Yeah, well, I liked it. Mod Carousel explains:
… It’s our opinion that most attempts to show female objectification in the media by swapping the genders serve more to ridicule the male body than to highlight the extent to which women get objectified and do everyone a disservice. We made this video specifically to show a spectrum of sexuality as well as present both women and men in a positive light, one where objectifying men is more than alright and where women can be strong and sexy without negative repercussions.
Can’t remember where I first ran across this, but to quote Nanny Ogg: “Shocked, no — surprised, yes!” Mad props as well to Caela Bailey, Sydni Deveraux, and Dalisha Phillips…
Also, thank you commentor Starfish:
Southern Beale
Sure didn’t see this coming on the WaPo Opinion page:
Is this a joke?
NotMax
Music?
Bernstein conducting the Shostakovitch 9th.
(And no, he doesn’t quite twerk on the podium.)
Yatsuno
@Southern Beale: What. The. Fuck. Over?
Southern Beale
@Yatsuno:
I blame Bezos.
Alison
@Southern Beale: Was just tweeting some rage about that. I mean…what in the actual fuck. And how low does she think we should allow it? 14 is okay, how about 13, or 12, or 10?
I mean. And newspapers wonder why they’re losing money.
Robert
This is the best response I’ve seen to that awful Blurred Lines song. What Rhymes With Hug Me? generates alternate lyrics to the song that actually rhyme with “Hug Me.” However, it defaults to a very accurate reading of the songs meaning.
As for actual parody songs, I think “Lame Lines” takes the cake. It’s a much truer parody of the shocking video but actually addresses the messaging problem with the song.
Southern Beale
@Alison:
Why stop at teachers? What about family members? Doctors? Youth pastors and scout leaders? Etc.
Suffern ACE
I’m thinking Louis CK is not going to have a lot of fun reading his email tomorrow.
Alison
@Southern Beale: Seriously. I mean, jeez lady, I’ve read Anne Rice’s ephebophiliac erotica too, but I didn’t think it was a fucking LIFE MANUAL.
cyntax
@Southern Beale:
As a teacher and a parent: words fail.
Upon reflection, it seems WaPo has decided not just to call Slate’s contrarian-ness but go all in.
Southern Beale
So, you know you’re old when you’ve never heard of Robin Thicke until the whole MTV awards catastrophe with Miley Cyrus.
I had to Google “Blurred Lines” because I had no clue. So it’s basically beautiful women with incredible bodies prancing around half naked while a fully clothed Robin Thicke salivates.
Same as it ever was.
Southern Beale
@cyntax:
I’m guessing it’s click-bait? Yes?
Yatsuno
@Southern Beale: There’s click-bait and there’s advocating for the sexualisation of children. TEENAGERS ARE STILL CHILDREN FOR JEEBUS’S SAKE!!!
RobertDSC-PowerMac G5 Dual
Perhaps instead of striking Syria, the President can launch Tomahawks at the WaPo building. Grotesque.
Culture of Truth
I never liked that song anyway way. Although I did like Robin Thicke on ‘Growing Pains’
mdblanche
This week in outreach: GOP congressman is also an immigrant from a backwards benighted land while Mitch McConnell (R-Sala-ma-sond) has changed his mind on the VAWA after it was time to vote on it but before it was time to run for reelection.
@Southern Beale: “Is this a joke?”
The Washington Post? Yes.
Suffern ACE
@RobertDSC-PowerMac G5 Dual: well he might as well. The right wing contingent of My FB feed has latched on to the idea that the Saudis provided chemical weapons to the rebels who accidentally set them off, so the whole “we must strike now” is an attempt to get the UN inspectors to pull out before we end up in the difficult position of having to sanction the Saudis. Anyway, I don’t think he’s going to be able to get the normally war happy right convinced. Might as well take out the Post staff as a diversion.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: Isn’t that T&H’s schtick?
lou
I tried to avoid Robin Thicke until I saw this parody. Oh. my. god. what brilliance the parody is.
Comrade Mary
Speaking of catchy covers featuring beautiful, dancing men in eyeliner, I love love love the entire package here. (Thank you, Jann Arden, when you guest-hosted Q and introduced me to it.)
Mnemosyne
@efgoldman:
I hope to God this editorial isn’t in response to the teacher who got 30 days in jail for raping a student even after she committed suicide. Because then it’s even more tone-deaf, if that’s possible: No one I knew in high school committed suicide after having sex with a teacher, so that couldn’t have been why that girl killed herself!
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: Isn’t that a little beneath you, your honor?
Kind of like that girl 20 years your younger was underneath you. OH!!! Snap!
Corner Stone
Shit. I just noticed this was an AL thread.
Peace out.
Suffern ACE
@Mnemosyne: yep. It is indeed about that very thing.
mdblanche
@Mnemosyne: Have your barf bag ready before reading further.
Mnemosyne
@Suffern ACE:
Wow. And here I was hoping I was wrong.
But I guess somebody’s always gotta figure out how the victim was to blame, no matter what.
Mnemosyne
@mdblanche:
Ewwww.
I mean, yes, there is a HUGE difference between an adult molesting a pre-adolescent child and an adolescent/young adult having sex with an older adult. Once you get to, say, 16, the lines start to blur (which is why 16 is not an uncommon age of consent) and the problem becomes the power dynamic between the two (is there a spoken/unspoken quid pro quo for grades or other preferment?), not the sex per se.
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: Meh.
cyntax
@Southern Beale:
Just market forces at work. As Bezos would say.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: That’s a little sad. I had hoped she had at least invoked sufficient passion from you that after she said you were through you stalked her, poured paint thinner on the hood of her car and then proceeded to break into her place through the side sliding glass patio door with a silenced .22 and made sure she understo…*
Ok. So…”meh” it is then.
Good to know.
*no bullshit, my former macro-econ prof actually left his wife and did something like this with one of his students. No one was injured during the telling of these stories.
Mnemosyne
There was a really interesting story in the New Yorker last year about a prep school called Horace Mann in New York City where one of the teachers basically groomed a student every year … and sometimes several at once. It did not have a universally positive effect, shall we say, though really they only had one or two successful suicides, so were the students really harmed?
/snark
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: She went back to Europe at the end of the academic year. It was expected; also, she was not my student.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: God. You so-called stodgy Mid-Westerners. That’s some serious kink going on if I’ve ever heard it.
Good for you, your honor!
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: You know nothing, Corner Stone.
Rex Everything
Am I supposed to be against the Blurred Lines video? Can’t keep track. But fuck, those girls are gorgeous. If someone wants to make another vid with guys I don’t give a fuck. Go for it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Rex Everything: The biggest problem I have with it is the preemptive lawsuit Thicke filed against Marvin Gaye. I mean, fuck it, give him a writing credit and don’t be an asshole.
NotMax
@Corner Stone
Channeling Davey Wavey?
Rex Everything
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, that’s a good point.
Omnes Omnibus
@Rex Everything: The song is still catchy as hell.
Rex Everything
@Omnes Omnibus: It is indeed.
Omnes Omnibus
@Rex Everything: But it is nothing compared to this. I say it is arguably the greatest pop/rock/funk song of all time.
ETA: The original version by Prince. Tegan and Sara’s cover is good. But, god damn, I doubt that there is an album as good as Dirty Mind.
RoonieRoo
@Robert: Thank you for those parody videos. I’ve been having an argument on another board with this woman who contends that the whole VMA thing proves that Miley is a “skank” and other words where Blurred Lines/Robin Thicke is just a playful, harmless romp. Seriously.
Robert
@RoonieRoo: That’s the talking points at a lot of websites. Don’t you know that Robin Thicke is a good man married to his loving wife who would never have wandered if it wasn’t for that Disney strumpet?
Rex Everything
@Omnes Omnibus: This post makes me wish Balloon Juice had a “like” button.
KimInGa
@Omnes Omnibus: Believe it or not, a really great cover of When You Were Mine was done by Mitch Ryder back in the early 80’s. I used to love listening to the 2 versions one after the other for the contrast.
Groucho48
Neat concept video. The actual video didn’t deliver, though. It was way too awkward in its choreography.