Blurred Lines Controversy

Robin Thicke’s music video to his song “Blurred Lines” avidly contributes to the patriarchy, while portraying sexism, gender standards, and beauty standards. His music video can be analyzed from a feminist theory approach, as it’s evident that his song and video contribute to a patriarchal society and its inherently sexist and sexualized ideologies. The ideology behind the song and music video is purely sexual and about male dominance. The lyrics to the song and actions in the video exhibit extreme over sexualization and objectification of the women. Analyzing this piece of popular culture through a feminist approach opens up a provoking conversation about how popular culture functions in a patriarchal culture. Analyzing pop culture though a feminist theory can allow for a larger variety and more in-depth analysis about the social aspects and political agenda within popular culture.

Since the explosion of music videos in 1981, a large portion of their popularity has been due to the objectification of women and their sexuality. “Early content analyses showed that anywhere from 40% to 75% of music videos contained sexual imagery”(Arnett, 2002). Hip-hop music videos especially have a reputation of degrading women. In these videos “women are often depicted in positions

In history most women did not work, men were the breadwinners of the household and women took care of the children, cooked, and cleaned. There were specific expectations of women to listen, be respectful, and be pretty much be obedient to their husband or father when growing up. I was also raised on those old-fashioned values that were, never be outspoken, rude and obnoxious like most boys are. Since those old traditions were carried out for so long and are still upheld in some lives today, this is what started building the barrier that blocks women from being treated

Allen’s music video introduces half-naked women committing sexual acts in a provocative scene to establish the role of women in pop culture as dehumanizing. The scene starts with Allen joining the female dancers, clothed enough to barely cover their genitals, beginning their dance routine. As Allen sings, the dancers are seen performing the twerk, and the video zooms on the dancer’s genitals as the dancers lick their hands and slap their genitals. Allen’s incendiary scene highlights women as needing to be overly sexualized in music videos and performing suggestive behaviors to be included in pop culture. This scene dehumanizes women in music videos because women are expected to behave and dress in a specific manner or not be included in the

Recently the song White Privilege II by Macklemore has caused much controversy because of the fact that it called out specific artists such as Iggy Azalea and Miley Cyrus, but not because of the actual problem it was trying to address- white privilege. However, there are plenty of songs on the top charts about pointless things spreading around unfavorable messages such as enforcing negative stereotypes and gender roles through their lyrics, music videos, and even the artists themselves participating it. Younger audiences should be educated about the negative effects of sexualization because it is shown commonly through pop music in song lyrics, music videos, and how artists represent themselves. The fact that sexualization is often present

In an article called ‘ladies first’: Queen Latifah’s Afrocentric feminist music, it talks about issues raised by feminist rap; rap that focuses on women’s importance, and the demand for equal treatment, and for the need to encourage each other. “Queen Latifah's feminism draws on the patterns of rap to assert the importance of women promoting themselves and other women. Rap, like all other forms of popular music, is not inherently feminist, but in this genre, as in other popular genres, female performers use specific generic qualities to promote a feminist message. Rap is noted for its emphasis on lyrics, and through the lyrics, female rappers make explicit assertions of female strength and autonomy.” Women talk about how they need to be seen as equal to a man through their lyrics and for women to encourage other women. That will push back the negativity from the male rappers toward the female rappers. For an example in a song called U.N.I.T.Y by Queen Latifah she said “Every time I hear a brother call a girl a b*** or a h*, trying to make a sister feel low, you know all of that got to go” Throughout her song she is letting male rappers know that they can’t be calling women those types of names, no matter what. Through time, the hip hop community is and will keep pushing back the misogyny and violence that rap

In the essay from “ From Fly Girls to Bitches and Ho's" by Joan Morgan. Morgan writes of the qualities of hip-hop music and rap artists she appreciates such as its impactable , mesmerizing , powerful , strong and beautiful if used the correct way. She often says how it makes women feel degraded , it's not a great feeling to have when you think of it this way. In the essay “ From Fly Girls to Bitches and Ho's" that “Its music that that repeatedly reduces me to tits and ass” . Joan Morgan is after all a feminist but a female rapper . This makes her question what she's even supporting in a way.

Women have always taken a back seat to men in American society. There has always seemed to be one set of standards that apply to men, and another set of standards that apply to women. This is evident in the home, workplace, and all throughout society.

The topic of femininity in pop culture is important today because women are still far from achieving equality with men socially, economically, and politically. Music is a huge part of everyday life and affects millions of people. The music industry is intertwined throughout many outlets of the media. From commercials, to television, to the radio, music is a part of everybody’s daily life. What is noteworthy about trendy music today is that the messages that the artists are singing about can influence the listener's behavior, even though they may not consciously know this. With many popular anthems being so influential in every aspect of today’s world, we have to closely look at the correlation between music and how this alters how people act in today’s culture. Those who’ve been closely following the trends in country music over the last few years have had a sense that songs that objectify and degrade women (“bro-country”) have been on the rise, but it was only anecdotal evidence that we could

While “Often” does a fine job in illustrating the masculinity and “contradictions” of said masculinity, it also plays a huge role in the sexual objectification of women. In the book Sexual Objectification in Music Videos, authors Aubrey and Frisby say “Females were more sexually objectified, held to a stricter appearance standard, and more likely to demonstrate sexually alluring behavior. In addition, Sexual objectification is more prominent in R&B and Hip Hop music videos” (129). Through this quote we can derive that because women are held to a specific “standard” of how they should act according to society sexually objectifying them in music videos is nothing new. In fact “Often” portrays women in a such away that the only reason they are

Dropping F-Bombs for Feminism The video called Potty-Mouthed Princesses Drop F-Bombs for Feminism is an interesting video that went viral. This video had a lot of reviews and most of them were negative for various reasons. The little girls in this video talk about the rights that a woman should have but the form of giving this message tends to be very different and incorrect in various ways. The vocabulary of the girls damages the message that they want us to understand.

I will be using Bell Hook’s book Feminism is for Everybody which is about the movement to end sexism to help understand why men feel the need to degraded women in their music. Hook’s talks about patriarchal power which is general structure in which men have power over women (male domination). “Males as a group have and do benefit the most from patriarchy, from the assumption that they are superior to females and should rule over us. But those benefits have come with a price. In return for all the goodies men receive from patriarchy, they are required to dominate women, to exploit and oppress us, using violence if they must to keep patriarchy intact.”(Hooks xi). Males today are still part of this patriarchal culture, Many rap and hip hop songs are about men using women and having control over them.

For twelve weeks Blurred Lines was at the top of the Billboard 100 charts and could be heard thumping from speakers everywhere. Sung by Robin Thicke and featuring prominent rappers T.I. Harris and Pharrell, this track was proclaimed the anthem for summer 2013 . At the surface the song is seemingly harmless with a cheery rhythmic beat and catchy lyrics, but when examining the song and accompanying music video, Blurred Lines is anything but harmless. Dubbed “that rape song” by many discerning listeners, Blurred Lines is a song about the blurred lines of consent. With gems such as “You’re an animal, just let me liberate you” and “I’ll give you somethin’ big enough to tear yo ass in two” featured throughout the song it is astonishing how

Summer hit “Blurred Lines” is one of the radio’s most played songs currently. The song is placed at number one on America’s top 40 charts for the week of September 14th. While it is popular, the lyrics paint a story of someone who wants the singer, but is a good girl. The message of the song is blurring lines of morality. Not only is the song soliciting sexual themes, but it goes as far as using derogatory names towards the said good girl. Also, the song has strong themes of guilting someone into sex, claiming that not many can refuse T.I.’s pimping. The song

The song lyrics of this video contain references to more explicit sexual behavior. For example the lyrics, “You’re far from plastic, talk about getting blasted” make women seem like plastic models and provides the message that it’s okay to use women for sex. The song is said to perpetuate rape culture by rejecting the concept of clear sexual consent: there should never be any “blurred lines” relating to sex. A music video called defined lines was created in response to this music video in order to challenge the message portrayed by “blurred lines”. The roles were reversed where the men in the video were portrayed in a sexualized manner and the women were wearing suits. It is obvious after watching the defined lines video that sexualizing men seems ridiculous and yet women are sexualized so often that it has become a definite part of our