[Puncture Repair]

So this video is currently being posted all over my facebook:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC1XtnLRLPM

Was the original song/video sexist? Yeah, I'd probably say it was. Blurred Lines if a very male dominating song that has lyrics about pushing sex onto a girl that's resisting, whilst the video features three fully clothed (and married) men traipsing around nude, and personality-void, women. Whilst I think it's a fun song, I have no qualm with anyone claiming that it's objectifying women. That said, it isn't a political piece, it was never designed to be taken seriously, so I think for the most part.

The term 'feminism' has a lot of bad connotations, and I think this parody video is a good reason for it, and evidence that a great number of people who identify as feminists, aren't fighting for gender equality, but vengeance against men. I'm not sure if it annoys anyone else, but I feel uncomfortable when a video addressing 'mankind', threatens castration on men, and accuses men of believing women are good for nothing but fucking, is posted by a girl on Facebook and gets a good handful of likes - multiple times - by other women. Is it okay that in the process of fighting for equality, women can generalize half of the world's population? There's no question that there would be outrage if a man (god forbid) posted a video on Facebook promoting female castration. Where is it that we draw the line? I want to stand up against this sort of video, but I'm afraid of being pushed away for being a 'bigot', because I don't for a minute want to be seen as someone who doesn't support women's rights.

I believe feminists are fighting the wrong fight, and also using an easy target (Robin Thicke) to gain media attention. People already know there's huge controversy surrounding the song, so it's not making people stop and realize that there's sexism seeping into our everyday entertainment and going unnoticed. Also, this video has already been done without the gross attack on men (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKfwCjgiodg) - simply swapping the genders makes it blindingly clear how absurd it is when you have one gender being so objectified. But until Men's Rights is identified by the government, as well as society, as something that still needs fighting for, albeit a much lesser fight than that for women - at least worldwide - then videos like this will still be acceptable.

I dunno. I'm just not okay with that.

This was mainly a chance to vent, but of course I'd really like to hear what you guys think on the whole Robin Thicke controversy, even if it is pretty tiring by now, and also gender equality in general. Do you identify as a feminist?

[revolver94]

I definitely agree with the feminists regarding Thicke and the connotations of the song/video. Regardless of whether its meant to be political or just "fun", the song still trivializes rape and condones generally sexist/oppressive attitudes. What we listen to and allow to permeate the public sphere still help to perpetuate a culture in which blurred lines are seen as the go ahead for rape and what not.

That being said, I still listen to/love "Blurred Lines". I certainly feel a lot of dissonance when listening, but I'm selfish so whatever #blurredlines4eva

I'm also kind of sick of how trendy it's become to hate this song. This shit exists everywhere, it's just popular to pay attention to it in this song, for whatever reason. I was at a party a week or so ago and tried to put "Blurred Lines" on, and it got skipped almost immediately. Later, the same person who skipped the song put on a Chris Brown song, which (at least to me) is even worse because Chris Brown actually does this shit.

[GeevyDallas]

Put Molly all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it
I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain't even know it

[meccalecca]

The Blurred Lines song/video is some serious misogynistic crap. And anyone attempting to defend it as just being a harmless pop song is oblivious. The cultural problem of objectification of women is really everywhere in pop culture, and by being everywhere, it feeds the problem by convincing people that it's okay.

If a blatantly racist pop song were released, it would see instant backlash and be nearly invisible after being shunned from radio, stores, etc. Meanwhile Blurred Lines is everywhere.

as for the parody video, i think of it as being opportunistic rather than feminist. I don't see this as a reflection of feminism. As a parody, I assume they're not condoning male castration, but rather raising a point of how it feels to be under attack, even if this particular version is somewhat tasteless.

Comment bait photo galleries on sites like Huff Post show just how messed up our culture is in regards to the objectification of women.
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[Necharsian]

[alelsupreme]

I think it's a pretty good sign of how far women have come in society that apparently the biggest issue is some daft little pop song.
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Romanelli wrote:

We're all fucked, lads.

[meccalecca]

[alelsupreme]

[meccalecca]

[MichaelMannn]