The music video for Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" has garnered plenty of attention both positive (in its sheer number of hits received) and negative (in accusations that it promotes misogyny with its scantily clad models gallivanting around in their skivvies). The video has inspired commercials (such as Thicke promoting Beats products using the exact same schtick) and countless parodies. One Seattle group finally managed to reverse the gender roles without adding commentary on unfair gender relations.
Mod Carousel, a "boylesque" group, brought in female vocalists Caela Bailey, Sydni Devereaux and Dalisha Philips to replace original vocalists Thicke, Pharrell Williams and T.I. The boys take the place of the models, wearing their own skimpy, beige bottoms. Very little else changes between the original version and the cover, with just male/female pronouns being switched and a few lines being cleverly changed up to fit the theme. For example, the line "you're the hottest b---- in this place" becomes "you're the hottest d--- in this place." There are also some props that get shuffled as to place the focus on the male physique, again versus the original. One of the female singer's suggestively eats a push-pop popsicle, and one of the guys chases a vocalist with a sword in a classic Shakespearean phallic sense.
Mod Carousel explained in the description on its YouTube post that it had no intention of criticizing objectification of the female body, but rather wanted to demonstrate that it was only fair to present attractive male bodies in the same way.
"It's our opinion that most attempts to show female objectification in the media by swapping the genders serve more to ridicule the male body than to highlight the extent to which women get objectified and does everyone a disservice," read the statement. "We made this video specifically to show a spectrum of sexuality as well as present both women and men in a positive light, one where objectifying men is more than alright and where women can be strong and sexy without negative repercussions."
