So, I was sat in the cafe in college (I was in a free, not bunking) when I started really thinking about what feminism in the modern day is. To me, it's women taking control of their life and their choices and being treated and respected at the same level as men are. Fairly simple really. But to some people, feminism has taken some strange twist, as to where women are not allowed to what they want with their lives because it sets women back eons. Hm. I OBJECT. Women can do what they want with their lives; whether it's becoming a lawyer, a doctor, a waitress, a mechanic or even a glamour model (oh yeah, I said it). Because in all of these jobs, they are in control of what they are doing. They have chosen to be there and are being paid for what they have chosen to do. So why are so many women up in arms about a certain music video in which three women prance about topless? (If you don't know that I'm talking about Blurred Lines- under which rock have you been hiding?) Honestly, I don't have a problem with the video. These women have chosen to do the job and are showing that they are proud of their bodies and really, that they have utter control of the situation. If they didn't want to do the job they would have said no. So why are people saying that they are giving modern day feminism a bad name? Purely; because women are jealous creatures. If we don't have the confidence to strip off and prance about they no one should. Frankly, if I looked like any of the models in the video I'd be walking around naked most of the time. Another key point is that they're models- they are paid for their bodies and therefore to show them off.
However, I do have a problem with the lyrics of the song, which are all about taking a seemingly "good girl" and persuading her that she really does want some wild, crazy sex. Or maybe you should just accept that no is no? In fact I think that the lyrics are pretty disgusting; Just take T.I.'s line of "I'll give you something big enough to tear your ass in two." Um, sorry, what? No thank you, my behind is happy as it is. If you think that I'm complaining over nothing then just take a look at these statistics:
- Approximately 85,000 women are raped on average in England and Wales every year
- Over 400,000 women are sexually assaulted each year
- 1 in 5 women (aged 16 - 59) has experienced some form of sexual violence since the age of 16.
And those are purely to do with rape and sexual assault. Think about the amount of women sexually blackmailed, verbally assaulted or given other unwanted attentions. Songs like this promote the 'rape culture' in which we live in, a culture that sees rape as something that just happens. Something fairly common. Something that some people joke about. In fact a friend of mine said (I stress that eh said this when he was much more ignorant of the issue) that if he didn't have sex by the time he left school, then he would rape someone. He know sees that it was a highly inappropriate comment and has apologised. Anyway, we live in a culture that accepts rape and sexual assault for what it is and many cases go unreported. I do blame songs like this for normalizing what is a truly heinous and hideous crime. If you have been affected by any form of unwanted sexual attention, please don't hesitate to get help:
http://www.rapecrisis.org.uk/Statistics2.phphttp://www.rasasc.org.uk/
If you want to read some more about the issue, check out this article:
http://www.policymic.com/articles/56069/a-feminist-takedown-of-robin-thicke-and-anyone-who-thinks-there-s-something-blurry-about-sexism
Apologies for the heavy topic but I think that it is a serious issue that needs to be addressed.
Love, Em x
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