Weird, awkward and downright creepy. Robin Thicke’s new track and video for ‘Blurred Lines’ ft. T.I., Pharrell has been criticised for its 'rapey' lyrics.

Have we travelled back in time? Are women no longer regarded as free thinking individuals? Clearly not according to Robin Thicke, singer, actor and self-selected lothario, who teams his new track’s toe-curling lyrics with an equally degrading and blatantly misogynistic video. This hasn’t happened by accident – oh no – Mr. Thicke hasn’t just thrown a giant fake dice, an exercise bike and his bezzies T.I and Pharrell into a giant studio, proceed to corner a bunch of nearly naked models and then gotten surprised by peoples’ outrage.

“We tried to do everything that was taboo - bestiality, drug injections, and everything that is completely derogatory towards women,” proclaimed Thicke in an interview with GQ, not exactly helping his cause. He continues to describe the “pleasure” he took in degrading women, “I’ve never gotten to do that before. I’ve always respected women” – as if that somehow absolves him from all future wrongdoings towards women forever.

Watch the unrated video of 'Blurred Lines' (NSFW)

Indeed, his music vid does little to hide the fact it is unashamedly sexist: a fully dressed Thicke, T.I and Pharrell prowl around each coquettish, plastic bikini-clad girl, tugging their hair like leashes and whispering such sweet nothings into their ears as “I know you want it.” My knees are weak. “You da hottest B**ch in this place!” charms Thicke, pawing at mute models as they strut around in their underwear as a self-important “#THICKE” hashtag appears intermittently, as if informing irate viewers exactly where they can go to deride Thicke and slam his vile video.

Thicke hasn’t just blurred the lines with his latest track – he’s smashed through the barriers of what’s acceptable to produce a frankly quite dull video that tries too hard to be sexy. The video has amassed well over 50 million views of its ‘censored’ version on YouTube – how many of those were impressionable young minds who are still forming realistic ideas about the boundaries between playfulness and non-consentual sex.

The Daily Beast’s Tricia Romano summed up the offensive impact the 36 year-old R&B veteran’s track had created: “The subject [of the song] itself is enough to make some female music fans uncomfortable. The song is about how a girl wants crazy wild sex but doesn’t say it -- positing that age-old problem where men think no means yes into a catchy, hummable song.” He might have never harmed a woman in his but the message the song and his vulture-like pimp image in the video are sending a different message: that it’s okay to move into rapey territory every once in a while, just as long as your track record’s good.

Thicke’s new album Blurred Lines is out on the 30th – we’ll leave it up to you to decide.

Robin Thicke Oscars
Thicke is being criticised for the archaic lyrics of 'Blurred Lines'

Robin Thicke 106&Park
What sordid ideas does he have masked behind those glasses