By: Mary Best
Advisory and Opinion Editor
“Blurred Lines” is the song of my summer. I liked jamming to the smooth bass lines whether on a road trip or during my pre-sunrise commute to work.
It’s just another 2013 radio hit. Yet, it’s also become the undeserving target for criticism about its “rape-y undertones” and “promotion of sexual harassment.”
Sure, he may call out the subject of his song as “the hottest b***h in this place” and talk about wanting to bang a woman he finds sexy, but at the end of the day, what’s so wrong with that? Not once does he mention wanting to drug her or take her against her will. It’s not the super-romantic Jane Austen-style of courtship some ladies may crave, but it’s still not about raping a woman.
Thicke received his wife Paula Patton’s blessing to record the song, featuring Pharrell and T.I., and film a music video with nude models, according to a June 20 Huffington Poststory. Between that, his mature age of 36 and his five previous mediocre albums, the man has earned a No. 1 song, so let’s let him have it.
It’s amazing how lyric-obsessed the Internet will get with a song which could, if twisted a certain way, have questionable undertones. Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” dominated the charts last year, and it most certainly wasn’t because we all supported a song about giving a stranger your phone number and asking him or her to consider calling you. It was catchy, just like “Blurred Lines” and most other No. 1 tunes.
Why can’t we just let “Blurred Lines” be that?
Daft Punk and Pharrell released the extremely popular “Get Lucky” this summer (which is about — you guessed it — getting lucky) and country music annoyance Taylor Swift releases a new hit about serial dating every other minute. Thicke releases one song about sex and gets slammed by what seems to be a population of haters equal to the song’s fans.
I just don’t see what is so troubling and anti-feminist about a rather average pop star’s latest single. I am a woman and I don’t feel like less of one by listening to this not-so-new single by the rather handsome son of a favorite television father, “Growing Pains” star Alan Thicke.
Seriously, if most of the general public is going to let domestic violence repeat-offender Chris Brown keep singing about whatever the hell he wants, then lay off the attacks on the abundant love of this catchy tune.
I really do like the song. That’s just my personal opinion. It’s not a matter of right or wrong, nor black or white.
It’s blurred lines.
bestmk10@bonaventure.edu
