Is Twerking Really the Issue Here?

I don't want to go on too long about this because I'm not sure it deserves that much time. However, Miley Cyrus's "twerking" at the VMAs is grabbing a lot of attention while other guilty parties remain largely in the shadows: Robin Thicke and all the bad boys who think swagger is cool.

Thicke's summer hit "Blurred Lines" is gaining a lot of positive traction and is arguably launching his career. In a recent Rolling Stone article Thicke was interviewed as saying as much. 

Rolling Stone gave Thicke's most recent album three and a half stars. Rob Tannenbaum writes, "Thicke is the handsome son of a TV star, but he never incites resentment, because he always seems to be an amiable Joe who's in on the joke of stardom - the George Clooney of the club jam. In an era when Chris Brown remains a sex symbol for many people, his ability to be casual and gentlemanly while also boasting about the size of his rhymes-with-Thicke is nearly a miracle."

Not only is this unfair to Chris Brown, but this just doesn't ring true.  As an audience member, I resent Robin Thicke's attitude toward women as exemplified in "Blurred Lines."  I resent the video that depicts women as nothing more than sexual beings who need to be undomesticated and liberated. Clearly undomesticated, or liberated in this context means crawling around topless on all fours. That to me communicates something else entirely. And this gentlemanly manner Tannenbaum refers to is an absolute fallacy. What, might I ask, is gentlemanly about boasting about the size of your dick? Is Tannenbaum stating that because Thicke didn't hit his girlfriend, but merely had "Robin Thicke has a big dick" scrawled on a wall behind him in larger-than-life letters in his music video, this exemplifies his casual and gentlemanly manner? Misogeny is misogeny. There are no gradations. This is not a miracle. It's a debacle. 

What probably irks me most about the Miley Cyrus, Robin Thicke performance at the VMAs is that her behavior is deemed unacceptable, while Thicke's is viewed as understandable. How else is one to interpret the silence? I don't defend Cyrus's actions. And the more I read about her treatment of the women of color sharing the stage with her, the angrier I get about what she did and what the industry does to perpetuate this type of behavior. But this isn't the first time a woman has been part of a controversial routine and been blamed as the sole perpetrator.

Who could forget the 2004 Super Bowl performance involving Janet Jackson's "nipple slip," as it was termed in the press. How quickly people became blind to the other player in that scenario. Jackson was eviscerated, as if it was all her doing. Let's be clear on this. It was never a "nipple slip." Justin Timberlake ripped off Janet Jackson's clothing. It doesn't matter who coreographed the move. To the naked eye, Timberlake looked like the agressor. So why did Jackson get all the blame? 

I get that musicians want to push the limits. It's deemed sexy to do so.  Different can be intoxicating. I think Miley Cyrus probably felt this way during her performance. But Robin Thicke is old enough to know better. If he's "in on the joke of stardom" maybe he can help us better understand the punchline. From here it just looks ugly.