Gender and Sex

¶ … Blurred Line" is a song by Robin Thicke that caused a tremendous controversy because of the video that accompanied it. Some allegations included the fact that the video condoned a rape culture and a culture that sexually objectifies women. This paper will aim to analyze some of these claims, looking at the theoretical and sociological perspective of what a rape culture is and matching some of these characteristics over the elements that are seen in the video.

According to Nicoletti, Spencer-Thomas and Bollinger (2009), a rape culture in society reflects a society that tolerates or even encourages rape and, in general, sexual violence against women. There are several characteristics of rape cultures, including sexual objectification and a trivialized approach to rape. To a wider degree, however, there are connections that can be argued between a sexist society and the possibility of it becoming a rape culture.

Sexist and misogynistic approaches lower the norms when it comes to sexual violence against women, which is likely how this can gradually become condoned. Vogelman (1990) has also identified the "domination and objectivication" of women as one of the most important causes of a rape culture. Another element of impact in a rape culture is the fact that many of modern societies are patriarchal (Parenti, 2005). The direct connection with the rape culture is that a patriarchal society tends to overlook manifestations of sexual violence or misogynist tendencies.

These in turn exacerbate, leading, over time, to a society that accepts rape and even condones it. This presentation of the theoretical background has aimed for those elements that can be brought up as a case for "Blurred Line" being part of a rape culture. The video shows the singer and his backing vocals dancing alongside three topless models.

Two of the models are white, the other is African-American: this is perhaps a useful observation to argue that the singer is aiming at a larger part of society rather than just an isolated example. Several other elements are suggestive for the second part of the discussion.

Robin Thicke continuously repeats the line "I know you want it," which many have suggested is a way of making women take the blame for rape acts by emphasizing that it was the woman whom, through her attitude and approach, has made sexual advances, thus motivating the rape as an actual legitimate act. The name of the singer appears throughout the song as a hash tag (#THICKE), in huge, red letters across the screen.

At some point, balloon letters spell "Robin Thicke has a big dick." To consolidate and emphasize the sexual objectification of the women in the video, they wear nude thongs as well, occasionally complemented by a pair of shoes (not all of them wear the shoes though). This presentation of the music, the text of the song and the video clip seem eloquent of the fact that these elements are sexist towards women.

The mere fact that naked women are paraded throughout the video, alongside fully clothed men is at least diminishing to females. It seems also concerning that some of these women do not even wear underpants: the thongs are nude color, to suggest that the women are actually fully naked. What can be argued against this video as an instrument of rape culture? The women seem to be part of the action, part of the game.

They do not seem to be constrained into performing their dancing, they genuinely seem to be interacting, in an amused and relaxed way with the singers. Maybe this is a sign of accepted participation, a sign that they are not constrained to unwillingly take part in some sort of action or another, but a sign that, as strong women, they choose to dance, even half naked.

The key here is the idea of choice: does the video induce the idea of choice? If so, this is not an instrument of rape culture, because rape and rape culture are themselves based on the idea of lack of choice. As long as choice exists, one can assume that women could also deny participating in this act. The models seem to support this approach: they view the entire act as a satirical one, perhaps making fun of values in the Western society, too much reflected in their sexual component.

Is the song representative of hip hop culture in general? Generalization is, in most situations, a difficult feat, because it mainly implies that the analyst takes some individual characteristics and expands them to the entire population. This is how the Holocaust came to be. In the case of hip hop culture, generalizing that this song is representative for it would mean that hip hop culture is sexist and condones a rape culture.

Without an attempt to generalize, one can, indeed, point to the fact that the hip hop culture is a macho culture. One way this culture manifests itself is through the clothes and clothing accessories, but also with additional elements such as the cars, the way the singers walk etc. During the 1990s, the macho culture in hip hop and rap was reflected in real life wars between musical clans.

It is notorious, in this sense, the war between the East and the West, a real cultural clash that eventually led to the deaths of The Notorious B.I.G. And Tupac Shakur. Many of the hip hop music videos do also feature underdressed women and, in many of these cases, these women act as propping instruments for the macho culture that the songs are displaying. The example with "Blurred Lines" has been discussed so far, but others are even more outrageous.

Some of Snoop Doggy Dogg's video clips are literally pornography. There are two counterarguments that hip hop culture can offer against the idea that this type of culture promotes a rape culture. One is freedom.