After Youtube ban, Robin Thicke rejects 'ridiculous' claim that 'Blurred Lines' trivialises rape

The singer said he couldn't 'dignify ridiculous criticism with response'

Robin Thicke has responded to “ridiculous” criticism that his single ‘Blurred Lines’ trivialises sexual violence and objectifies women.

In response to criticism from a rape charity that the song "reinforces rape myths", Thicke said: “I can’t even dignify that with a response, that’s ridiculous."

He also clarified what the lyrics to the song, which include the line: “Nothing like your last guy/ He don’t smack that ass and pull your hair like that,” meant to him.

He said: “For me it’s about blurring the lines between men and women and how much we’re the same…and then there’s the other side of it which is the blurred lines between a good girl and a bad girl, and even very good girls all have little bad sides to them.”

Last month a spokeswoman from Rape Crisis, a charity that raises awareness and understanding of sexual violence, told The Independent that the lyrics “seem to glamourise violence against women and to reinforce rape myths”.

She said: “Certain lyrics are explicitly sexually violent and appear to reinforce victim-blaming rape myths, for example about women giving 'mixed signals' through their dress or behaviour, saying 'no' when they really mean 'yes' and so on.”

But Thicke told Radio 1 that the song only caused controversy among “extra religious people”. He added: “I don’t want to be sleazy, I’m a gentleman, I’ve been in love with the same woman since I’ve been a teenager. I don’t want to do anything that’s inappropriate.”

He said the idea to film an explicit video with naked women dancing around him and co-collaborators Pharrell Williams and T.I was the idea of director Diane Martel.

He added that it was his wife’s idea to put the explicit video, which has been banned by YouTube, out on the internet.

“My initial response was I love the clothed version, I don’t think we should put out the naked version. And then I showed it to my wife and all of her girlfriends and they said, ‘You have to put this out, this is so sexy and so cool,’” he said.