JILLIAN BORROWMAN

Would you go topless for a music video?

There is nothing unclear about the amount of buzz surrounding the summer’s hit  “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke, featuring Pharrel and T.I. — it’s sexist. If the lyrics don’t cause listeners to pause for a moment, the music video featuring topless women dancing around the (rather creepy) men certainly would.

Search “blurred lines parody” on Youtube and you will find a seemingly endless stream of spoofs — everything from videos about the cougar/cub relationship to the trials and tribulations of tan lines.

Superficial parodies aside, the grand majority of these spoofs are made by feminist groups attempting to narrow in on the bigger issue of sexism promoted by songs like “Blurred Lines.”

One such video, garnering nearly as much buzz as the original, is “Defined Lines.” It was created by three women called the Law Revue Girls from Auckland University. In the video, underwear-clad men are walked on leashes and receive whipped cream facials,  shedding an illuminating light on the ridiculous nature of the objectification of women in Robin Thicke’s misguided attempt at fame.

“Defined Lines” brings to light the unfair sexual expectations of women and the subordinate role many men envision women to naturally assume. While I recommend taking the four minutes to watch the highly entertaining video, I can’t help but feel the internal sigh as I view one more incomplete feminist statement.

One of the things that troubles me the most about the discussions regarding the objectification of women in “Blurred Lines” is the disregard for something seemingly obvious: those girls willingly agreed to go topless in the video for a song which strongly promotes female submission — and they probably didn’t think twice about it.

As a strong and opinionated female, I find that the over-sexualization and objectification of women in today’s culture is disgusting. We do still live in a very chauvinistic world with a great deal of inherent sexual discrimination and misogyny, after all. But, why is it that men are getting all the brunt for an issue that too many intelligent women are allowing to perpetuate?

Take for example Miley Cyrus’ performance with Robin Thicke at the Video Music Awards. Of her own free will, she danced around half-naked and took  initiative to twerk on Thicke. This is the way she’s chosen to represent herself as a successful female performer. Whether we like it or not, young women look up to celebrities like Cyrus — so what will they learn from Cyrus’ own self image?

Viewing the women in Thicke’s video or Cyrus at the VMAS normalizes these sexist depictions in the minds of everyone. As women, we must refuse to self-objectify. Yes, men have sculpted a sexually discriminatory culture, but whenever a woman welcomes objectification it makes it easy for men to treat her as such. It’s a vicious cycle.

It’s unfortunate that male and female celebrities in pop culture more often than not produce objectified and highly sexualized images of women, setting expectations for all that perpetuate sexist ideas and expectations.

Sexism will only cease to exist if both women and men acknowledge their contributions to the problem and make efforts to change.

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Photo: Supplied