Just when we were getting used to the idea of not hearing “Blurred Lines” everywhere, Pharrell has offered up the most satisfying defense of the song’s debated-to-death lyrics. “[I]t was misconstrued,” he told Pitchfork in an interview. According to the singer/writer/producer, the titular “line” is not between the yes and no of sexual consent, as some feminist critics interpreted. It’s the line between the female subject’s actual desires and what’s considered socially acceptable for women. “She’s a good girl, and even good girls want to do things,” he explained. “She expresses it in dancing because she’s a good girl.” There’s more:
“The Robin Thicke lyrics are: ‘You don’t need no papers,’ meaning, ‘You are not a possession.’ ‘That man is not your maker,’ meaning he is not God — nor can he produce children or women, for that matter. He’s a man, so he definitely did not make you. There are three kingdoms: the mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom, and the animal kingdom. As far as I know, we are related to primates. What I was trying to say was: ‘That man is trying to domesticate you, but you don’t need no papers — let me liberate you.’”
Benevolent Pharrell is not angry at those who misunderstood.
“People who are agitated just want to be mad, and I accept their opinion.”
Maybe more important, while we were hand-wringing over whether it was anti-feminist to dance to “Blurred Lines,” Williams was staffing his company with women and then writing an album about them. “There’s a certain sensitivity to what I want to express and how I want to express it, so that’s what I want around me,” he explained.