The popularity of hip-hop music among today’s college students is influencing more than students’ choice of radio stations.
A new study by Michelle Kistler of Washington State University and Moon Lee of the University of Florida found that hip-hop fandom plays a significant role in consumers’ attitudes about objectification of women and sexual permissiveness. There study was published in the journal Mass Communication and Society.
Typical hip-hop videos of today present young women as props. They are featured for a fraction of a second, just long enough to shake their butts, and the camera moves on. The men in these videos are the performers, while the women are seen dancing provocatively with fewer clothes on than the men. This description is quite common for hip-hop music videos, which has researchers and the U.S. Congress interested in its effects.
Hip-hop culture as seen in music videos has become heavily influential on young people’s views of sexuality. Young adults utilize entertainment media as a source of information about sexuality and sexual health. Such media exposure clearly feeds questions among researchers regarding the possibility of subsequent unhealthy attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors among young people.
The study found that men who were shown highly sexual hip-hop videos expressed higher levels of objectification of women, stereotyped gender attitudes, and acceptance of rape myths compared to those who watched no videos. On the other hand, no increases in levels were noted among the female participants.
The researchers were, in fact, surprised to find that women who saw hip-hop videos, whether they were highly sexualized or not, were less supportive of the objectification of women than those who were not exposed to hip-hop videos.
Media is a powerful agent of socialization in the lives of young people, particularly on sensitive topics such as sex and sexual attitudes. The complete research project was just released in the journal Mass Communication and Society.
