At a bar last weekend, I found myself dancing to Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines". This moment was the culmination of a month in which "Blurred Lines" entered into my life in numerous ways. I saw a video of a friend accompanying the music video with that well-known percussion instrument, the spoons. I watched a Kids React video about it. (If you've never seen Kids React: what are you even doing on this blog? YouTube it immediately.) I've heard it in cafes and on trains.
And I've heard lots and lots about it from feminists.
My feminist and equality-minded friends have had a lot to say on the subject, all negative. So when I started dancing. I couldn't help but feel guilt. Was I feeding into a societal discourse about negative social attitudes to women by engaging with the song - worse, engaging with it by being a woman dancing to it in a bar? Would my friends judge me for my actions? Was I letting down womankind?
I was, and still am, torn. The song is catchy. Yes, it's inane, repetitive, and lacking in musical integrity, but that's pop music for you. It's hard not to tap your feet to a catchy piece of music, irrespective of its subject matter. Should my feelings about the representation of women in the song and/or video genuinely affect my ability to enjoy the song on a superficial level?
Possibly the hardest part is that I don't see the song's content as standing alone in terms of media representation of women. I'm surprised by the number of people who've had strong reactions to "Blurred Lines" that have managed to laugh off "Fifty Shades of Grey" as just a junky piece of literature and no more. The idea of a 'good girl' who 'knows she wants it' is no different between the two, yet people seem to see "Fifty Shades" as a mere diversion and "Blurred Lines" as a political statement.
Sure, there are people who've been outraged at both pieces of work, but I feel that people have jumped on the bandwagon for criticising Thicke because it's easy to pull apart a 4-minute video and lyrics that consist of about 20 words repeated 10 times, rather than a full-length novel. Plus Thicke has actual boobs bobbing about (rather than just descriptions of boobs bobbing about).
On top of that, even if people felt outraged about both pieces of work, that doesn't necessarily lead them to being outraged by less popular but equally sexist books/movies/magazines/etc.. Like Microsoft, Harry Potter and Starbucks, popularity makes you an easy target. There are plenty of Mills&Boon novels, Chris Brown videos and religious texts with equally dismissive views of women being represented.
I still don't know whether I see both works as unimportant pieces of entertainment for people's diversion, or representative of deeper sexual attitudes within society. What I do know is the whole debate has been representative of the willingness of people to criticise a particular person rather than critique a widespread attitude. Robin Thicke is not the problem - and nor is EL James, or Chris Brown, or Playboy. It is the combination of these things - the fact that they are not actually one-offs - that is the true problem.
The question is how to fix it.
