Robin Thicke, Justin Timberlake and the Blurred Lines of Offensiveness in a Society with Tunnel Vision

See what I just did there with the title???

Me. FTW.

I know that I am too angry to write about it still, so I'm forcing myself to write about something else. 

I got a few suggestions, but the one that seemed to draw the most interest was the current controversy about nudity, offensiveness and artistic exception.

A few months ago, when the video for Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines was released, youtube refused to air the uncensored version, stating that it violated their rules about decency because the video contained almost constant images of nude models dancing to the song.

You can watch the unedited NSFW version here.

A clean version of the video was produced, with the same models scantily clad, but the language was left mostly unchanged, leaving words like bitch in the lyrics. In addition, there is a point towards the end of the video where the words Robin Has A Big D flash across the screen.

I think we all know he's not talking about capital letters.

Wink, wink.

That song stirred controversy for reasons beyond the video as well, with many claiming that the lyrics were "rapey" because the phrase you know you want it repeats throughout the song.

My first reaction was that the song is a song, and what those lyrics mean are subject to interpretation. If you put it in the context of the rest of the song, it's doesn't seem to have anything to do with rape in my opinion. Risque sexual encounters, maybe, but not rape. I chalked that part of the controversy up to people's tendency to overreact to everything these days. Besides which, there have been a great many songs with far more suggestive, disturbing or victimizing lyrics in the history of music.

If you don't like it, don't listen.

As for the youtube controversy, I get youtube's point. I despise censorship, but I can see where they don't want to be a platform for anything that could be deemed pornographic, though where the line gets drawn between porn and women just being naked is obviously subject to interpretation. People in the United States have a very sheltered view of nudity, and sexuality for that matter. Nude bodies are just that - bodies. p.s. everyone is naked under their clothes. 

We sexualize and objectify women here because that's the American way, right? But then we'll turn around and take all those images, condemn them and deem them offensive because they might make our tingly parts tingle. 

Whatever.

Everyone likes boobs. If you say you don't, you're lying.

There is nothing offensive about nudity and sex is kind of required to perpetuate society. So there.

Anyway, I was on youtube's side initially, as I have young kids who could spend all day watching videos and I don't necessarily want them to see naked women dancing. The solution to that presented itself when they made another controversial decision to allow Justin Timberlake's video for Tunnel Vision, unedited, saying that it fell under the artistic exception and the nudity was acceptable given that standard. They have age restricted the video, but it remains on the site in the unedited version as well as the radio edit clean version.

JT gets the age restriction, Thicke just gets banned.

The youtube editing gods seem to be saying that JT's video is artsy enough to slide by, but Thicke's video is dirty and can't be aired, drawing some arbitrary line about offensiveness with an exception that includes some musicians, but not them all.

Last time I checked, they were both R&B singers with wicked falsettos and a ton of sex appeal. Maybe JT's label just did a better job lobbying for his video. I tend to think that JT's video is actually more sexually suggestive, but obviously they didn't ask me. Who knows?

I think they are both great, and though I generally love JT like mad, I think Blurred Lines is the better song of the two.

The lesson to be learned here based on one video being okay and the other not....if you want to get naked bodies online, use dim lighting, a slower tempo and slow motion. Use a white background, bright lighting and fast music and you're screwed.

We like our naked in the dark.

'Merica.

TERIMA KASIH ATAS KUNJUNGAN SAUDARA
Semoga artikel ini bermanfaat bagi saudara. Jika ingin mengutip, baik itu sebagian atau keseluruhan dari isi artikel ini harap menyertakan link dofollow ke https://fashionclothes7.blogspot.com/2013/07/robin-thicke-justin-timberlake-and.html. Terima kasih sudah singgah membaca artikel ini.