Big producer and hit maker Pharrell was interviewed by Channel 4 News in England and the interviewer actually did try to start a controversy with the Happy-Get-Lucky man, when he started talking about Robin Thicke’s controversial song ‘Blurred Lines, co-written by Pharrell. The song and the video were very criticized for its sexist content, it was banned in 20 universities, described as ‘rapey’ and attacked for being sexist. But Pharrell’s answer could not have been funnier, but not in a good way if you see what I mean…
He didn’t find a better answer than comparing the line ‘I know you want it’ to a car saleman’s intention: ‘Is it sexually suggestive when a car salesman says to a person who’s trying to buy a car, ‘I know you want it?’
Err,… excuse me if I am not very convinced, does he mean that a woman is a car,… a thing? It was very sexual in the song, right? The interviewer tried to tell him about the context of the song (and the women boobs in the video) to what Pharrell answers:
‘Okay cool. But does that make it off-limits for me to use in a song, especially when the overarching context is that there are good women who also have bad thoughts? If a good woman can have sexual thoughts, is it wrong for a man to have a correct guess that a woman might want something?’
I am sorry but this lost me! Is this the mentality of today’s men or that of 1950? Ouch! All women want to have sex, they want to have sex with me, they have sex in their mind and there’s nothing wrong to take advantage of the situation? And he insists about it later ‘Why should I be uncomfortable? I love women. I love them inside and out. That song was meant for a woman to hear and say, ‘You know, I’m a good woman. And sometimes I do have bad thoughts’.’
Again, that was a lot of good women with bad thoughts! I had never really read the lyrics of the song, but they are made of some direct sexist and dumb misogynistic stuff! Such as ‘OK now he was close, tried to domesticate you/But you’re an animal, baby, it’s in your nature’, and ‘Yeah, I had a bitch, but she ain’t bad as you/So hit me up when you pass through/I’ll give you something big enough to tear your ass in two’… not pushy and rapey? Well I can understand feeling a bit uncomfortable when trying to explain that last one! Pharrell didn’t seem to be doing a good job at defending his song, however the whole thing was ridiculous, the song is stupid to begin with but also far less offensive than anything you can hear in a rap song, right? Plus this ‘Happy’ song was far more offensive to me, pushing happiness on everybody on a tune which could have been used in a million of commercials, what a nerve!