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I’m not even sure Robin Thicke could have seen this coming.
His single Blurred Lines has been a constant source of media attention.
From the original music video that was banned from Youtube in March and later flagged as ‘inappropriate,’ to the countless parodies that exploded on the internet in response to the suggestive lyrics, to blogs and articles calling the song indicative of rape culture, and of course, that performance with Miley Cyrus at the VMA’s, We’re pretty sure Robin’s PR team are patting themselves on the back right about now.
And, just when things were starting to die down, one of the parody versions of the song was banned and Robin Thicke was in the news again.
The parody, made by three Auckland University law students titled “Defined Lines” was briefly banned from YouTube because it was flagged by users for containing inappropriate content.
The spoof-version satirises Thicke's song with a music video that replaces the naked models with bare-chested men in submissive poses.
Some have argued that the lyrics in the parody are discriminatory towards men. This is laughable of course seeing that Robin Thicke’s entire defence of his raunchy lyrics was to hyperbolise female sexuality in a tongue-in-cheek way. Therefore, what goes for the goose must go for the gander.
The original version, complete with three naked models who strut their stuff wearing nothing but shoes and nude-coloured panties is still on the website having received over 17 million hits.
But don’t worry – users need to sign in and verify their age before viewing the video, which obviously makes it ok.
The irony was the hardest thing. That a feminist parody of a blatantly sexist video can be banned, but the much racier original stays free and open for all, got women and men all over the world up in arms.
Olivia Lubbock, who features in the video, said she was surprised to hear that the video had been taken down.
Rather than playing up to the air-headed female stereotypes often seen in music videos, the trio are urging woman to “resist chauvinism” and their message is really is just that we think that women should be treated equally, and as part of that, we're trying to address the culture of objectifying women in music videos,” Lubbock told New Zealand Newswire.
It wasn’t long before YouTube realised their mistake and the video was reinstated.
The video-sharing site released a short statement saying:
“With the massive volume of videos on our site, sometimes we make the wrong call,” it said in a statement.
“When it's brought to our attention that a video or account has been mistakenly removed or suspended, we act quickly to reinstate it.”
So the video is back and it looks like common sense reigns supreme. For now, at least.
Watch the banned parody version here:
Follow Women24 on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
His single Blurred Lines has been a constant source of media attention.
From the original music video that was banned from Youtube in March and later flagged as ‘inappropriate,’ to the countless parodies that exploded on the internet in response to the suggestive lyrics, to blogs and articles calling the song indicative of rape culture, and of course, that performance with Miley Cyrus at the VMA’s, We’re pretty sure Robin’s PR team are patting themselves on the back right about now.
And, just when things were starting to die down, one of the parody versions of the song was banned and Robin Thicke was in the news again.
The parody, made by three Auckland University law students titled “Defined Lines” was briefly banned from YouTube because it was flagged by users for containing inappropriate content.
The spoof-version satirises Thicke's song with a music video that replaces the naked models with bare-chested men in submissive poses.
Some have argued that the lyrics in the parody are discriminatory towards men. This is laughable of course seeing that Robin Thicke’s entire defence of his raunchy lyrics was to hyperbolise female sexuality in a tongue-in-cheek way. Therefore, what goes for the goose must go for the gander.
The original version, complete with three naked models who strut their stuff wearing nothing but shoes and nude-coloured panties is still on the website having received over 17 million hits.
But don’t worry – users need to sign in and verify their age before viewing the video, which obviously makes it ok.
The irony was the hardest thing. That a feminist parody of a blatantly sexist video can be banned, but the much racier original stays free and open for all, got women and men all over the world up in arms.
Olivia Lubbock, who features in the video, said she was surprised to hear that the video had been taken down.
Rather than playing up to the air-headed female stereotypes often seen in music videos, the trio are urging woman to “resist chauvinism” and their message is really is just that we think that women should be treated equally, and as part of that, we're trying to address the culture of objectifying women in music videos,” Lubbock told New Zealand Newswire.
It wasn’t long before YouTube realised their mistake and the video was reinstated.
The video-sharing site released a short statement saying:
“With the massive volume of videos on our site, sometimes we make the wrong call,” it said in a statement.
“When it's brought to our attention that a video or account has been mistakenly removed or suspended, we act quickly to reinstate it.”
So the video is back and it looks like common sense reigns supreme. For now, at least.
Watch the banned parody version here:
Follow Women24 on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
