Pharrell Williams's second album, G I R L, will be released on Monday and received praise from Billboard for its "feminist" overtones and "ode to the creative" power of women. Which makes his participation in last year's much-discussed "Blurred Lines" all the more puzzling. In a new interview with Pitchfork, Pharrell clears up the confusion by clarifying Robin Thicke's lyrics, which were criticized for their attitude towards women and sexual consent:
It was misconstrued. When you pull back and look at the entire song, the point is: She's a good girl, and even good girls want to do things, and that's where you have the blurred lines. She expresses it in dancing because she's a good girl. [Pitchfork]
In Pharrell's interpretation, the "lines" aren't of female consent, but the divide between progressive women's desires and societal norms. That doesn't justify the video's featuring of nude women and clothed men, but it's definitely one of the better explanations of the pack.