annoyedAs part of the thing that Miley did, however, she wound up grinding her backside (and, due to her position at the time, her genital region) against Robin Thicke's groin while wearing spanky pants made of what looked like flesh-colored vinyl. No one missed a beat when she did this, including Robin Thicke, so I have to assume that it was rehearsed, and was part of the plan for the performance. Again, still not a good thing, but she didn't start throwing in the over-the-top sexual stuff on a whim: MTV approved this. Her backup dancers learned this. Robin Thicke voluntarily did this.
I have now heard three separate people say something along the lines of "Robin Thicke's wife should slap the shit out of her," and "she should be ashamed." What I'm not seeing, though, are people saying the equivalent things about him. It appears that, to many people, Robin Thicke just materialized on stage as an innocent bystander, where Miley Cyrus proceeded to grind on him, and he didn't push her away because he's a gentleman.
I...wait.
I know this is a weird example to use, but bear with me here: this is actually a really good demonstration of how we tend to treat female "characters" in both real life (celebrities, pop stars, people whose lives are turned into narratives by the media) and fiction. Belle stole Brina's boyfriend! Sharon is a skank! Cassandra is a coward! It's always the women who are to blame, and the men around them are blameless. It's not "Brian left Brina for Belle." It's not "Sharon had consensual sex with Steve." It's not "Connor threatened Cassandra's life and family, so she withdrew." We place the full onus for anything we don't like on the female participants, leaving nothing for their counterparts. And it's just not fair.
Miley Cyrus did a thing. Very few people seem to have liked the thing, and that's on her: she should know her audience better than that. But Robin Thicke did not accidentally wander into the performance. If there's blame to give here, it needs to go both ways.
We need to drop the double standard.
August 27 2013, 01:27:15 UTC 3 years ago
there is indeed a double standard in play here, but in this instance, can we look at the fact that robin thicke is at this point a fairly established "sexy sexualisation sex sex" performer, and I would utterly expect to see some grinding and whatnot in his act. Miley, however, is still fighting to break through her Hannah Montana image.
so the shock and outrage directed at Miley is atleast in part, due to expectations.
should also point out that Thicke copped a lot of criticism for his video. He's already 'paid his dues' in the slut shaming circuit so to speak.
also, in regards to the "his wife should" etc comments. maybe it's not common knowledge, but in literally the one interview i heard with Thicke, he mentioned that he had wanted the song and its clip to be a sort of goofy fun "benny hill" type thing, and when the person directing the video clip (who, for the record, also a woman) was all "we should totally get the girls to drop some clothing" he insisted they still do two versions, incase the topless one was too sleazy. After this, he was planning on dropping the topless version saying he felt it was probably 'too much' and that it 'wasnt needed' , but his wife specifically talked him into releasing it, saying that it was Shit Hot, and that he needed to get it out there.
October 6 2013, 19:05:55 UTC 3 years ago