Literary Review

Portrayal of Women and Sexuality in Music Videos.

Female Stereotypes

In a article titled How Rock Music Videos Can Change What is Seen When Boy Meets Girl: Priming Stereotypical Appraisal of Social Interactions an experiment by Christine Hansen and Ranald Hansen observed the portrayals men and women in rock music videos alter impressions formed by men and women seen interacting. During this process it was concluded that these interactions in rock music videos perpetuate sex roles. .” The Council on Communications and Media authored an article about the effects of music, lyrics, and videos in Impact of Music, Music Lyrics, and Music Videos on Children and Youth article covers information ranging from lyrics to music videos. One interesting topic covered was a survey they conducted of 4th grade children and how many times they watch MTV. 74% of them answered that they watch music videos on MTV quite frequently. The article also covers many types of sexual messages in music videos. Sexual stereotypes result out of these videos and many of them are false stereotypes of women. In a review of Dreamworlds 3: Desire, Sex and Power in Music Video, Sut Jhally discusses the dangerous effects of music videos to gender roles of men and women in society. These videos portray both genders in a “fanaticized” light thus creating body image issues for people across the nation. The documentary discusses how the music industry uses sex and portrayal of the female figure to amp up visual appeal and draw more attention to audiences.


Music Video Content

During Influence of Sex and Violence on the Appeal of Rock Music Videos an experiment was in two parts. The first part asked participants to rate the visual content from high, low, or moderate in relation to sex and violence in music videos. The second part asked participants to record their emotions towards the content they observed. The effects on appeal of the video where mainly based on music arousal. The appeal of arousing music was positive to the positive emotions in videos with of “sexier” content.


Female Artist Portrayal in Music Videos

In Performing Gender: A Content Analysis of Gender Display in Music Videos Cara Wallis conducted a content analysis in which she researched gender display by male and female performers in music videos. She observed 30-second segments from 34 music videos from both MTV and MTV 2. 12 nonverbal displays where associated with subordination, domination, sexuality, and aggression. 253 units were coded concluding that women are portrayed as both subordinate and sexual objects as men as portrayed as aggressive. .” Libby McKenna formed focus groups where participants sat and surveyed the female artists portrayals in their music videos in Audience Interpretations of the Representations of Women in Music Videos by Women Artists. Many respondents felt female artist portray themselves as fake. The general result concluded that women in these videos portray themselves the way that male fantasies would. Not only did the participants feel this was unrealistic but they also felt that it influenced their body image.


Female Sexual Portrayal: Attire and Behavior.

In What’s Happening on Music Television? A Gender Role Content Analysi” Rita Sommers-Flanagin and John Sommers-Flanagin conducted a content analysis of MTV. They took 40 music videos from the channel and surveyed 30 seconds of each. According to Sommers(1993), “Women engaged in significantly more implicitly sexual and subservient behavior and women were more frequently the subject of explicit, implicit and aggressive advances.” Sexuality in music videos can be portrayed by the alluring clothing or lack of clothing for that mater. Authors Julie Andsager and Kimberly Roe discuss 2 decades worth of research on sex in music videos in ‘What’s Your Definition of Dirty Baby’ Sex in Music Videos. From their research, they concluded that artist have become increasingly shocking with the material in their videos. Girls, Women and Media Project is a website formed with information about the media’s affects upon teenage culture. With the amount of TV teens watch in today’s society, it’s no surprise that teenage girls are affected by the portrayal of women in music videos. Sut Jhally(1995) said, “a study from the mid-1990’s shows that 90% of the top 100 music videos shown on MTV were directed by men.” These videos shed a false light on the female race, portraying them in skimpy attire and grinding all over male artist. But even the female artists make themselves appear “sexier” in their music videos. This website also discusses that most of the content specific networks like MTV is based around sexual content. In Do the Depictions of Sexual Attire and Sexual Behavior in Music Videos Differ Based on Video Network and Character Gender, Keith King observed MTV, BET, GAC, and MTV2 to look at the sexual attire and sexual behavior present in music videos. For two weeks, these channels were recorded for an hour and then observed to collect the data. The study concluded that females in sexual attire made more frequented appearances then males in sexual attire. It also concluded that female sexual behavior was greater then male sexual behavior.

Summary From Review: Previous research on women and sexuality in music videos follows a consistent trend: female stereotypes are misrepresented. In order for the music industry to draw viewer attention to music videos, many artists feel the need to fill them with piquant material. Unfortunately this has caused channels like MTV, Fuse, and BET to be filled with sexually stimulated content. According to battlecry.com, “3% of boys and 78% of girls between the ages of 12 to 19 watch over 6 hours of MTV every week.” This statistic is mind blowing considering teenagers in this margin are going through puberty and dealing with body image. According to the research I have found, female subjects are not only frequented most in music videos but they are also depicted in sexual attire and behaving lewdly over men.