To raise it with the school as my dd 5 is dancing to 'blurred lines' by robin thicke in her after school dance club?

[leolion]

Hi there, I would welcome your views on the above. Just found out that they have been practicing a dance to the above song at my dd's after school dance club (5 to 7 year olds). I am very very uncomfortable with this. I know the children will not understand the underlying message of the song, but I still find it wrong on so many levels.

I will likely upset a few people as the dance teacher is a mum at the school, and she is otherwise, a great and popular teacher. I know I could withdraw my dd from the dance class but it just seems wrong that this song is even playing in a primary school at all.

So am I being unreasonable to raise it with the head?

[ithaka]

On the NOW 45 CD my 11 year old owns, the rap is omitted from the Blurred Lines song - I think it usually is omitted from the Radio version & I am sure it will have been from the version played in school the OP is concerned about.

Without the rap it is a fun, catchy song, with standard 'I want you' type lyrics you can't really hear anyway. I certainly wouldn't complain the the school about it.

[DuckToWater]

I didn't think it was about women, but about two men. Or a man with a female photographer.

[GiveItYourBestShot]

Ah! Thanks...Now I'm hoping "pulled my sleeves around my heart" isn't a euphimism.

[friday16]

what is You're Gorgeous actually about?

Photographing nude women on the bonnets of cars.

You got me to hitch my knees up
And pulled my legs apart
You took an instamatic camera and
And pulled my sleeves around my heart

(...)

You said my clothes were sexy
You tore away my shirt
You rubbed an ice-cube on my chest
Snapped me 'til it hurt

[GiveItYourBestShot]

Erm...what is You're Gorgeous actually about? (Other than Gorgeous The Greyhound from TFI Friday)

[Bubbles1066]

Whenever I hear Blurred Lines now I sing the Bart Baker parody instead. 'Cause I'm a scumbag, who think's he's so cool....'. So true! They play Gangham Style at my local soft play but have dubbed 'sexy lady' into 'chips and gravy'. Alwas makes me laugh.
YANBU no child of mine would dance to Blurred Lines.

[candycoatedwaterdrops]

"Rapey" again?! Seriously WTF?!

[friday16]

The only bit I object to is the rap, it's totally a totally unnecessary addition to the song

Modern music today, their hair's not long enough, you can hear all the words, it's rather too easy to tell if they're a boy or a girl, etc.

[ILetHimKeep20Quid]

Isn't all rap by the likes of pharrel totally unnecessary?

[monicalewinski]

This is my favourite song this year! I think Blurred Lines is catchy, perfect for dancing to and no worse than many current songs with overly suggestive lyrics. The only bit I object to is the rap, it's totally a totally unnecessary addition to the song.

[Picturesinthefirelight]

Prior to reading this thread I'd only ever heard the radio edit version of the song & pretty much thought it was about a woman who was with a controlling man & the dinger was trying to get her to leave him & go with him instead.

I've not seen the video or read any of this other stuff donuts quite possible the dance teacher is the same

[friday16]

I used enjoy the way DJs assumed Baby Bird's "You're Gorgeous" was a song about, well, thinking your girlfriend is gorgeous.

On the other hand, there was a load of old cobblers when the BBC used that multi-artist version of Lou Reed's song "Perfect Day". A tabloid newspaper speculated that it contained "drug references": some nonsense about a "perfect day" being one when you scored, or something. Nasty old Lou was supposedly writing a coded song about drug use. You did have to ponder why, if he needed to obscure reference to (whisper it) drugs, he'd written, recorded and regularly performed live a song entitled "Heroin" (sample lyric, "'Cause it makes me feel like I'm a man // When I put a spike into my vein"), at some points accompanied by actually shooting up on stage.

[tolittletoolate]

In my dd's dance club they were all dancing and singing to 'I kissed a girl and I liked it' They were all about 6 - 7 yrs old.

[itsn0tmeitsyou]

I remember singing along in the car on the way to school to that 'Girl I want to make you sweat' one.

I'm going to have to talk to my mum about this.

[DuckToWater]

that's quite interesting in itself to see the way there were definitely more that were about sex in the 90s than the 80s. It's been a slow progression, which is why I think it's gone unchecked, and now it's gone way past what's acceptable, imo

I think there are a lot fewer highly sexualised or any any way risque, politically, morally or otherwise songs these days. Teen bands are hardly the Sex Pistols, Mary Whitehouse would approve.

However music videos are (apparently) more sexualised than they used to be. I wouldn't know as I have rarely seen a music video since TOTP finished, and even then I never saw that many. It's not something I really worry about as I (or DDs) would have to search in the depths of Freesat to even find one. Much easier with You Tube I guess, but if ever they are on there, I am always hovering over their shoulders anyway.

[DuckToWater]

I think this is more rapey:

Girl, I want to make you sweat, sweat till you can't sweat no more
And if you cry out, I'm gonna push it some more
Girl, I want to make you sweat, sweat till you can't sweat no more
And if you cry out, I'm gonna push it, push it, push it some more

Thanks to this thread I've now read the lyrics to the Robin Thicke song. I think it's about a girl being with a guy who the singer thinks is not satifsying her sexual needs, and that he could do a better job of it. Quite a common theme. I really don't read it as being about rape. But it's still annoying, sexist and patronising.

[itsn0tmeitsyou]

Can't find your previous post DuckToWater, I've had a good look. I've read a lot of this thread, skim-read the rest - been waiting for someone to make that point about lyrics in past years.

I think it may be the case too, but I can't think of any examples that even get close to this, from the 80s, 90s. There may well be some, but anything I can think of, like as you say, 'Boys, boys, boys, I'm looking for a good time', or 'Touch me, I wanna feel your body', etc, were fussed over at the time I think, and I'm pretty sure in the minority...

Here is a list of 100 hits of the 80s
www.allmusic.com/album/100-hits-of-the-80s-sony-mw0002217625

and of the 90s
www.allmusic.com/album/100-hits-of-the-80s-sony-mw0002217625

Actually that's quite interesting in itself to see the way there were definitely more that were about sex in the 90s than the 80s. It's been a slow progression, which is why I think it's gone unchecked, and now it's gone way past what's acceptable, imo.

[thegoosemama]

ducktowater ..... I think we're on the same page here.

[thegoosemama]

The earth is spherical. That is a fact. Thinking this song is about anal rape and violence is not.

[DuckToWater]

Also what's wrong with rape fantasy? You can fantasise about anything with a partner, it doesn't mean you actually want to be raped, or that they would actually rape someone.

[DuckToWater]

"I know you want it" also features in flirtation. I'm not defending the song but I wonder why in this particular case people are equating the lyrics to rape.

I find the song patronising to women in the extreme - it's really old fashioned I think, women wanting to be a "good girl" and not have sex, or that's how I interpreted it- like some 1950s song. I thought "God, that's annoying!" as did my 8 year old daughter, unprompted, but not "OMG IT'S ABOUT RAPE!"

[thegoosemama]

sash, it also features in talking dirty. No rape fantasies involved.

[DuckToWater]

Bit thoughtful and thought-provoking music that I grew up with, PJ Harvey, Radiohead, Pulp, The Cure, The Smiths, etc etc was NOT like this.

There is plenty of that around now. And there was plenty of absolute drivel around in the 80s and 90s, some of which I referred to earlier. I never heard of most of those bands/artists until my teens and 20s, at school discos it was all pop.

[sashh]

I don't know if "I know you want it" is used in rape fantasy dirty talk. its not something I've ever engaged in.

I don't either. I do know it features in real actual rape.

[DuckToWater]

I can't stand the song, the "Good girl" bit is so annoying. I thought it was sexist crap, like a lot of other songs (and DEFINITELY NOT only recent stuff, in fact I would say there is less now than 15/20 years ago (bloody Chakademus and Pliers, Snoop Dogg, Shaggy etc used to make me cringe in my late teens/early 20s).

I could point out a hundred other dodgy awful lyrics going back 50 years at least. Several by "sainted" people such as John Lennon and Mick Jagger.

I just don't really get the particular fuss with this song. It's like people have just woken up or something.

So I kind of agree with the OP that it's inappropriate, but also I do remember dancing to highly sexualised songs at school discos. Samantha Fox, Sabrina "Let's Go all the Way" (don't know know that was by) and many others.

And the delightful Black Lace - every self-respecting 8 year old owned the album Party Party with Agadoo etc back in the day - also did a song called "We're having a gang bang." Funnily enough that was left off the album.