As outlets such as MTV and VH1 are becoming more obsolete, You Tube, Facebook, smart phones, and other media devices have taken their place, allowing society easy access to videos from all music genres. In Cara Wallis’ article, “Performing Gender: A content Analysis of Gender Display in Music Videos,” she addresses this and explains that whether or not the artist is aware of it, stereotypical depictions of male and female interaction and the characteristics of each sex are strongly reinforced. Although some positive portrayals exist, “the ubiquity of stereotypical and highly sexualized gender images in the media, including music videos, can have negative consequences for the mental, emotional, and sexual health of youth, especially adolescent girls and young women.” (161).
In a number of studies, the outcome that consistently was reported is that 1) men are always taller than women, insinuating strength and power for the man (masculine traits), 2) women are typically beautiful, skinny sexualized creatures (feminine traits) 3) men are shown in occupational, dominant settings (the “manly man”), and 4) women often avert their eyes and seem to be psychologically distanced (the “emotional woman”). In music videos, men are shown as having power, dominance and self confidence, where women are precious, fragile and sexual creatures; relating masculine type qualities to men and feminine type qualities to women.
These videos relate certain qualites to certain gender in our society. Since many kids idolize music videos, these artists are most definitely promoting the “ideal” traits for each gender to have- men should be masculine and women should be feminine. Rarely do popular music videos sway from these stereotypes.
In this video you see the man with lots of money, power, and strength (at one point he does a push up with a woman on his back). The women are very feminine with their girly clothes, hair, hanging all over the man, and being sexualized.
Authors: Wallis, Cara1 cwallis@tamu.edu
Source: Sex Roles; Feb2011, Vol. 64 Issue 3/4, p160-172, 13p, 4 Charts
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