Blurred Lines: A Response

*Below is an abridged version of Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams’s chart-topping 2013 pop jam, “Blurred Lines”:

[Bridge - Robin Thicke:]

Ok, now he was close

Tried to domesticate you

But you're an animal

Baby, it's in your nature

Just let me liberate you

You don't need no papers

That man is not your maker

And that's why I'm gon' take a

[Hook - Robin Thicke:]

Good girl

I know you want it

I know you want it

I know you want it

You're a good girl

Can't let it get past me

You're far from plastic

Talk about getting blasted

I hate these blurred lines

I know you want it [x3]

But you're a good girl

The way you grab me

Must wanna get nasty

Go ahead, get at me

[Pharrell:] Everybody get up

[Verse 2 - Robin Thicke:]

What do they make dreams for

When you got them jeans on

What do we need steam for

You the hottest bitch in this place

I feel so lucky,

Hey, hey, hey

You wanna hug me

Hey, hey, hey

What rhymes with hug me?

Hey, hey, hey

[Verse 3 - T.I.:]

One thing I ask of you

Lemme be the one you back that ass up to

From Malibu to Paris boo

Had a bitch, but she ain't bad as you

So, hit me up when you pass through

I'll give you something big enough to tear your ass in two

Swag on 'em even when you dress casual

I mean, it's almost unbearable

In a hundred years not dare would I

Pull a Pharcyde, let you pass me by

Nothin' like your last guy, he too square for you

He don't smack that ass and pull your hair like that

So I'm just watching and waitin'

For you to salute the true big pimpin'

Not many women can refuse this pimping

I'm a nice guy, but don't get confused, this pimpin'

[Breakdown - Robin Thicke:]

Shake your rump

Get down, get up-a

Do it like it hurt, like it hurt

What you don't like work

Hey!

[Verse 4 - Robin Thicke:]

Baby, can you breathe

I got this from Jamaica

It always works for me

Dakota to Decatur

No more pretending

Cause now you're winning

Here's our beginning

I always wanted a

[Hook - Robin Thicke]

The other day I got a Snapchat friend request from my ex-boyfriend of about 3 years ago. Since our painful, very “high school” breakup we’ve both moved on and I’m now in a secure relationship of 2 years while he’s been on and off with the girl he rebounded with. We stopped all contact after some very dramatic events post-breakup and I haven’t heard from him since. So, when I got his friend request, I saw it as an effort to make amends, squash the beef as we go into college. He sent me a long, charming message about how he’s “always wanted to reconnect with me but [his] (on/off) girlfriend got in the way but now that [they’re] broken up [he] can finally be the way [he’s] always wanted to with [me]. [He] feels so comfortable around [me], like [he] can say anything and do anything.”

Too comfortable.

He sent me pictures I didn’t ask for, pressured me to do the same after I repeatedly said no, and kept making advancements after I continuously rejected his requests. Not only do I have a boyfriend, but no means no, and that couldn’t get through his head. I eventually was forced to block him because he made me so uncomfortable, so insecure, that I couldn’t manage it anymore. The pressure became too much.

Boys grow up learning that these “Blurred Lines” exist; that if a girl doesn’t say “no”, that she probably means “yes”, and if she doesn’t mean yes, she can be persuaded to change her mind.

The song, “Blurred Lines”, reinforces the idea that every woman has a “bad girl” side, an alter ego that she hides in an effort to not appear promiscuous. This idea only further hypersexualizes women in the sense that they’re repressing a sexual beast that men (boys) have to work hard to unleash. The problem with this song is that Robin Thicke assumes that the anonymous girl secretly wishes to have sex with him because “the way [she] grabs [him]” means that “[she] must wanna get nasty”. Dirty dancing in the club does not mean yes. Wearing skinny jeans does not mean yes. Simply being attractive does not mean yes. How long is it going to take American culture to stop teaching girls how to act and dress and start teaching boys not to assume, not to pressure, and not to rape? If she doesn’t say she wants it, then she doesn’t want it, whether it’s sex, nudes, or even just a raunchy text. The song runs with the idea that the “man” is bigger and stronger, so he obviously knows what he wants is equal to what the woman wants, she’s just too weak and timid to say so.

We live in an age where we need to teach women to say so, to speak their minds regardless of hurting anyone’s feelings or fear of the repercussions. If girls can say how they feel, then boys can stop assuming they know better. They don’t know better.

You may think that the criticisms of this song have been beaten like a dead horse. Until rape culture stops, the people fighting rape culture will not. There are girls who have had experiences much worse than mine, including ones they couldn’t just press the block button to abolish. So many times have women been trapped after silence was taken as consent, after “no” was taken as “maybe”. Until yes means yes, the female fire will flourish.