Crossing Blurred Lines: A Music Video Review of Robin Thicke's 'Blurred Lines'

The lyrics to 'Blurred Lines' are exciting, empowering for the female libido, and question if the idea of womanly monogamy is really a naturally occurring tendency or a socially constructed normative.  These set of lyrics:

"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

Hey, hey, hey

You don't need no papers

Hey, hey, hey

That man is not your maker"

are very explicit, Thicke is literally saying that your spouse has no ownership over you, that your husband (or domestic partner) is not your personal god that you report to that has dominion over your body.  It's as if he's invoking women to question sexual territories.  Many feminists have argued that marriage is nothing more than institutionalized slavery.  Some of the empowerment that Thicke lends is devalued when he implies he's "gonna take a good girl", again, an issue of compliance and being a "well-behaved" passive female, which equates back to being sexually pure and completely contradicts his assertion that "[we're] an animal" that needs liberation from the impossible task of being "domesticated" aka enslaved via being chaste.  

The real blurred lines, for me, is this notion of a double standard, of the very real Madonna-whore complex and of the masculine definition of what's considered acceptable female sexual expression.  Our sensuality is repeatedly constructed not by what we project but by what men expect.  Covering up how we feel as women with the way we look as women, constantly confusing self-awareness with appearance not just due to the male gaze but the male expectation of what we should even look like.

Through the narration of the song, we realize that the muse in question is not entirely sexually satisfied in her relationship which is why this "good girl" is facing absolute temptation by this potential sex partner who is indicating with absolute certainty that he can satiate her more carnal appetites.  Appetites that "good girls" aren't supposed to have.

I started having all these thoughts when I first heard the song and absolutely loved it, not despite the hypocrisy it touched upon, but because of it.

Than I saw the music video:

The imagery ruined the narration of the song.  The lyrical complexity is diminished by the scantily glad actresses.  It's disappointing that the video obsesses over a specific female form when the purpose of the ballad was a studly braggart vying to corrupt a relationship bond for some slap and tickle from what sounded like the one chick he was singing to and about.       

Than a friend of mine showed me the explicit music video version:

Seriously, can we say over the top and unnecessary?  We get it, tits are a common fetish.  This imagery ruins the possibility of  'Blurred Lines' being more than what it could be.  It sends a clear patriarchal message of business as usual. 

But check out this great parody video, 'Blurred Dicks' :

It cums* as a relief.

In the book "What Do Women Want?  Adventures in the Science of Female Desire" by Daniel Bergner, he outlines sex studies that were conducted on monkeys:

Here is one example, with monkeys: In the 1970s, a psychologist and neuro­endocrinologist named Kim Wallen noticed that the sexual behavior of rhesus monkeys was affected by the size of their cages. In close quarters the monkeys went at it like mad, and the male seemed to initiate sexual activity, which in turn seemed to confirm the prevailing idea that female monkeys were entirely sexually passive. But in larger cages, as in the wild, the females were the ones who chose their partners and initiated sex by following the males around and touching them demonstratively. The small cages, with their forced proximity, reduced monkey sex life to intercourse, obviating all the mating rituals in which female lust was the essential factor that set sex in motion. After Wallen’s observations, primatologists started seeing evidence that many kinds of female primates initiated sex, while their male counterparts pretty much sat around waiting for the ladies to take an interest in their erections.

Turns out that human monkeys aren't actually attracted to flaccid penises, we're specifically and systematically attracted to erections.  It's a good book and I recommend that every woman read it, no matter what your initial thoughts on your sexuality are, the information is bound to impact you.

Ultimately this is the best rendition of 'Blurred Lines' and not just because Jimmy Fallon's in it, although it's a bonus.  This seems more playful and like the men serenading the vamp are all bumbling toddlers at her feet, the rap is like a cat exposing its belly, the flowers after the fight:

(show us your dicks!)   

 The rap in there by The Roots Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter in case you missed it:

Good girlfriends, I had a few
But the best girlfriend I ever had is you
I thank God for my blessings, it began with you
So I put a ring on it and I married you
Come on and take a ride with me on an avenue
If you see it and you want it, you can have it boo
You have these other girls getting mad at you
Cause you got brains, looks and attitude
Cause my skill line is getting blurrier
I come home to my own Miss America
I mean this ain’t no ordinary love
Go and bring it here to my girl, hurry up
I'm watching, I'm waiting and they not you, so they hating
They just angry cause you ain't basicI'mma give you a standing ovation 

And just like that Trotter reinstated the integrity of the ballad.  A standing ovation is an erection.  The lady in the song becomes a good girl by proxy because it turns out she's faithful because she loves him even though she WANTS to cheat on him or at the very least will get the temptation to do so, instead she demonstrates resolve and self-control so he rewards her loyalty with materiel fulfillment, love, respect, admiration, and a boner.

I don't know why or how the formatting got so fucked up on this blog and why the videos won't show up on the Blogger app for iPhone 4x O.S but it's distracting me and really irritating.      

Anyway, at a time when sex roles and gender identity have never been "blurrier" maybe it's high time we started to cross some lines.  With the new scientific data that's coming out it seems very probable that women are the natural sexual aggressors, not men.  If  you really start to think about it, it makes more sense.  Besides, the human penis is not like a duck penis.  Ducks like to rape each other and what happens is that the male duck's dick has barbs and spikes on it, it sticks in the female so she can't get away.  This hurts her of course and she doesn't like it so her vagina is constantly changing shape, (look it up somehow if you don't believe me, I don't have time right now to link data) but this is what a male sexual aggressor's penis would look like.  But a human penis?--it's smooth and is designed to scoop out rival sperm.  The female has a clitoris, is ONLY attracted to an engorged penis...could it be that the "natural way" is a bunch of dudes laying around with hard-on's hoping they would entice a chick with big boobs walking by?

Because there's no Rape Culture built into the male member.  That archetype is cultural.       

*Pun totally intended.

I would like to make a brief amendment, a duck penis is actually a corkscrew but the same concept still applies and male ducks are notorious rapists, also the website "The Frisky" did a picture article called 'The 10 Most Horrifying Animal Penises On Earth!' - the male bean weevil penis is terrifying. But it also details how the male human penis would look if the human female was truly a sexual submissive, check it out, here's the link to that article:
http://www.thefrisky.com/photos/the-10-most-horrifying-animal-penises-on-earth/bean-weevil-penis-jpg/