“I realised that there are men who use that same language when taking advantage of a woman.”
Pharrell Williams has said that he is now “embarrassed” by the lyrics to ‘Blurred Lines’ and said that he would “never write or sing” such a track today.
The Happy singer featured on and produced the 2013 Robin Thicke song, which despite its popularity was the subject of much criticism due to its trivialisation of consent.
Williams has since said that the reaction to the song taught him a lot about the issue that he had otherwise assumed was not applicable to him.
“I didn’t get it at first”, he told GQ. “There were older white women who, when that song came on, they would behave in some of the most surprising ways ever.”
“So when there started to be an issue with it, lyrically, I was, like, ‘What are you talking about? There are women who really like the song and connect to the energy that just gets you up.’
“And ‘I know you want it’ – women sing those kinds of lyrics all the time. So it’s like, ‘What’s rapey about that?'”
Later, Williams said that he understood where the criticism was coming from and that eventually, “my mind opened up to what was actually being said in the song.”
“Then I realised that there are men who use that same language when taking advantage of a woman, and it doesn’t matter that that’s not my behaviour.”
“I cared what they were feeling too. I realised that we live in a chauvinist culture in our country. Hadn’t realised that. Didn’t realise that some of my songs catered to that. So that blew my mind.”
At the time, Thicke defended both the ‘Blurred Lines’ lyrics and video, saying: “When a guy’s standing there fully clothed and the girls are naked, I totally welcome the conversation of what does this video say about men and women, but the song itself, the title, ‘Blurred Lines’, is about men and woman are equals.”
The song was banned by multiple universities in the UK.
