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“Blurred Lines”: Robin Thicke and Madonna Ciccone between Madonna and Whore



Author(s)

Hartmut Heep

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DOI:10.17265/2328-2177/2014.01.003

The Pennsylvania State University

Robin Thicke’s song “Blurred Lines” rekindled the debate about women who must choose an existence as Madonna or as whore. Biblical archetypes, such as Eve and Mary, are normative role models for women, even within secular societies. This study follows a pre-Fall Eve, who experiences shameless sexual pleasures, to a post-Fall shamed Eve, to the Virgin Mary, who is mother but virgin. Robin Thicke’s video “Blurred Lines,” and Madonna Ciccone’s various videos reclaim sexual pleasures for women outside of sin. Close readings of several visual texts will show that how meaning is redistributed among signifieds by deconstructing and redefining conventional signifiers, such as virgin and whore.

gender studies, religious studies, popular culture, feminist theory, social theory