad at the same time.…

    • 224 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Is Kanye West brewing another feud with Taylor Swift? As if his nasty verse about her in his new song "Famous" is not enough, the rapper took another shot at Swift and her win for her "Bad Blood" video, saying that A$AP Rocky deserved the Grammy and not her. This is like a deja vu from VMAs 2009 where West infamously interrupted Swift in the middle of her acceptance speech because he thinks that Beyonce deserved the award more. The 38-year-old recording artist and fashion designer is proving to everyone that he is still not done with his Twitter rants.…

    • 386 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    We are all used to see women being objectified in music video, they are always half naked in men’s videos .The idea of this video was to put man in women’s shoes to show them how it feel to be objectify. In J. Lopez’s video the role was reverse .Women have power and are in control. Jennifer Lopez and her friends were surrounding with shirtless guys, men were washing the car instead of women, women were fed by men, and men were wearing bathing suits instead of women. She just switches everything we use to see in music videos.…

    • 989 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Suggesting that men are inherently animalistic and almost primal. The second animal we see is a horse, later in the video a running horse, represents freedom, but again the horse is being controlled by a police officer, this suggests that freedom is controlled by men in the establishment. The third animal is an elephant, appearing at the very end of the song. Elephants represent intelligence and understanding, however once again the elephant is being controlled by men, however unlike the previous two animals, the elephant is fighting its restraints. This suggests that men control information in society, and while they do women will never be able to be fully equal.…

    • 1168 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Misogyny In Pop Music

    • 916 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Since then, he has been an infamous part of an ever-growing pop music trend- using misogyny to sell singles to the teenage market. Recent hit singles follow this same pattern precisely, with some notable examples being ‘Talk Dirty’ by Jason Derulo, ‘Shut Up And Drive’ by Rihanna, and ‘Blurred Lines’ by Robin Thicke. They all contain lyrics that talk about women in a degrading manner, highlighting their curvaceous bodies and how desirable they look.…

    • 916 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    And there’s a big impact on that socioeconomic status where there’s this role of husband and wife. It’s a real-life problem in today’s society. The husband is going out being unloyal and the wife knows that but because of society, the wife is supposed to forgive the husband for his indecent acts even if it hurts her. I think the artists want to show that this is a recurring problem in today’s society and he has done it quite well with the lyrics and the video showing pathos, ethos, and…

    • 1109 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Even though the Jim Crow Era was sixty-two years ago, it is still prevalent in today’s society in many different forms. For example, Pecola’s perspective, in The Bluest Eye, on racial beauty is internalized racism and this is still common in the Black community, due to the 2010 “Doll Test.” In which “researchers asked the younger children a series of questions and had them answer by pointing to one of five cartoon pictures that varied in skin color from light to dark” (Billente and Hadad). The experiment revealed White children had a higher rate of ‘white bias,’ “identifying the color of their own skin with positive attributes and darker skin with negative attributes,” when compared to Black children (Billente and Hadad). Although, Black children, as a whole, had some ‘white bias.’…

    • 320 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Women In Hip Hop

    • 1455 Words
    • 6 Pages

    T.L.C uses this song to set a standard for women that they are not supposed to accept any type of man but a man that is strong and independent. Studies show that thanks to groups like this “women are achieving major strides in rap music by continuing to chisel away at stereotypes about females as…

    • 1455 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the song “The Blacker the Berry” by Kendrick Lamar. Kendrick seems to be showing his anger and frustration towards white people. He also takes a stand protecting his roots because he feels like it’s being taken away from him. Kendrick states some stereotypes that white people have placed on African-Americans and the friendship that the whites and and African-Americans now have. There is a lot emphasis on the fact that even though they are in a free and equal country, equality is still not there.…

    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    If you take one of the world’s biggest beds and accompany it with twelve of the world’s most famous people you get Kanye West’s “Famous” music video. West premiered his video live at the L.A. Forum on June 24, 2016 to mixed reviews. The controversy stemmed from not knowing if the people portrayed were real or wax figures. There were also questions of whether or not he received permission to use their likeness. The purpose of this video is to show controversial famous people in bed together as art in hopes of calling attention to them not being treated like real people.…

    • 1205 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the song, men come across as an extremely dominant male who has all the money and can get whoever they want while his girlfriend stays at home being faithful. There’s two different descriptions of what makes a woman a woman. There are those gold diggers who fall for a man, and the “Naive” girlfriend. “Chase after girls/I’d kick it with who I wanted/ And never get confronted for it” (Beyonce), showing that the women in a relationship choose to be ignorant of what the man does.…

    • 1274 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Beyonce Knowles sparked controversy with the release of her self-titled album as it features a song that focuses on feminism, “***Flawless”. The song includes a section of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED Talk, “We Should All Be Feminists”, in which she talks about the differences in the social structure of a woman's and a man's life. While men are taught they can do or be anything, women must make choices in life “always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important”. Beyonce's mention of feminism throughout the album caused discussion around the issues of gender equality but unfortunately the topic is not treated as seriously as it used to be. While women have gained rights over the last century that has made them more equal to men, invisible restrains in both the workplace and in everyday life still limit women from reaching complete equality.…

    • 1318 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nearly all of the women in the video are dressed scantily. Beyoncé’s group of women are adorned in lingerie and Beyoncé dons a variety of revealing outfits. The video and song portray this behavior as empowering, with Beyoncé proudly in control of her own sexuality, proclaiming “Boy, don’t even try to touch me,” as well as using her sexuality to distract and disarm a man. The idea that hypersexuality is a form of liberation comes from the Girl Power postfeminism narrative, which constructs a world where women are granted power based on consumerism and hypersexuality (Pomerantz, Raby, and Stefanik, 189). But is this really empowering?…

    • 1049 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    If I Were A Boy Analysis

    • 1222 Words
    • 5 Pages

    When we compare how men and women are different based on societal views, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Do you say to yourself, ‘Hm, that’s a tough one’, Or ‘Men and women aren’t really that different.’? Ask yourself this: If you were the opposite gender, how would you act? Beyoncé’s main goal was to answer this exact question in her music video for her hit song ‘If I were a Boy’. Beyoncé is a well renowned activist for feminism most commonly known for her empowering lyrics and talented voice, which has earned her 53 award nominations and 20 Grammys.…

    • 1222 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays