Robin Thicke's 2013 Song Blurred Lines

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.

In her article “The Venus Hip Hop and the Pink Ghetto: Negotiating Spaces for Women,” Imani Perry argues that the objectification of women in the music industry is normalized in our society. Her purpose is to persuade us that most feminists who fight against the objectification and exploitation of women are ultimately colonized by the sexual fantasies of men. As a law professor at Rutgers Law School, Perry structures her text in a very effective manner. Using a general-to-specific organization scheme, she begins by outlining the recurring image of sexualized women in music videos, then presenting various cases of prominent feminist figures in the music industry.

The above article discusses a study conducted that tested whether exposure to rap music increases sexism within males. The study did not give any direct concrete evidence that rap music causes misogyny. Yet it brought up some useful insights that were supported by the study. Initially, they discovered that listening to non-sexist songs still led to some type of sexist behavior. This finding is relevant as it shows that it might not solely be the lyrics that are responsible for sexism within music. People can be instinctively associating rap music with being misogynistic. Another finding was that misogynistic lyrics prime young males to behave sexually aggressive temporarily. This reading is important for this topic as it disregards the popular belief that rap music causes sexism, but it also takes in account that rap music can prime young males to be slightly more aggressive. While this study cannot be used to promote any type of censorship in media, it can still encourage the music industry to reevaluate the material they are launching to public, especially the young generation.

The misogynistic treatment of women in commercialized rap has become a widespread phenomenon which as a result has become commonly accepted by majority of the individuals in society. Rappers, in general, nowadays use women in their videos in a way which is both derogatory and exploiting. Black men in today’s society, especially in the entertainment industry, do not see women as their equals; rather they objectify them as being nothing more than sex objects. People in the Hip Hop industry do not believe that sexism and misogyny is as big of a deal as racism, thus they push this issue to the side by simply ignoring it and learning to accept it. This misogynistic portrayal of women is ruining the image if Hip Hop as both an industry and a form of expressive art. However, instead of taking action against this atrocity, many women simply believe that the images of women and their portrayal in rap videos does not represent nor refer to them as an individual and the type of woman they truly are. By being silent these women are allowing themselves to be victimized by the men of not only the Hip Hop industry but also general society. By not having a say in this matter of the false classification and portrayal of women, they are voluntarily allowing men to do whatever they please to do so, in any given time and with any approach they feel is necessary. They do not

Misogyny exists not only in Hip-Hop but also in American society as a whole. Objectified female bodies are everywhere: in advertising, on magazine covers, and television and movie screens. In Hip-Hop women are exploited and viewed as objects. In raps they are often called “bitches” and “hoes”, and place them in music videos half-naked furthering 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

It is suggested that one of the reasons why artists use misogynistic lyrics in their music is that they have internalized the negative stereotypes about women that are prevalent in American society. African women were historically portrayed as animalistic sexual beasts and African males in a submissive role, giving in to wild instinct or bodily impulses. The internalization of such stereotypes may be a possible explanation of the hyper sexuality within certain hip hop music. Various authors have argued that misogyny is merely an outgrowth of the cultural acceptance of misogyny at large.

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

Misogyny and degradation of women is present in almost every genre of music, yet the one genre that completely revolves around demeaning women is rap. Over the years rap and rap music videos have continually become more sexual and degrading towards women. Rap has been criticized numerous times for this reason, and that is because rap is one of the most popular genres of music for the younger generations. It is more than a genre of music, it is a complete industry filled with clothing and other merchandise. The reason this constant demeaning of women exists is because rap as a genre that rewards the objectification of women. The excuses used to justify the misogyny in rap are incomplete and lack accurate support. The most effective way

Rap music, in particular has impacted the young generation by promoting misogyny lyrics. Women have fought so hard to be equal and gain respect, but yet there are obstacles that restrict women from being respected, music shapes people’s mind in a negative way. Music is one of many of the influences of today’s society because it shaped an individual minds. Misogynistic rap music has more than encourage

Women in pop music are depicted a particular way when compared to their male counterparts. Throughout time women have been seen differently within the music industry, the first example from the reading is from the Lead Singer of Shop Assistants quote, "… We were watching a video of Debbie harry and there was a shot of her lying down with a close up of her face … it didn’t look pornographic, Debbie lying there singing, but his interpretation of it was" (Pg. 168 She Bop). Here the artist has been sexualized by their manager for self-motives that do not align with the goal of the band.

Together we researched how women are portrayed within the Music Industry. I found this article useful to my research because of how Aubrey and Frisby consolidated the different eras of the Music Industry, allowing me a deeper insight from the very start of sexualisation, exploitation and degradation in Pop music videos and how it is still very much seen in Music Media today. It was useful to see how it is not only in the Pop Music Industry that this exists, but also in genres such as Rap where women are often portrayed as submissive in comparison to

Women have consistently been perceived as second-class citizens. Even now, in times when a social conscience is present in most individuals, in an era where an atmosphere of gender equality 'supposedly' exists, it is blatantly apparent that the objectification and marginalization of women is still a major social issue. In reality, progression in terms of reducing female exploitation has been stagnant at best. Not only is the degradation of women a major problem that to date has not been eradicated, but it is actually being endorsed by some music celebrities. There are a growing number of people who purchase rap albums that support the fallacy that women are mere objects and should be treated as such. As the popularity of rap continues to

Rap music is filled with imagery that degrades women. Women are continually referred to inappropriately in many songs, while men refer to themselves and other as pimps or players. Women are not only referred to by derogatory names, they are frequently lowered to sex objects for entertainment. The common idea of a woman in a rap video is one who is half naked while dancing flirtatiously and seductively behind, or in front of the rapper. Many female rappers make public appearances dressed inappropriately, their clothing is always revealing and skin tight, they have unfortunately accepted and entertained this idea. Young girls see these women as role models. As female rappers conform and accept their roles as sex objects they are making it socially acceptable and the young girls who see them as role models and look up to them think

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.