[View the story "Whose 'blurred lines'?" on Storify ]Whose 'blurred lines'? Rape victims put suggestive pop hit lyrics under scrutiny. Storified by The Stream · Wed, Sep 18 2013 15:09:30
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.thesocietypages.org
thesocietypages.org
Koehler used images from
Project Unbreakable , a blog that collects photos of rape victims holding posters with phrases their rapists had used on them.
Koehler explained her motivation for the post in an email to the Stream:
Basically, lines from the song were literally keeping me up at night. “I know you want it/ You’re a good girl.” I found it disturbing but couldn’t quite put my finger on what exactly was bothering me besides the obvious “rapey” sound of it. I woke up one morning after two days of sleeplessness and realized what was upsetting me was that I had seen those lines on posters held by rape and assault survivors on Project Unbreakable. I was sick to my stomach and knew I had to make the connection so that people could understand how distressing “Blurred Lines” is from a violence against women perspective.ajstream.tumblr.com
Many on Twitter agreed.
I always got a creepy rapist vibe from blurred lines and it turns out real rapists say things like the lyrics Irma Santiago
We made this song of the summer. Sounds more like a rapist. “@CoralieAlison: lyrics of Robin Thicke's blurred lines
http://ow.ly/oYFfH ”Michelle D
But the piece was not without disagreement. In the comments of the post, readers debated the song's meaning and intent.
Discord wrote:
Regardless of whether Thicke consciously intended the song to be about cheating, or playing hard to get, or ping-pong, or kittens, or even whether the majority of the audience hears it as being a song about those things, is irrelevant. The article quite clearly demonstrates that the attitudes inherent in the song are linked to ideologies of power, of male domination of women, of the sexualization of violence, and destructive myths about what women secretly want and deserve. These ideologies are directly linked to the ideologies of rapists, as starkly evidenced by how disturbingly similar certain lines in the song are to actual words spoken by rapists to their victims.thesocietypages.org
Disagreeing with the original post, blogger Erin Judge
wrote :
We must not conflate expressing some reticence before ultimately consenting with a lack of consent. We must not conflate offering a person some marijuana with drugging and raping a victim. And we must not conflate the words a rapist says during the commission of the crime with universal red flags of sexual predation.somakeitup.blogspot.com
On the social media forum reddit, readers
discussed their reactions to Koehler's piece.
I've listened to this song more than a few times and I'm pretty sure it's not about rape... I mean, I understand that this writer read into the lyrics this way but if you take apart any lyrics 1) you'll be able to inset any meaning you want and 2) it's not going to necessarily reflect the whole song in the right light.bookfoxx1987
Considering he repeatedly says the line "I know you want it" I think it's more than justified to claim the song consists of actual rape phrases.LetsTalkMetaPhysics
People are "mis"reading these lyrics as a symptom of the rape culture we live in. The lyrics wouldn't have been read this way if it wasn't a reality for a lot of women. If you have a problem with the lyrics getting taken out of context then try and change whatever is cultivating these reactions.missile414
For the most part, Koehler wrote that the responses have been "overwhelming and mostly positive":
"Many women have been writing to me thanking me for putting into a package what was bothering them about the song so they can easily explain to others. Some people have said that the song isn't about rape at all and that I'm reaching in my analysis. Others are grateful to have been introduced to Project Unbreakable; the bravery of the survivors coming forward is so inspiring and moving."storify.com
