{"id":68341,"date":"2015-12-29T08:00:05","date_gmt":"2015-12-29T13:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=68341"},"modified":"2015-12-29T21:14:20","modified_gmt":"2015-12-30T02:14:20","slug":"is-beibers-what-do-you-mean-just-as-bad-as-thickes-blurred-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2015\/12\/29\/is-beibers-what-do-you-mean-just-as-bad-as-thickes-blurred-lines\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Bieber’s What Do You Mean? just as bad as Thicke’s Blurred Lines?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2<\/a>Robin Thicke\u2019s song, \u201cBlurred Lines<\/a>,\u201d achieved international recognition in 2013. But the lyrics were also heavily criticized as promoting sexual violence by celebrating \u201cblurred lines\u201d around sexual consent. Indeed, the song and video prompted an online photo essay<\/a> in which women and men are depicted holding up signs with words they heard from their own rapists\u00a0\u2014 some of which were almost direct quotes from Thicke\u2019s song. The song received a great deal of negative and positive press all at the same time.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a new argument to suggest that many elements of what feminist scholars refer to as \u201crape culture\u201d are embedded in seemingly pleasurable elements of pop culture<\/a>, like songs, movies, and television shows. And Robin Thicke\u2019s song served as an example to many of how we not only tolerate rape culture,\u00a0but celebrate it and render it \u201csexy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently, Rebecca Traister discussed just how much rape culture even informs what we think of as \u201cgood sex\u201d in her piece \u201cThe Game is Rigged<\/a>.\u201d In it, Traister challenges the notion that all consensual sex is good and shows just how messy the debate about what qualifies as \u201cconsensual\u201d really is. In many ways, our national discussion around sexual assault and consent is taking up themes raised by feminists in the 1980s about\u00a0what actually qualifies as consent<\/a> in a society in which violence against women is considered sexy.<\/p>\n

Compared with \u201cBlurred Lines,\u201d Justin Bieber\u2019s newly released hit single, \u201cWhat Do You Mean?<\/a>\u201d has been subject to less critique, though it reproduces the notion that women do not actually know what they want and that they are notoriously bad and communicating their desires (sexual and otherwise). In the song, Bieber asks the woman with whom he\u2019s interacting:<\/p>\n

What do you mean?
\nOhh ohh ohh
\nWhen you nod your head yes
\nBut you wanna say no
\nWhat do you mean?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The lack of clear consent isn\u2019t just present in the song; it is what provides the sexual tension. It\u2019s part of what is intended to make the song \u201csexy.\u201d<\/p>\n