Robin Thicke accused of groping Emily Ratajkowski whilst filming Blurred Lines video

The singer allegedly sexually assaulted the model during the filming of the controversial music video in 2013.

Robin Thicke accused of groping Emily Ratajkowski whilst filming Blurred Lines video

American supermodel Emily Ratajkowski has alleged that singer Robin Thicke inappropriately groped her on the set of the music video for his controversial hit song Blurred Lines in 2013. The model, who is now 30, claims that Thicke groped her bare breasts from behind during the filming of the video. The track featured two other half-naked supermodels, who joined musicians Thicke, Pharrell Williams and rapper TI, all of whom were fully clothed. In the lyrics to the song, Thicke, who is now 44, sings: “I know you want it”. The lyrics, alongside the video, were accused of glorifying rape culture, leading to the song being banned by some nightclubs and university campuses.

Ratajkowski’s allegations have been written in her book, My Body; she described the situation by writing: “Suddenly, out of nowhere, I felt the coolness and foreignness of a stranger’s hands cupping my bare breasts from behind,” adding,  “I instinctively moved away, looking back at Robin Thicke. He smiled a goofy grin and stumbled backward, his eyes concealed behind his sunglasses. My head turned to the darkness beyond the set.”

She said that Thicke had made her feel “naked for the first time that day” but that she was “desperate to minimise” the actions. The model mentioned, “I pushed my chin forward and shrugged, avoiding eye contact, feeling the heat of humiliation pump through my body, I didn’t react – not really, not like I should have.”

The director of the video, Diane Martel, states that she screamed at Thicke after seeing his behaviour, she said: “I remember the moment that he grabbed her breasts. He was standing behind her as they were both in profile.” According to both Ratajkowski and Martel, Thicke was drunk at the time of shooting, and that  after being caught out, he “sheepishly apologised” and praised Ratajkowski’s professionalism.

Martel said that the video was intended to convey subverted power dynamics, placing men in an inferior position compared to that of the women who ignored and mocked them. The assault compromised any kind of female empowerment, Ratajkowski stated: “With that one gesture, Robin Thicke had reminded everyone on set that we women weren’t actually in charge. I didn’t have any real power as the naked girl dancing around in his music video. I was nothing more than the hired mannequin.”

In 2015, Blurred Lines was in a similarly controversial position, after it was awarded in court that Marvin Gaye’s children would gain $7.4m (£5.5m), after finding that Thicke and Williams lifted their father’s music for the song.

Header Image Credit: "Robin Thicke @ Yahoo! Music 1" by Redfishingboat (Mick O) is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Author

Ash Edmonds

Ash Edmonds Kickstart

A graduate of Music Journalism from BIMM Brighton – where he now lives – Ash has been writing about everything creative for the past few years. An avid audiophile, he spends a lot of his time searching streaming platforms, record stores and live shows trying to find his next musical obsession.

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