Sex Sells But At Who

’s Cost. Essay, Research Paper

Sex sells, but at who s cost.

MTV was born through the fusion between radio and television, almost exactly twenty years ago. These were the only two mediums of communication that existed up until the 1950 s through the 1990 s. The creators of MTV (Warner Corporation and American Express) decided by combining these two mediums it would allow them to reach a much larger audience at one time. Fans, of music artists, now had the capability of simultaneously listening and watching the songs from their favorite music artist in the comforts of their home. Combining television and radio revolutionized the way youth looked at and valued music.

MTV has become so pervasive in our culture that contemporary teenagers are sometimes referred to as the MTV generation. The influence of music on young people is as strong as it ever was, and since MTV is offered as part of a basic cable package, its influence is hard to ignore in our televised culture. Around the world, 70 million households have access to MTV and the channel prides itself on being the most popular station amongst the 12 24 year old demographic (Hay sc.8). Throughout this century, music has been an enormous cultural influence amongst young people. MTV has always served as a fortress for young adolescences. They can feel secure about themselves and feel that they have an ownership to MTV that no one can take away from them. It is a connection I too felt growing up with MTV. I knew it was channel that my mom would not watch and I could indulge in it all by myself

Yet when I was growing up, MTV was not the same type of industry it has transformed into today. At least ten years ago, one was able to watch music videos regularly without any hassle. Today all the time slots are locked with reality based shows that have nothing to do with music. It seems to me and others like the creators of MTV Sucks that the music utopia MTV created twenty years ago has completely been demolished. This year, MTV has launched a new channel called MTV2 which is a channel sticking to the original plan of music videos 24 hours a day. The problem with that is that one has to pay an extra fee for the service. Many people and I feel that we are being betrayed by the channel we once grew up with.MTV’s portrayal of women is clearly discriminatory and has an influence on the adolescents who watch it. In 1993, Steve Seidman conducted a fascinating study on sex-role stereotyping in music television. This study was a replica of one from1987, which sought to investigate how different genders were portrayed in music television. Seidman points out that television and music videos teach children how to behave (Bennet & Ferrell, 1987), as well as reinforcing sex-role stereotyping (Beuf, 1974). Another study (Rubin, Rubin, Perse, McHugh & Faix, 1986) showed that music videos have a greater impact on young people than music without video (Seidman sc.2).

It is bad enough that there is a lack of creative diversity in music videos. It seems that every video portrays the same set of characters with similar storylines. The typical scenario is good looking guys and attractive playboyesque girls chasing each other around. These videos that are debuting are inappropriate for the age group that is so dedicated to MTV. Most people will agree that the young females in these videos can be described to being almost naked. It is unnecessary to show so much body parts, because it is disrespecting women as an entire gender.

What is MTV and music artists achieving by endorsing this type of sexual behavior. For the most part the males watching these women are very content because they get to see half naked women,. At the same time their attitudes towards a female will be based on a girl s physical features, rather than focusing on their intelligence and kindness. They are encouraging young females that showing off their bodies will make them feel wanted and ultimately approved by society. Being a woman the roles that males and females play in these shows and videos are very insulting.

What, then, are the stereotypes that are being enforced and how is MTV portraying women. In a study on sex role stereotyping it was shown that women are shown as passive, dependent and emotional (Mayes & Valentine, 1979) (Seidman sc.3). Audiences can even be unaware of the sex role stereotyping that they accept while watching music television (as cited in Hansen & Hansen, 1988) (Seidman sc.3). Seidman’s study showed that the occupations of males and females in music videos are stereotypical. The manual laborers, police, photographers and soldiers were over 90% male, while 85% of the dancers, and all the cleaners, models and prostitutes were female. Overall, the female occupations were socially less desirable. MTV cannot claim that it is reflecting the surrounding society with these roles, as in actuality 13% of the police is female (as opposed to MTV’s 5%) and 28% of photographers are female (as opposed to MTV’s 7%). Rather unsurprisingly, Seidman found that one third of the women wore revealing clothing, compared with only 7% of the men (Seidman sc.8).

MTV’s portrayal of women is clearly discriminatory and has an influence on the adolescents who watch it. In 1993, Steve Seidman conducted a fascinating study on sex-role stereotyping in music television. This study was a replica of one from1987, which