{"id":57211,"date":"2013-09-17T12:00:48","date_gmt":"2013-09-17T17:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=57211"},"modified":"2017-09-17T12:34:41","modified_gmt":"2017-09-17T17:34:41","slug":"from-the-mouths-of-rapists-the-lyrics-of-robin-thickes-blurred-lines-and-real-life-rape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2013\/09\/17\/from-the-mouths-of-rapists-the-lyrics-of-robin-thickes-blurred-lines-and-real-life-rape\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Mouths of Rapists: The Lyrics of Robin Thicke\u2019s Blurred Lines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trigger warning: Graphic descriptions of sexual assault. \u00a0Note: The opinions expressed in this post belong to Sezin Koehler alone and should not be attributed to anyone involved with Project Unbreakable.<\/i><\/p>\n

Robin Thicke\u2019s summer hit\u00a0Blurred Lines<\/i><\/a>\u00a0addresses what he considers to be<\/del>\u00a0sounds like a grey area between consensual sex and assault. The images in this post place the song into a real-life context. \u00a0They are from\u00a0Project Unbreakable<\/a>, an online photo essay exhibit, and feature images of women and men holding signs with sentences that their rapist said before, during, or after their assault. \u00a0\u00a0Let’s begin.<\/p>\n

I know you want it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thicke sings “I know you want it,” a phrase that many sexual assault survivors report their rapists saying to justify their actions, as demonstrated over and over in the Project Unbreakable testimonials.<\/p>\n

\"1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You\u2019re a good girl.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thicke further sings \u201cYou\u2019re a good girl,” suggesting that a good girl won\u2019t show her reciprocal desire (if it exists). This becomes further proof in his mind that she wants sex: for good girls, silence is consent and \u201cno\u201d really means \u201cyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Calling an adult a “good girl” in this context resonates with the the virgin\/whore dichotomy.\u00a0The implication in\u00a0Blurred Lines<\/i>\u00a0is that because the woman is not responding to a man\u2019s sexual advances, which of course are irresistible, she\u2019s hiding her true sexual desire under a facade of disinterest.\u00a0Thicke is singing about forcing a woman to perform both the good girl and bad girl roles in order to satisfy the man\u2019s desires.<\/p>\n

\"16\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Thicke and company, as all-knowing patriarchs, will give her what he knows she wants (sex), even though she\u2019s not actively consenting, and she may well be rejecting the man outright.<\/p>\n

\"5\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"6\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Do it like it hurt, do it like it hurt, what you don\u2019t like work?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This lyric suggests that women are supposed to enjoy pain during sex or that pain is part of sex:<\/p>\n

\"7\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The woman\u2019s desires play no part in this scenario \u2013 except insofar as he projects whatever he pleases onto her — another parallel to the act of rape: sexual assault is generally not about sex, but rather about a physical and emotional demonstration of power.<\/p>\n

The way you grab me.
\nMust wanna get nasty.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is victim-blaming. \u00a0Everybody knows that if a woman dances with a man it means she wants to sleep with him, right? And if she wears a short skirt or tight dress she\u2019s asking for it, right? And if she even smiles at him it means she wants it, right? \u00a0Wrong. \u00a0A dance, an outfit, a smile — sexy or not — does not indicate consent.\u00a0 This idea, though, is pervasive and believed by rapists.<\/p>\n

\"10\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"15\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And women, according to Blurred Lines<\/i>, want to be treated badly.<\/p>\n

Nothing like your last guy, he too square for you.
\nHe don\u2019t smack your ass and pull your hair like that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In this misogynistic fantasy, a woman doesn\u2019t want a \u201csquare\u201d who\u2019ll treat her like a human being and with respect. She would rather be degraded and abused for a man’s gratification and amusement, like the women who dance around half naked humping dead animals in the\u00a0music video<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"11\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The\u00a0pi\u00e8ce<\/i>\u00a0de r\u00e9sistance<\/i>\u00a0of\u00a0the non-censored version of Blurred Lines<\/i>\u00a0is this lyric:<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll give you something to tear your ass in two.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What better way to show a woman who\u2019s in charge than violent, non-consensual sodomy?<\/p>\n

\"12\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ultimately, Robin Thicke’s rape anthem is about male desire and male dominance over a woman\u2019s personal sexual agency. The rigid definition of masculinity makes the man unable to accept the idea that sometimes his advances are not welcome. Thus, instead of treating a woman like a human being and respecting her subjectivity, she\u2019s relegated to the role of living sex doll whose existence is naught but for the pleasure of a man.<\/p>\n

\"14\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In Melinda Hugh\u2019s\u00a0Lame Lines<\/a>\u00a0parody of Thicke\u2019s song she sings, \u201cYou think I want it\/ I really don\u2019t want it\/ Please get off it.\u201d \u00a0The Law Revue Girls<\/a>\u00a0\u201cDefined Lines\u201d response to Blurred Lines<\/i>\u00a0notes, \u201cYeah we don’t want it\/ It’s chauvinistic\/ You’re such a bigot.\u201d \u00a0Rosalind Peters<\/a>\u00a0says in her one-woman retort, \u201cLet’s clear up something mate\/ I’m here to have fun\/ I’m not here to get raped.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are no \u201cblurred lines.\u201d There is only one line: consent.<\/p>\n

And the absence of consent is a crime.<\/p>\n

Sezin Koehler is an\u00a0informal ethnographer<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0novelist<\/a>\u00a0living in Florida. You can find her on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Facebook<\/a>. \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trigger warning: Graphic descriptions of sexual assault. \u00a0Note: The opinions expressed in this post belong to Sezin Koehler alone and should not be attributed to anyone involved with Project Unbreakable. Robin Thicke\u2019s summer hit\u00a0Blurred Lines\u00a0addresses what he considers to be\u00a0sounds like a grey area between consensual sex and assault. The images in this post place […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":57241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12508,2056,15,23384,55,2098,2090,283,133],"class_list":["post-57211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-activismsocial-movements","tag-crimelaw","tag-culture","tag-social-construction-discourselanguage","tag-gender","tag-gender-prejudicediscrimination","tag-gender-violence","tag-prejudicediscrimination","tag-violence"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2013\/09\/Screenshot_191.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57211"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57986,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57211\/revisions\/57986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}