I’m starting to think I should rename my blog to “My Unpopular Opinion.” The more and more I become involved with my Gender and Women’s Studies major, the more I grow frustrated with popular culture and our society’s overall tendency to gloss over issues of gender and sex discrimination and violence. Racial issues are at the forefront of media headlines and news stories, but why are we hiding victims’ stories about instances of rape, sexual assault, and harassment? Sure, we want to protect victims and their privacy, but where is the justice? Just this week, one of my classes watched the documentary Invisible War about sexual assault and violence committed mainly against women, but men as well, in the United States Armed Forces. Issues of indoctrination associated with institutions such as the military make it difficult for female victims to report crimes and see justice. If we can’t make substantial headway in this sector of sexual violence, where can we start?
Please stop telling there is no such thing as rape culture. I’m still not finished with “Blurred Lines” because THAT is the epitome of rape culture in the United States: a song and music video that blatantly excuses and dismisses sexual rights and further promotes desensitization to media that perpetuates violent and discriminatory language and action. Rape culture is the songs on the radio, the tweets we scroll past, and the commercials we watch that reinforce rigid gender roles, the subordination and shaming of women, and allusions of non-consensual intercourse. Rape culture is not only the ACTIVE promotion of media that insinuates rape as permissible, it is the PASSIVITY of media consumers who tolerate, excuse, and otherwise ignorantly redistribute discriminatory media.
So, for those of you that told me to “back off” Robin Thicke, did you miss his most recent music video “Get Her Back”? Maybe Pharrell had a large hand in the composition of the “Blurred Lines” lyrics and video, but Thicke CHOSE to perform those words and MADE MONEY singing a “kind of rapey” tune. As for “Get Her Back”, Thicke has truly outdone himself in true misogynistic form. In the video, Thicke croons about his now ex-wife Paula Patton and his desperation upon losing her. The video features fabricated text messages regarding why the relationship failed. Thicke insistently sings about his quest to rekindle the relationship, despite the female character’s (portraying Paula) attempts to distance herself from Thicke’s character, including a denial of intercourse. The video is simplistic, with dark lighting and grey tones throughout, but frequently cuts to Thicke losing control and displaying bursts of anger and frustration that the woman won’t take him back. The blood appearing on his face as the video progresses implies a physical altercation of some sort, be it self-inflicted, and there is a blatant allusion to suicide because the woman in the video is unresponsive to his pleas. Bravo, Thicke. You have only dug a deeper hole.
Thicke’s summer release brings me to Miguel’s latest single, “How Many Drinks”. Miguel, with Kendrick Lamar, sings here about using alcohol as a motivator for a woman to come home with and sleep with him. “How many drinks will it take you to leave with me? // “Back of my mind I’m hoping you say 2 or 3” // “I ain’t leaving alone” – Yet, Miguel seems to know he’s in the wrong… “One question, am I moving too fast?” If we know there really are no “blurred lines” when it comes to consent, why does he need alcohol to change her mind and persuade her to engage in sex with him?
No worries, because rape culture is only perpetuated in hip-hop. NO! May I present Maroon 5’s newest single, “Animal”. “Baby, I’m preying on you tonight” // “Hunt you down eat you alive” // “Maybe you think that you can hide” // “I can smell your scent from miles”. We’ve moved past rape and entered an entirely new realm of sexual harassment and violence in this stalker anthem. Levine, while reducing women to some form of savage, carnal prey, manages to actually support active stalking and relationship violence, despite the woman’s initial ignorance of his stalking behavior and avoidance of the perpetrator in the club scene. Nothing in the song’s lyrics suggest that the bloody sex scene in the video’s conclusion would be consensual, yet it appears to be so, if it is supposed to be real at all or merely a sadistic fantasy of the stalker. Whether this video attempts to play out a carnal or BDSM fantasy or not, the video is dehumanizing and discredits actual victims of stalking whose perpetrators stalk, harass, and even harm their victims. THIS is rape culture.
