Robin Thicke’s hit song “Blurred Lines” has earned the no. 1 spot on Billboard‘s Hot 100 for the second week in a row — but the song’s lyrics and sexually-explicit music video have received some backlash.
The title track, featuring Pharrell and T.I., from Thicke’s sixth studio album (which has yet to be released) has been criticized as misogynistic towards women. One writer even went so far as to call it “rapey.”
The song’s NSFW video features the three stars mingling with three topless dancing female models. Meanwhile, the song’s chorus, “Good girl, I know you want it,” have caused some to say the single promotes rape and is offensive to women.
Lisa Huyne, a west coast blogger who runs the site Feminist in LA, wrote a post asking: “Has anyone heard Robin Thicke’s new rape song?”
Huyne then goes on to write, “Basically, the majority of the song (creepily named “Blurred Lines”) has the R&B singer murmuring ‘I know you want it’ over and over into a girl’s ear. Call me a cynic, but that phrase does not exactly encompass the notion of consent in sexual activity.”
YouTube has banned the uncensored version of the video from their site but it is still featured on Vevo and has become garnered millions of views.
According to The Huffington Post, Thicke asked permission from his wife, actress Paula Patton, before shooting the video.
In an interview with GQ last month, Thicke addressed the criticism his song and video have received — and why the three musicians, who are all husbands and fathers, went with this idea:
Because all three of us are happily married with children, we were like, “We’re the perfect guys to make fun of this.”
People say, “Hey, do you think this is degrading to women?” I’m like, “Of course it is. What a pleasure it is to degrade a woman. I’ve never gotten to do that before. I’ve always respected women.” So we just wanted to turn it over on its head and make people go, “Women and their bodies are beautiful. Men are always gonna want to follow them around.”
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