Content area
Full Text
Sex Roles (2011) 64:173191 DOI 10.1007/s11199-010-9766-6
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Sex and the Spectacle of Music Videos: An Examination of the Portrayal of Race and Sexuality in Music Videos
Jacob S. Turner
Published online: 16 May 2010# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010
Abstract This content analysis used two studies to examine sexual behaviors and sex role portrayals in music videos televised in the United States. The first study included 120 videos recorded from MTV, MTV2, VH-1, BET, and CMT and revealed African American videos were significantly more likely to portray sexual content and female characters in provocative clothing than White videos. The second study analyzed 20 videos from BETs late-night program, Un:Cut. Results revealed Un:Cut videos depicted seven times as many sexual acts and featured significantly more discouraged sexual behaviors than videos from the five major music video channels. Findings from these studies clarify that race is an important factor when gender roles and sexual content are examined in music videos.
Keywords Music videos . Race . Sexual content . Provocative clothing . Social cognitive theory
Introduction
This paper describes results from two quantitative content analyses of 140 music videos collected from five popular U.S. cable television stations to foster a better understanding of the ways race relates to differences in sexual content and sex role stereotyping in music videos. Social cognitive theory provides a theoretical foundation for the studies
findings and directs attention to content most likely to be modeled by certain groups of young music video viewers.
The two studies described in this research add to the existing music video literature in a number of ways. First, Study I clarifies (for the 2000s) whether there are differences in the frequency of sexual content in videos performed by African Americans and Whites. Second, Study I examines whether differences exist between African American and White music video characters in terms of provocative clothing. There have been no known attempts to compare the frequency and level of undress of characters according to ethnic demarcations. Study I also compares the frequency and type of provocative clothing worn by females and males to better understand whether divergent sex roles are expressed in music videos through unequal portrayals of sexualized dress. Third, Study II represents a first look at a distinct...