Marcia Ratliff/Winonan

We live in a society with great sexual freedom. But when does sexual freedom become exploitation, and vice versa? I hate to say it, but the lines really are blurred.

So Robin Thicke produces a song (and music video) that overtly exploits women, and what happens?

First, it’s a ridiculously catchy song with a magnetic beat. In short, almost everybody knows it and has had it stuck in their heads.

Second, people start listening to the lyrics of the song. Some are amused. Some are disgusted. Some sing them to the squirrels in their backyards. Domesticate ya… and name you Chester.

Third, people see the music video. Well-dressed men treat naked or barely-dressed women like objects, pets, accessories made for pleasure and control.

Some people laugh.

Some people don’t know how to feel. That beat is so addicting…

Some people feel homicidal.

But any way you stack it, like Miley Cyrus’s VMA performance, a song like “Blurred Lines” gets a lot of feedback.

Perhaps you are familiar with the parody of the song that a group of students from Auckland University in New Zealand made. If not, Google it.

In this music video, well-dressed women treat underwear-clad men like the very kind of objects the original video makes women out to be.

When I first saw this video, I was excited. Chalk one up for the gals. Take that, you male chauvinists. Now how do you like it? Make ME a sandwich, or I will emasculate you. With great pleasure.

But then I thought a little harder. A little bit past pathos and into logos. Why is this kind of disrespect, in any direction, a victory?

In short, the parody is gender-based exploitation all over again.

It looks disturbing either way.

Granted, the parody calls attention to the multiple sex crimes suggested—dare I say highlighted? encouraged?—in the original video. But it also mimics the social structure that makes ending such crimes so difficult.

Why does anyone have to be an object?

Or is this just a matter of perspective? Perhaps I am being too sensitive. Some people see rape where other people see a dance party. Some people see objectification where others see art. Some people see porn where others see photography. Some see exploitation where others see burlesque.

It is muddy, and there is an element of personal choice involved.

In my opinion, sex can be so dangerous and so beautiful that it shouldn’t be messed with nearly as much as it is in pop culture today. Too often, pop culture puts emphasis and pressure on norms that are neither healthy nor right.

This goes back to before Hollywood.

But even with my personal convictions aside, what happened to basic respect?

If the purpose of a parody is to cut the other side down to size and hit them where it hurts, the students at Auckland University did a great job.

Behind the parody, however, I hope there were the kinds of ideas that actually make changes in society. Ideas like respect and equality—ideas that, as author Paul Loeb pointed out in his presentation last week, last a lot longer than any political or social movement.

Contact Marcia at [email protected]