UNC student gets DJ fired for playing 'Blurred Lines' at Chapel Hill pub

CHAPEL HILL, N.C., April 14 (UPI) -- A DJ who was spinning at a pub in Chapel Hill won’t be back after a UNC student complained because he played Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines.”

When the song, which some say has lyrics that promote rape culture, started playing at Fitzgerald’s Irish Pub, Liz Hawryluk approached the DJ box and asked him to turn it off.

After she complained, Hawryluk was either told to leave the bar or leave the DJ area, depending whom you ask.

“Fundamentally, all I was aiming to do is to create a safe space in the Carolina community,” Hawryluk told the Daily Tarheel. “In a lot of ways, violent or graphic images that allude to sexual violence are triggers.”

Hawryluk went on Facebook and began posting to Fitzgerald’s page about the incident, prompting the pub to issue a formal apology.

“This song is played by many DJs at Fitzgerald’s, and other places, but it will never be played here again,” Lauren Shoaf, a spokeswoman for Fitzgerald’s, said in the apology to Hawryluk. Shoaf also noted that the DJ would not be invited back to the pub.

“I just think its totally unacceptable for DJs in a college town -- or anywhere -- to play it,” local DJ Trevor Dougherty said of the controversial song. “As a good DJ you can do better than playing a track that is so overplayed and so insensitive.”

[The Daily Tarheel]