Regardless of where you stand on the “Is ‘Blurred Lines’ rapey?” debate, the video for the summer R&B megahit from Robin Thicke is clearly ripe for a bit of light-hearted critique. With its topless ladies orbiting around Thicke’s reportedly impressive, um, masculine prowess, “Blurred Lines” takes part in a kind of female objectification and dudely preening so blatant that it demands to be taken down a notch.
Though a few people have tried with entries on YouTube, my favorite parody so far comes from the twinky guys of gay porn company Helix Studios—and not just because I’m gay. (Note: The video is more or less SFW, depending on how your boss feels about booty shorts on young men.)
The trouble with Thicke’s original video, as I see it, is not so much that women are bouncing objects, but rather that the dudes (Thicke, Pharrell, and T.I.) involved never man-up enough to stop awkwardly watching and justify their swagger. If Thicke is as well-endowed as he claims in the video’s balloon-scripted boast, why not doff that suit for a minute, join his good girls’ frolic, and prove it? Helix, meanwhile, makes sure that all participants are equally subsumed by their “animal” (read: barely clothed) natures, taking Thicke’s carnivalesque scenario to its logical—and more equitable—conclusion: If skin is going to be shown and sexual lines blurred, everyone should have to play.
Previously
“Blurred Lines” Gets Its First Great Mashup
