Thicke: Slicke or Dicke?

yeah see when guys suggest toplessness introduces a power imbalance to a terry richardson style photo shoot involving famous men in tuxes and anonymous women in hot pants, i really can't help but tease

― da croupier, Friday, June 14, 2013 11:29 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah both versions are just terry richardson photo shoots, don't really know what all of you are on about tbh

if you appreciate something specifically for how it dances on the line between tacky and not, then yeah if a 2.0 version drops a month later that leaps over the line it's a buzzkill. not that hard to understand.

― some dude, Thursday, June 13, 2013 7:30 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

lol rtc

i wouldnt put it past him tbh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTqmiwHHktE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTqmiwHHktE

if you appreciate something specifically for how it dances on the line between tacky and not, then yeah if a 2.0 version drops a month later that leaps over the line it's a buzzkill. not that hard to understand.

― some dude, Thursday, June 13, 2013 7:30 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

― J0rdan S., Friday, June 14, 2013 8:14 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

again, you're both confused if you think anyone doesn't understand why the second was a bonerkill. mocking the self-flattering language you use to defend the boner you had before the bonerkill. can you really argue the blurred lines "dances on the line between tacky and not"? what exactly is that line, pg-13 objectification vs. r? or at that only when the shirts come off there's a power imbalance, or that it's just harmless frisky wtf joy turned dark at that point. you really have to be through the rap video looking glass to think your stance on what's a pig bridge too far isn't arbitrary. and again, i enjoy the video fine but I know it's some sexist shit and bemoaning that an unrated version made the sexism even more blatant is hilarious.

people are mocking the language, i mean

yeah j0rdan stop defending your boner for those naked girls

i'm just suck of him and lex seeing women as nothing but conquest material is that so wrong

i actually thought my needless inclusion of "rap" in front of "video" was going to be someone's chance to claim the high ground while ignoring the point

haha woah obv typo xpost

anyway i'm just lolling at guys claiming their swimsuit issue was turned tawdry by nipple that's all

thicke: sucke or ducke

finally watched the unrated vid (didn't realize vevo wouldn't make me log-in to anything!) and yeah i think i might have liked it more. still had dudes dancing around goofily (plus) still had hashtags (minus) more shots of a giant syringe, fewer of a remy martin bottle and if i'm going to see a bunch of half-naked girls dance around i'm not bothered by them being topless.

not seen or heard but gonna give thicke the unbenefit of the paltry doubt i have and dismiss him as a completely shit fucker whom i have neither the time nor the inclination for, whether he is an important cultural phenomenon or not

yeah i'm gonna rep for unrated one also. both vids are crass and sexist, unrated one manages to be hotter and more ridiculous (at some point you're just like 'good lord throw a shirt on already') plus when emily ratajkowski starts doing that goofy as hell dance w/ her titties out, man that is some cognitive dissonance. video's better than it should be on paper - some schmucks goof around w/ some half naked models, it's a coy 'cherry pie' video really and who needs that, it really does have all the style of a radio shack commercial minus the pathos of a ving rhames or a howie long.

in either version, the best thing about the video is t.i.'s dancing and the worst thing is pharrell's hat

n.b. Pharrell singing "You the hottest bitch in this place" to the goat.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/17/blurred-lines-robin-thicke-s-summer-anthem-is-kind-of-rapey.html

I don't get this. It's a song where a guy is trying to seduce a girl who already has a boyfriend or husband to cheat with him and have wild sex. There are a million songs like this. I don't see any "rapey" lyrics in it.

Like, the girl in the song is apparently grabbing him. There's a difference between saying "I know you want it" (i.e. "c'mon") in that context and, like, shouting "HEY, I KNOW YOU WANT IT!" at a random girl across the street.

The blogosphere requires perpetual outrage

Yeah, once a song becomes that popular, there just has to be clueless thinkpieces about it. When the Gotye song hit #1 there was the dumbest Jezebel post about hey the guy in this song probably wasn't a good boyfriend, he sounds like a creep!

I like Maura's nbd appearance in that article. Once you start singling out pop songs in which the guy sounds like a bit of a creep where do you stop? Lucky for Sting that Every Breath You Take predated Jezebel.

Frannie Kelley too! She's cool, I wish she posted here.

i guess it's a valid topic of discussion but i don't know the song is very obviously about thicke trying to coax a woman out of her shell, not trying to get her blackout drunk so he can fuck her

i guess it's a valid topic of discussion but i don't know the commercial is very obviously about psy trying to coax a pistachio out of its shell

I hate constructions like "kinda (bad thing)y" and "quasi-(bad thing)" that allow writers to demand a defense without outright claiming the offense.

I also don't think it does the end-rape-culture cause much of a service to casually throw around that kind of construction.

Yeah, "kinda rapey" is offensive all round

article itself is appreciated though, at least for showing how much sympathy (or the lack of it) affects ones perception of sexism/sexual aggressiveness.

a lot of the time in cases like this there's a real failure to understand that the visual aspect of pop music may bely the actual substance of the song - especially with mainstream/pop artists, i find their public image (a vague, nebulous thing that lends itself to kinda-constructions) is a lot more conservative/careful/rigid than the actual words they sing

in this case it's annoying b/c there's a valid discussion about misogyny to be had but calling the song "kinda rapey" is not it

Also, the default mode of writing nowadays is flippant. The worst sin is treating serious stuff seriously.

totally. i can't really do humorous writing anyway but i especially can't do it about stuff i know a lot about, or love a great deal. when i can write flippantly it's because i don't really care about my subject

I know there's a whole thread devoted to this tone of voice but I cannot wait for bloggers to stop hiding behind flippant-feeble "erm"s and "kinda"s.

Yeah, uh that skinhead band is a WEE BIT TOO holocausty for my tastes.

Haha

I cannot wait for things that are never going to happen also.

"Lucky for Sting that Every Breath You Take predated Jezebel."

actual lol

i mean i guess the whole 'any song where a man shows a sexual interest in a woman is now rapey' ideal espoused by some feminist blogs is very 'caricature of feminists in pcu' shit

and i mean i STILL listen to a lot of hard rock. so

tbf "i know you want it" is a step beyond the expression of sexual interest. A less sympathetic son of a tv star would get oodles of shit for a song that declares you "the hottest bitch in this place," reaffirms all that stands between you is your "good girl" status, and then offers drugs in the last verse.

also if the well-dressed men surrounded by topless women weren't doing vaudeville routines

kind of wish this feminist internet reaction existed when "give it to you" came out

one of the most uncomfortable songs to karaoke

someone put robin's vocal over puddle of mudd - "blurry lines" to show how much context matters

or just get chad kroeger to cover it

But "I know you want it" is bracketed by him talking about how she's grabbing him, and the earlier "you're an animal" lines seem to indicate that it's not a metaphor...

I dunno. All this stuff is so thorny. And there is so much worse misogyny out there that is actively denying of women's sexual agency, you know?

yeah there is, but if someone's skeeved by robin they're not wrong to be. and while i'm not much for outrage-culling, acknowledging that the cute can be piggish has its value.

Oh sure, and it's not like we're otherwise in some golden era for the way that male-female relationships play out in pop culture, either.