GENDER STEREOTYPES represented in MUSIC VIDEOs
- Simplistic generalizations about the gender attributions, differences and roles of individuals.
- Females: "dotting wife", sensitive, sexy, maternal, voiceless, classy....
- Males: strong, fearless, "bread winners", controlling, entitled, sex driven...
- US NATIONAL LIBRARY: media=the "forbidden fruits", "Developing and sustaining stereotypical gender roles..."
- Music Preferences
Stereotypes of african american men
Asian stereotypes in music videos
- EDUBlog: "I believe that many men and women listen to music and can relate to the lyrics that are being sung. They see themselves being characters in the song. When they finally see the music video they then become the characters in the music video. When they relate to the song, they then want to relate to and follow the roles that are being viewed in the video."
It wasn't easy to find Asian prominence in music videos in our culture because they are underrepresented in the media but for what there is, Asians are portrayed as the basic stereotypes that Americans assign to them, robbing our youth culture of truthful information about the Asian culture.
Music videos take on the stereotype of Black men as the strong, over-sexed, violent black man who lusts after white women
Black men are portrayed as being from two different ends of the spectrum:
They are either seen as being from the “hood” and their music videos usually takes place in a run down neighborhoods or they are viewed as seeing these glorified "pimp" figures
- A pimp in the modern Hip Hop culture refers to a wealthy black male who drives expensive cars, lives in large mansions and is surrounded by multiple beautiful women
- This is seen as what the youth culture should aspire to be, very rich and objectifying women as if they are there just for your pleasure
- This is a misrepresentation of success to young males
- The music video for “Princess of China” by Coldplay and Rihanna is packed full of racist imageryRihanna has chopsticks in her hair that is made up like a Japanese geisha, her makeup was done to accentuate her eyes to make them look more Asian and she acquires multiple arms like a Hindu goddessChris Martin of Coldplay fights off ninjas in a scene that strongly resembles the Chinese film Crouching Tiger, Hidden DragonThe music video is a cultural appropriation with little credit given to anybody of that background. There is a mashing of Japanese, Chinese and Hindu imagery without any significance for all being in the video.
Gagnum style
kayne west's Monster
MUSIC VID: #1
In this music video, Blacks are shown to be the dominant powerful race while white people are represented largely by dead bodies or body parts.
- The media effects argument states that people adjust their behavior according to what they see in the media and they take in what they see to be wholly truthful and acceptable
- The uses and gratifications model states that people use media to fulfill different needs and is how this music video is meant to be viewed.
- This music video is used for the purpose of escapism and entertainment. The thought is required to realize the rappers are sarcastic and want us to understand that they are making fun of how the industry views Black men
The stereotypical and reductive images of Asians is an essential reason for it’s popularity, because PSY is playing the part of the stereotypical pop or hip-hop artist and one can’t help but laugh because he is perpetuating a stereotype so far from what is seen as "normal" for the Asian culture.
- It is completely ridiculous that some Asian man is dancing around in flashy clothes with many women around him but it seem to fit when it’s a black rapper
- Stereotyping is at the core of the parody within this video.
Problems for youth
Young girls are exposed to the faulty idea of what sexuality is and what is considered beautiful from what they see in music videos--Girls transitioning into womanhood believe that to be a woman and to have sexuality you must wear skimpy clothing like they do in the music videos and use their bodies to get attention
Younger people who do not have much knowledge of the world around them will believe that every Black person is ghetto with a criminal record or drug habit because that is what is depicted in these music videos
The reception theory is how the viewer will read into the text, as a meaning of a text to an individual is produced through their own personal experiences but if they do no have a lot of personal experiences with other races, they will take music videos literally and believe these stereotypes to be true. Personal attributes that individuals possess affect how they interpret they text
African American Stereotypes in Music Videos
It has been suggested that teens and young adults who are subjected to these misconceptions might come to believe in them and misperceive social realites and behaviors but also the realities of intergender and sexual content
Parents denounced music videos are represented with the glorification of drugs, sex and the degradation of women which has a detrimental effect on the youth's development
Black women are objectified to the worst discrimination in the music video culture
Black women are portrayed as “hoochies” and are hypersexualized within the videos
The messages that these women portray in these videos demonstrate the ideals that go back to early history
Many music videos include very racist scenes and stereotypes but our society has been conditioned to normalize it.
The history of black women in US Society
Violence erupts
- The links between Black women and their over-sexualized sexuality began in the antebellum south from the slavery era through the Jim Crow period.
The sexual victimization of African American women was rationalized by the malicious claim that Black women are sexual temptresses
The extent of the Black women’s sexuality were viewed to have been so sexually deviant that white men justified the sexual terror and passed a law claiming that black women could not be physically raped because their sexuality was insatiable and impure by nature.
Violence becomes a result of the misconstrued stereotypes exposed in music videos.
- Youth begin to believe that women want to be treated how they are in the music videos
In 2000, at the Puerto Rican day parade, young women were sexually assaulted while being doused in alcohol by groups of men. The video closely resembles many music videos in which the women appear to be enjoying it.
It is easy to see how the younger generation can be easily influenced in various negative ways by what they see on the music videos
Racial stereotypes
in music videos
Music videos provide us with stereotypes of what sexuality is and how different races are portrayed in the music industry and our culture.
- "The objective of stereotypes is not to reflect or represent a reality but to function as a mystification of objective social relations"- Collins
The people who control the content of music videos are powerful white patriarchal males who promote their own values in their direction.
Music videos give younger children and teens a way to learn about themselves
The Effect of music videos on youth culture
MUSIC VID #3 +FUNNY VIDEO
Alexandra, Laura & Rachel
Media Literacy
Citations
Countermedia- effort to limit negative effects of media consumption. (Kirsh)
- “Youth media’s portrayal of romance and sex as joyful and loving, and male-female relationships as equal, may be overshadowed by more frequent depictions of casual, even exploitative, and stereotypical sexual behaviors and relationships."(Christenson et al. 2004; Ward 2003)
- MTV & Kaiser Family Foundation
Sexualization
Motley Crue - Girls Girls Girls
- “Whether it is rock, country, pop, or hip-hop, the presence of female bodies have become one of the easy solutions found by creators of music videos to the problem of how to both get attention and tell a compelling story that connects the music to visually arresting images.” -Dreamworld 3
SeXUALIzation:
sexual Desire and behavior in music Videos
- “The women of the dream world are fragmented and presented as a number of simple and disconnected body parts.” -Dreamworld 3
- "Boyfriend" by Justin Bieber
Sexualization
Collins, Patricia Hill. “Mammies, Matriarchs and other Controlling Images.” Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of empowerment, 2nd ed. 2000.
Dreamworlds 3: Desire, Sex and Power in Music Video. Sut Jhally, writer and director. Media Education Foundation DVD 26, 2007.
Kirsh, Steven J. Media and Youth: A Developmental Perspective. Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. Print.
"Public Education Partnerships: MTV: PSAs - Kaiser Family Foundation." Public Education Partnerships: MTV: PSAs - Kaiser Family Foundation. The Kaiser Family Foundation, n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2012.
"Shake it Baby, Shake it" Media Preferences, Sexual Attitudes and Gender Stereotypes Among Adolescents. Bethesda, MD: US National Library, 2010.
Wirght, Amy. Music Evokes Emotion, Music Videos Promote Gender Stereotypes. edublogs: 2012