Parody on Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines
Parody on Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines (Twitter/@All_Trends_IT)

A feminist parody of Robin Thicke's summer hit Blurred Lines, which plays on gender stereotypes, has sparked controversy - because it used half-naked men.

Defined Lines, created by University of Auckland law students Adelaide Dunn, Olivia Lubbock and Zoe Ellwood slammed the original song which featured messages about the size of the singer's penis. Theyaccused Thicke's song of glamorising rape.

Their four-minute clip, which has been watched more than 450,000 times, shows three fully dressed women singing about sexism as they pour whipped cream on the men and pull them around on dog leashes.

It was part of the students' revue show of 40 sketches performed at the SkyCity Theatre.

Lyrics from Defined Lines include: "Boy you'd better quit all your sexist ways, so hear our manifesto of the modern age. It's time to undermine the masculine confines coz we don't wanna grind."

It prompted a strong response from the online community and was briefly removed from YouTube for containing "inappropriate content".

"This video is very sexist, and that is exactly the point. It's showing the men in the audience what it feels like. Please note that you're all very uncomfortable and offended," one viewer said.

"Welcome to the other side of the looking glass. What you're feeling now is how women feel about the Robin Thicke video."

Another wrote: "Men are treated as sex objects quite a lot in the media, the thing is they don't take much issue with it. That's the difference."

While the students described their musical efforts as "a bit of fun" they were keen for the underlying message to be taken seriously.

"Women should be treated equally, and as part of that, we're trying to address the culture of objectifying women in music videos," Lubbock said.

"We want people to think about the original video and some of the reactions people have had to it," the team explained.

"We understand that it is a common theme in the media for particular men to have videos with women frolicking around. But the attitude of the whole thing came across to us as being arrogant, especially with the issue of consent. Some of his lyrics were questionable and a bit presumptive."

Despite Blurred Lines climbing to No 1 across the globe the official video got a negative response for the lyrics and misogynistic undertones.

The video, which featured a bevy of topless models draping themselves over the fully clothed male artistes, was banned from YouTube.

Thicke described the song as a "feminist movement".

"It's supposed to stir conversation, it's supposed to make us talk about what's important and what the relationship between men and women is, but if you listen to the lyrics it says 'That man is not your maker'. It's actually a feminist movement within itself," he added.

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