Sexism on MTV: The Portrayal of Women in Rock Videos

Thin ideals in music television: A source of social comparison and body dissatisfaction

“…Viewers may be more aware of and resistant to the efforts of advertisers to influence them (as in television commercials or fashion magazine shots) than they are of actual television content. Content analyses of music videos have revealed a preponderance of video clips that emphasize appearance and feature thin and attractive idealized images of women (Sommers-Flanagan et al, 1993;Vincent et al, 1987). Therefore, the viewers of music television are liable to be exposed to a large dose of precisely the type of video clip used in the experimental condition.…”

“…Content analyses of music videos have shown that, like other forms of popular culture, the portrayal of women is decidedly sexist in orientation with high levels of sex-role stereotyping (Kalof, 1993). In particular, the physical appearance of women is emphasized (Gow, 1996) and they are commonly depicted as thin and attractive, usually provocatively or scantily clad, and often involved in implicitly sexual or subservient behavior (SommersFlanagan, Sommers-Flanagan, & Davis, 1993;Vincent, Davis, & Boruszkowski, 1987).…”

Performing Gender: A Content Analysis of Gender Display in Music Videos

“…Early content analyses of music videos consistently revealed a proliferation of stereotypical gender roles, particularly as these pertained to negative images of women and women as sex objects (Baxter et al 1985;Brown and Campbell 1986;Sherman and Dominick 1986;Vincent et al 1987). Many studies also focused on violence in music videos, finding that males, compared to females, were more likely to be aggressors as well as victims of violence (Baxter et al 1985;Kalis and Neuendorf 1989;Sherman and Dominick 1986;Vincent et al 1987).…”

Sex and the Spectacle of Music Videos: An Examination of the Portrayal of Race and Sexuality in Music Videos

“…Past research shows that music video content from the 1980s and 1990s was sexy (Sherman and Dominick 1986;Hansen and Hansen 2000;McKee and Pardun 1996) but that it also typically emphasized sexual innuendo and suggestiveness rather than overt/explicit depictions (Baxter et al 1985;Gow 1990;Sommers-Flanagan et al 1993). Past research also shows that music videos featured sex role stereotyping (Gow 1996;Hansen and Hansen 2000;Seidman 1992;Sommers-Flanagan et al 1993), sexism (Vincent et al 1987;Vincent 1989), and consistently fewer depictions of female characters than males (Gow 1996;Seidman 1992;Sommers-Flanagan et al 1993). Finally, past examinations show that music videos by African American musical artists in the 1980s and 1990s tended to feature increased levels of sexual content when compared to videos by White artists (Brown and Campbell 1986;Jones 1997;Tapper et al 1994).…”