Robin Thicke: Sexist? (Warning: Explicit Content)

The other day, in the wee hours of the morning, I was trolling the trolls on YouTube when I came across the new Robin Thicke music video for his song, "Blurred Lines."

I was rather surprised, because I had heard it on the old school radio station whilst changing the song on my iPod in my car.

I like the song. The beat is excellent, the vocals are great.

But I was surprised to see a majority of negative feedback when I scrolled down to read some of the comments left by other viewers.

Many people believe that the song and video are over the top sexist. Both men and feminists alike.

http://toobaditsgood.com/tag/t-i/

I wasn't necessarily listening to the lyrics when I heard it, but I rather liked the music video. It just looked like a very modern video with three artists, and three models having fun. It seemed tasteful.

I decided to actually take a look at the lyrics to see for myself. Some of the lyrics read:

"Tried to domesticate you

But you're an animal

Just let me liberate you"

"That man is not your maker

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

Good girl

I know you want"

I don't know about you, but these lyrics honestly didn't seem so bad to me.

One blog said that the song is about him trying to talk an unwilling girl out of her panties. I kind of got that the girl was already naughty, and her boyfriend was trying to get her to settle down, but Robin knows what's up. However, I've misunderstood lyrics in the past, so I could be TOTALLY off. 

However, aren't MANY women unwilling at first??? 

But then, I thought, perhaps she's this married or not single woman whom Robin is trying to coerce. Either way, I didn't fully understand what the big fuss was over.

THEN I saw the unrated version of the music video.

http://thetrendingreport.com/robin-thickes-blurred-lines-no-1-on-uk-charts/

 Okay, now I can see where a lot of this is coming from. The girls are seen nude throughout various scenes in the video (all while having a great time.)

http://www.pedroandradetv.com/en/blurred-lines-by-robin-thicke/

http://www.pedroandradetv.com/en/blurred-lines-by-robin-thicke/

 It is a little much (for certain people,) and I can see how people can view it as sexist.

But then I think of other music videos like Rob Zombie, and Chingy's uncensored Right Thurr music video in 2003 that would come on BET at 3am.

http://tomcatmuzik.blogspot.com/2008/07/chingy-right-thurr-uncensored-dvd-rip.html

 

http://www.wat.tv/video/chingy-right-thurr-uncensored-1scz1_2i7f9_.html

http://allfbvideos.com/show/chingy-flip-boozie-balla-baby-remix/&page=10

I'm not trying to brush off any sexism, but I just don't see why he's taking so much heat for it. This is NOT new for music videos, and this is nothing new in life period.

I mean, look at all the films that do this, especially HORROR flicks.

As far as the lyrics to the song go, I am not surprised at what I hear in songs anymore. 2 Live Crew, Too Short, Lil' Kim, Prince, Trina, and many more have EXTREMELY detailed lyrics, and today many more artists are doing the same.

Now, as far as the video goes, I can sort of see why people would be angry.. IF this were something new. However, it's not.

Robin, T.I. and Pharrell are all married men. It's not like this is a documentary of their lives or something....or is it?

http://hiphopissue.com/2013/03/28/robin-thicke-friends-blurred-lines/robin-thicke-new2/

I even read that one of the models:

http://www.pedroandradetv.com/en/blurred-lines-by-robin-thicke/

Didn't mind shooting the video at all.

http://64eiffel19.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/11513/robin-thicke-blurred-lines-ft-t-i-pharrell-explicit-version-%E2%80%8F-4/

And we need to remember, a lot of music videos are typically the director's idea and art.

America's Colors

America is one of the few countries where the majority of its inhabitants see an individual's color (race) or their ethnic group, before any other characteristics about that person. Americans are too quick to categorize and, in a way, judge a person off of their appearance (the part of their appearance of which they've no control over.) 

Europeans often criticize us for such behavior (although Europe isn't so innocent either.) Places like France and Brazil down in South America look just like America: a giant melting pot of people from all over the world, mingling with one another. Many people don't even notice the differences in race or ethnicity in such countries.

Their inhabitants seem to get by rather well. America will never see that day if we cannot see past each other's shade of skin. It's what's holding us back as a society.

The black/white issue is probably something that will be alive in this country for many years to come. Especially if we allow it to happen.

Perhaps we should take some ideas from France. It is illegal to publicly say anything prejudice about anyone's race, ethnic group, or religion. It is also illegal to collect racial data of the country's population. If we didn't know the percentages of what each racial group and ethnic groups make up within the country's population, perhaps we wouldn't care about it. And perhaps we wouldn't notice it either.

On my favorite news station recently, they made an effort to report that the people who were for and against the Trayvon Martin case verdict were racially divided. They even announced the percentages of each race on both the supporting and opposing sides. These types of things are setting us back. Just unnecessary contribution to the not so much growing, but definitely not fizzing out problem in this country.

It's no one's fault that the country has had an on going racial divide, particularly between non-Hispanic whites and blacks. It's something that those before use caused to happen.

It is, however, our fault that it is still going on.

Sometimes the very same people trying to push us forward, are the same people holding us back.

And it's always good to remember, that there really is no such thing as race. It depends on what part of the world you come from.