Article I wrote for The Exeposé (University of Exeter’s newspaper) last year. A bit of a done topic even at the time of writing but I felt the need to reinforce the message considering a referendum was proposed to vote for a banning of Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’.
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Robin Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’ has been around the news a lot recently, with various universities, including Exeter, considering or outright banning the song from campuses, so please do forgive me if this reads as a rehash of many other articles. But I think that this should be talked about and the point repeated as much as possible: This song is damaging. I’ve heard many blithely state that this song is harmless; that banning it would be absurd. It’s just a catchy pop song, right?
Well, no. Not really. When people sing and dance to this song, they’re singing and dancing along to a song that worsens attitudes towards women and contributes to rape culture: the practice of our society accepting and being apologists for rape by blaming the victim as the one at fault or making apologies for the attacker. When was the last time you heard a “she was asking for it” remark or “she was dressed like a slut” comment? That is rape culture. The victim is never to blame for rape. But songs like this distort this fact, with the hazy definitions of consent: “I know you want it”. The inspiring Project Unbreakable (http://project-unbreakable.org/), founded by a rape victim, Grace Brown, displays victims of rape holding a board with the words of their attacker on. Does the picture below seem familiar?
Picture: [from project-unbreakable]
Should we be encouraging these casual and damaging opinions towards non-consent, the dehumanization and degradation of women as pure sex objects? Thicke states himself “what a pleasure it is to degrade women”. It might come as a shock to some, but women are humans, too. Such misogynistic songs like this cannot be helping the attitudes towards rape . According to studies by the charity Rape Crisis, 400,000 women are sexually assaulted and 85,000 raped every year in England.
One in five women reading this article will have experienced some form of sexual abuse in their lives. I don’t claim to speak for them, but imagine being the victim of abuse, enjoying a night out with friends and then hearing the lyrics “I know you want it. You’re a good girl”. Quite the trigger, especially considering that that phrase is commonly quoted as said to be used by the abusers on Project Unbreakable. There are no blurred intentions behind the meaning of this song. It is misogynistic trash. Which is why I would call you all to lobby for a line to be drawn over this casual attitude towards sexual abuse and have this song banned from the campus.
elliotghollingsworth 