VH1 has given Twitter users the chance to ask Robin Thicke any question they like. Considering the fact that Robin Thicke’s current public image is “total creep,” this may not have been the best decision.
The #AskThickehashtag has already been flooded with questions that Thicke will never in a million years want to answer, such as, “What form of sexual or emotional abuse will you be normalising in your next jaunty hit?”
Have a burning question for @robinthicke? Submit your ?s for tomorrow's Twitter Q+A using #AskThicke! pic.twitter.com/LwWKWlBysg
— VH1 (@VH1) June 30, 2014
Is there more to human existence than the brain reacting furiously to the chaotic onrush of unceasing external stimuli? #AskThicke
— Seventy Legs (@ncguk) June 30, 2014#AskThicke What's it like being the human personification of a mid life crisis?
— TechnicallyRon (@TechnicallyRon) July 1, 2014#AskThicke Did anyone on your team have the sense to warn you this would be a terrible idea?
— Jamie McKelvie (@McKelvie) July 1, 2014Best known for the song "Blurred Lines" (which at best was pretty misogynist, and at worst was literally a song about rape), Thicke’s latest single, "Get Her Back," has courted similar controversy. The song and video are supposedly an attempt to persuade his ex-wife Paula Patton to come back to him, but many people have interpreted this as a public way of harassing her into submission.
In other words, he got famous thanks to a song about failing to respect the choices and desires of women, and then followed this up with an entire album about how he doesn’t respect the choices and desires of his ex-wife. As a result, there are way more #AskThicke questions about his dubious attitude toward women than there are about anything else.
#askthicke don't you think you should maybe consent to your poor ex-wife getting a restraining order against you at this point?
— Little Mousling (@LittleMousling) June 30, 2014
If she categorically stated that she didn't want it, would you let that stop you? #AskThicke
— QueenofSuburbia (@QueenofSuburbia) July 1, 2014
Why are we bothering to #AskThicke ? We all KNOW he wants it. No permission needed.
— Charlotte Tiger (@Charlotte_Tiger) July 1, 2014#AskThicke Define 'rape'.
— fran (@iamsodonexoxo) July 1, 2014#AskThicke What has been your favourite way of hurting your wife? a) cheating b) public humiliation or c) stalking?
— Sally Morrison (@doc_sally) July 1, 2014It’s really not clear why Thicke or his PR people thought this was a good idea in the first place. Either he’s one of those celebrities who lives by the maxim of “any publicity is good publicity,” or he genuinely does not realise how many people think he is a sexist creep.
We won’t be surprised if the planned Q&A is cancelled, but for now, we feel bad for whichever long-suffering VH1 employee has to sift through the #AskThicke hashtag in search of some “real” questions.
Dear PR intern, please, please, please read ALL of these tweets to Robin Thicke. He likes it when it gets 'nasty'. #AskThicke
— Bare Reality (@BareReality) July 1, 2014Photo via Wikimedia Commons