In case you haven't seen this review of Blurred Lines...

[redqueen]

enjoy



Has there been any discussion here about this rape culture anthem?

[ismnotwasm]

1. Bwhahahaha

Nailed it

Spent a teaching moment with my grandson with that song and video. A perfect example of a blend of misogyny and horrid wanna be music. So it was useful in that way.

(BTW, he knew nothing about the Steubenville case either, another teaching moment)

[redqueen]

2. It's incredible how many people refuse to see how language like

"you know you want it, but you're a good girl" is just supremely fucked up.

But then, rape culture is kinda invisible to most.

Speaking of Steubenville, you reminded me of this from the New Yorker ...

“Rape culture” is not an empty term or an imaginary phenomenon. According to a survey published by the Centers for Disease Control in 2011, one in five American women have been raped or experienced attempted rape. In May, the officer in charge of preventing sexual assault in the U.S. Air Force was arrested for groping a woman in a parking lot. Two days later, the Pentagon released a poll of a hundred and eight thousand active-duty service members showing that twenty-six thousand had been sexually assaulted. Worldwide, women between fifteen and forty-four are more likely to be injured or die from male violence than from traffic accidents, cancer, malaria, and the effects of war combined. This sustained brutality would be impossible without a culture that enables it: a value system in which women are currency, and sex is something that men get—or take—from them.

[ismnotwasm]

5. One of the things I pointed out to him

Was how it was video taped, like it was real good times and how no one spoke up for the girl through the parties she was carried to and assaulted at. You should have seem the horror in his face.

I have three grandsons and two granddaughters so far. I'm a 'young' grandma. All of them are going to learn about rape culture.

[tapermaker]

3. somebody must like it

I saw it on Colbert the other night. It seemed to be harmless and tongue and cheek. Steven liked it a lot .sometimes I think we read too much into every little thing ,over reacting instead of looking for the irony or thought provoking satire .you know ,"art"

[ismnotwasm]

4. Naked women walking around with sausages?

With no expression, walking around the set like automations? I like satire, I have appreciation for it. Blurred lines is a shit song and a shit video. As I said, it had use as a teaching moment for my 14 year old grandson--a budding musician himself.

He saw no redeeming value musically. He thought the video cringe-worthy. (he thought he same thing about the new Alice in Chains video, which ruined an kind of OK song)


Now, on top of everything, there maybe charges of plagiarism.

[redqueen]

6. So... "you know you want it, but you're a good girl".. that's ambiguous, to you?

Cause you know, it's actually not. At all.

And there's more. How about "just let me liberate you".

Yes, men offering to liberate women. How hilarious is that, amirite bro? With women parading around topless as men treat them like pets and refer to them as animals?

Hilarious!

[tapermaker]

7. of course its everything you say it is . thats the point. they are so over the top not being PC

that it cant possibly be taken seriously.it`s making fun of people that act that way. Its pure sarcasm . That is why Steven Colbert loved it .It was his kind of humor.

[redqueen]

8. Why do you think Steven Colbert's opinion matters at all? I don't care who thinks it's funny.

It's reinforcing rape culture. Do you think all those kids listening to this song get that it's "ironic" and just a joke? Do you think they understand rape culture and agree with you and Steven that it's making fun of asshole predatory men? Or do you think there is a chance that they'll hear it and absorb the message which society has already overwhelmingly accepted as true? (I hope you're aware that this idea, that women just can't allow themselves to be sexual because they want to be seen as good, is voiced here on DU. I hope you realize this means that just because someone is a liberal, that doesn't mean they're not also capable of having misogynist views.)

Here's an excerpt of an article which says more on this:

As adults, we can choose to believe Robin Thicke and decide that this song/video is “ironic” and a joke. In fact, judging by the comments on the YouTube video, a lot of people, including women, believe this. When I wrote a comment objecting to the video (which you can still see – I wrote it in my own name) I got two replies, both simply saying “you’re an idiot”, and both from men.

However, if this song does reach number one, it will be heard incessantly by young people, some very young children. It’s inevitable – we won’t be deliberately exposing them to it, but they can’t help but hear it: on the radio in the car, at home, even in shops and supermarkets. The repeated phrase “I know you want it”, which is catchy (I’m singing it in my head right now) will enter the brains of young girls and boys. It will become part of the bombardment of words and images which surround them, telling them that all women should be “hot” and “want it” and men just can’t help but “follow around” beautiful women.

Our seven-year-old granddaughter already worries about getting fat. She spends a long time when she gets dressed in the morning (at least as far as I’ve seen when she’s been visiting us) looking in the mirror to make sure her hair and face look “pretty”.

She’s seven. SEVEN.

All the adults in her life do our best to make sure she knows that how she looks is not the most important thing about her. We tell her she can have that ice-cream or cake. We praise her for how clever she is, what a good artist she’s turning out to be, what good reports she gets from school. But everything and virtually everyone else around her is telling her “look pretty”, “don’t get fat”; that appearance is everything.

http://lizterryblog.wordpress.com/2013/06/09/blurred-lines-by-robin-thicke-joke-or-dangerous/