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Contributions of Music Video Exposure to Black Adolescents’ Gender and Sexual Schemas L. Monique Ward, Edwina Hansbrough and Eboni Walker Journal of Adolescent Research 2005; 20; 143 DOI: 10.1177/0743558404271135 The online version of this article can be found at: http://jar.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/20/2/143

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JOURNAL 10.1177/0743558404271135 Ward et al. /OF MUSIC ADOLESCENT VIDEO EXPOSURE RESEARCH / March 2005

Contributions of Music Video Exposure to Black Adolescents’ Gender and Sexual Schemas L. Monique Ward Edwina Hansbrough

University of Michigan

Eboni Walker

Spelman College Although music videos feature prominently in the media diets of many adolescents, little is known of their impact on viewers’ conceptions of femininity and masculinity. Accordingly, this study examines the impact of both regular and experimental music video exposure on adolescent viewers’ conceptions about gender. Across two testing sessions, 152 African American high school students completed survey measures assessing their regular media usage and gender role attitudes, and later they were exposed to either four stereotypical music videos or four nonstereotypical music videos and responded to additional measures examining their attitudes about gender. As expected, more frequent music video viewing was associated with more traditional gender role attitudes and with assigning greater importance to specific stereotypical attributes. Similarly, students exposed to videos laden with gender stereotypes expressed more traditional views about gender and sexual relationships than did those who had viewed less stereotypical content. Keywords: gender roles; media effects; African Americans; music videos; sexual attitudes

Understanding society’s definitions of masculinity and femininity is a central aspect of social development. Conceptions about gender role norms are acquired early and expeditiously, with evidence that children amass a great deal of information about gender by age 5 (for review see Golombok & This research was supported by a postdoctoral research fellowship from the Ford Foundation. An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2002 biennial meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence, New Orleans, Louisiana. The authors would like to thank Andrew Smiler and several anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts. Address correspondence to L. Monique Ward, Psychology Department, University of Michigan, 525 E. University Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1109; e-mail: ward@ umich.edu.

Journal of Adolescent Research, Vol. 20 No. 2, March 2005 143-166 DOI: 10.1177/0743558404271135 © 2005 Sage Publications 143

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Fivush, 1994; Ruble & Martin, 1998). However, gender learning does not end here. With age, gender knowledge becomes more refined and extends into new domains as children enter adolescence and initiate sexual relationships. Indeed, some propose that the salience of gender role norms may actually intensify during this time (Hill & Lynch, 1983; Huston & Alvarez, 1990). Although the exact form of the gender concept varies by theory, the general assumption is that the knowledge accumulated is stored in rich associative networks or gender schemas, which contain information about the roles, behaviors, and traits traditionally associated with each sex (Bem, 1981; Liben & Signorella, 1987; Martin & Halverson, 1981). Gender schemas both organize our knowledge about gender and guide how new gender-related information and experiences are attended to, perceived, and processed. Although content for gender schemas is drawn from many sources and experiences, likely contributors are the mass media and television in particular. With its appealing images and dynamic character portrayals, television offers numerous examples of what it means to be a woman or a man; examples that include sitcom moms and dads, commercial spokesmodels, music video artists, and professional athletes. Moreover, American children watch an average of 3 to 4 hr of television each day, spending more time with television across the course of a year than in a classroom or interacting directly with their parents (Hofferth & Sandberg, 2001). The models that television provides, however, are not always ideal. Analyses indicate that the bulk of television portrayals construct rather narrow views of the sexes, depicting women mostly as sexual objects, caregivers, or subordinates and men as leaders and aggressors (Arnett, 2002; Davis, 1990; Signorielli & Bacue, 1999; Ward, 1995). Because encoding each stereotypical representation involves activating relevant gender schemas, media exposure is likely to play a critical role both in shaping schema content and in promoting their chronic availability. Sex and Gender in Music Videos One arena where images of powerful and dominant men and of sexually objectified women are especially prevalent is in the world of music videos. In existence since 1981, music videos represent an important area of study both because of their popularity with younger viewers (85% of the Music Television, MTV, audience is aged 14 to 34; Baxter, De Riemer, Landini, Leslie, & Singletary, 1985) and because love and sex predominate as themes (Andsager & Roe, 1999; Brown & Campbell, 1986; Greeson & Williams, 1987). As a visual, story-telling format with little time to devote to deep characterizations, music videos often rely on shortcuts and cultural stereotypes,

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working to convey a point with a quick cut, image, or gender role cue (Andsager & Roe, 1999; Aufderheide, 1986). Moreover, this genre has been reported to be more gender segregated and male dominated than other genres, with findings that between 56% and 84% of the artists and leads in the videos are males, as are 90% of directors (Andsager & Roe, 1999; Brown & Campbell, 1986; Gow, 1995; Sommers-Flanagan, Sommers-Flanagan, & Davis, 1993). As the stars and heroic leads of the videos, males are typically portrayed as adventurous, dominant, and aggressive (Arnett, 2002), with a heavy emphasis on posturing and attitude and on their being wanted by and sexual with attractive women (Orange, 1996; Sandusky, 2002). Portrayals of masculinity heavily emphasize the importance of virility, strength, and power, both physical and emotional. For women, analyses indicate that their treatment is predominantly condescending and sexist, with a focus almost exclusively on their physical appearance and sexual appeal (Andsager & Roe, 1999; Seidman, 1992; Vincent, 1989). Dominating is the role of women as decorative objects designed to please and entice men (Gow, 1995). As a result of this focus, music videos have been found to contain a great deal of sexual imagery, reported to appear in 47% to 76% of videos (Baxter et al., 1985; Gow, 1995; Sherman & Dominick, 1986). As summarized by Arnett (2002), If there is such a thing as a typical music video, it features one or more men performing while beautiful, scantily clad young women dance and writhe lasciviously. Often the men dance, too, but the women always have fewer clothes on. The women are mostly just props, not characters, not even people, really. (p. 256)

Because only a limited range of roles, looks, and behaviors are presented and rewarded in music videos and because sexual appeal is the dominant focus, concern has been raised about the potential impact of these images on adolescents’ developing gender and sexual schemas. Several studies have attempted to investigate this issue, with most focusing on viewers’ attitudes about casual sex. Among those investigating students’ regular music video viewing, evidence indicates that frequent exposure to music videos is associated with higher estimates of the real-world prevalence of certain sexual behaviors (Buerkel-Rothfuss & Strouse, 1993; Ward, 2002) and with stronger support of both premarital sex and traditional sexual roles (Strouse & Buerkel-Rothfuss, 1987; Strouse, Buerkel-Rothfuss, & Long, 1995). For example, Ward (2002) reported that frequent music video exposure predicted stronger acceptance of women as sexual objects among undergraduate women and predicted more traditional gender role attitudes and stronger sup-

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port of dating as a game among undergraduate men. Looking at both seventh and eighth graders, Strouse, Goodwin, and Roscoe (1994) found that greater involvement with popular music and music videos was associated with more accepting attitudes toward sexual harassment. Short-term exposure to music videos has also been found to be influential. Students exposed to sexual and sexist music videos (as labeled by the experimenters) were more likely to offer support of premarital sex (Calfin, Carroll, & Shmidt, 1993; Greeson & Williams, 1987) to endorse the notion that sexual relationships are adversarial (Kalof, 1999), and to be more accepting of teen-dating violence (Johnson, Adams, Ashburn, & Reed, 1995) than were students without this exposure. Moreover, evidence indicates that laboratory exposure to stereotypical music videos can alter viewers’impressions of realworld people observed in similar contexts, often making neutral behavior appear more sexualized and making actions that fit stereotypical gender schemas seem more favorable (Hansen, 1989; Hansen & Hansen, 1988; Hansen & Krygowski, 1994). Thus, findings from both survey and experimental work reveal connections between music video exposure and students’ beliefs about gender roles and sexual relationships. The Current Study Despite the promise of these findings, any conclusions drawn about the impact of music videos remain tentative because of limitations of both the samples tested and the assessments of gender schema content and media use. One concern is the limited diversity of the students sampled. Because nearly all studies employed predominantly White samples, mostly undergraduates, little is known of the impact of music video exposure on minority adolescent viewers, one of their central target audiences. In adolescence, teens experience heightened gender awareness and increased music involvement (Arnett, 1992; Huston & Alvarez, 1990) and may be particularly vulnerable to images of gender and courtship ideals (Arnett, 1995). Moreover, African American children and teens have consistently been noted to consume more media than Whites and members of other ethnic minority groups, even after controlling for socioeconomic status (SES; Blosser, 1988; Greenberg, 1993). In a recent national survey of children and adolescents aged 8 to 18, White students reported watching an average of 2 hr and 47 min of television a day (Roberts, Foehr, Rideout, & Brodie, 1999); the mean for Black students approached 5 hr. If media images are expected to have the greatest impact on those who view them the most, then Black children and teens may be especially at risk. Moreover, evidence suggests that videos from musical genres that are especially popular among Black teens, such as rap and hip hop, may contain

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more sexual content than do videos from other musical genres (Tapper, Thorson, & Black, 1994). In one study, 60.7% of videos on Black Entertainment Television (BET) were found to contain sexual content compared to 26.3% of videos on MTV (Hansen & Hansen, 2000). Similarly, Jones’s (1997) analysis of videos from four channels reported that hip-hop videos contained more images of fondling, sexual dancing, and simulated intercourse than did all other musical genres. Results from qualitative studies support these empirical findings, noting that the sexual scripts in Black music videos reinforce stereotypical images of Black women and men as hypersexual, amoral, and materialistic (Emerson, 2002; Stephens & Phillips, 2002). Images of Black male-female relations are reported to be equally limiting, depicting heterosexual relationships as adversarial, equating sex with power and status, and characterizing sex as a sporting event (Sandusky, 2002; Stephens & Phillips, 2002). If sexual content and sexist themes dominate music videos in general, it appears as if videos oriented to Black adolescents may be especially explicit and stereotypical. A second limitation is that most studies in this area have examined the influence of music videos on viewers’ sexual attitudes (e.g., their endorsement of premarital sex), with less attention to videos’impact on viewers’gender role attitudes and conceptions of masculinity and femininity. As multidimensional constructs, however, gender schemas contain information about several aspects of gender, including notions about the typical appearance, attributes, behaviors, and skills of each sex (Ruble & Martin, 1998). Accordingly, we argue that a critical way in which media exposure is likely to affect gender schemas is by defining what is normative and what is ideal for each sex. Although links between media use and gender ideals have not been tested directly, evidence suggests that media exposure may be an important variable to consider. First, findings indicate that many of the traits perceived as desirable by American teens focus on aspects of appearance and social status, two features heavily emphasized by music videos. For example, cross-national studies examining teens’ opposite-sex ideals found that being sexy, having good looks, having lots of money, and being fun were qualities perceived as most important by American teens (Gibbons, Richter, Wiley, & Stiles, 1996; Stiles, Gibbons, & Schnellmann, 1990). This was not the case for adolescents of other countries, for whom liking children, intelligence, and kindness and honesty dominated as ideals. Second, in one of the only studies to test this link indirectly, Tan (1979) found that after viewing 15 beauty commercials, high school girls judged beauty to be more important to be liked by men and for themselves, personally, than did girls exposed to nonbeauty commercials. We expect, then, that frequent and directed exposure to music video content

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that highlights the importance of physical appearance, status, and material worth would lead adolescent viewers to assign even greater importance to these features in their own gender ideals. A final concern is the lack of attention to features of individual viewers that may affect both the experience of media content and the nature of its effects. It is a virtual truism in media research that effects of media content are selective (Dorr, 1986; Harris, 1994; Steele & Brown, 1995), occurring for some of the people some of the time, depending on a number of content and viewer variables. Because teens come to the screen with specific needs and beliefs that guide their viewing choices, what they take away will depend on aspects of both the content and themselves. It should be expected, then, that how adolescents experience and connect with music video content should influence the extent of its impact (Bandura, 1986; Rubin, 1994; Steele & Brown, 1995). Evidence to support this expectation can be drawn from several areas. For example, aspects of viewers’ demographic backgrounds, such as gender, race, and age, have been found to influence their interpretations of sexual or romantic media content (Brown & Schulze, 1990; Kalof, 1993; SilvermanWatkins & Sprafkin, 1983; Ward, Gorvine, & Cytron, 2001). Various aspects of viewer involvement have been shown to be influential as well, with stronger effects on social attitudes emerging for television content rated higher in realism and for content with which viewers more strongly identify (Baran, 1976; Potter, 1986; Ward & Rivadeneyra, 1999). Thus, examining aspects of viewers’ demographic backgrounds and experiences of music video content might help to identify the types of viewers who are most likely to be affected. In summary, evidence indicates that through music videos, adolescents are exposed to stereotypical images of women and men, images that reify sexual objectification and hypermasculininty. What contributions might such exposure make to their developing gender and sexual schemas? Building on existing research, this study sought to address this question, examining the impact of both regular and experimental music video exposure on Black adolescents’ beliefs about femininity, masculinity, and male-female relations. Grounded in gender schema theory (Bem, 1981; Martin & Halverson, 1981) and media-priming theory (Jo & Berkowitz, 1994), our general assumption was that exposure to the stereotypical content of music videos primes stereotypical gender schemas, which influence subsequent social judgments and impressions. With each priming, these schemas become stronger and more accessible (Bargh, 1984; Higgins & King, 1981). The more accessible certain schemas are in memory, whether chronically or acutely, the greater the likelihood that they will be used to guide judgments and behavior.

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Based on these premises, this study worked to address three central research questions. First, we examined whether frequent exposure to music videos and to other forms of mainstream media, such as movies, would be associated with holding more stereotypic conceptions about gender. Focusing on viewing amounts as the influential mechanism, we expected that frequent exposure would be associated with adolescents’expressing more traditional conceptions of masculinity and femininity and with their attributing greater importance to stereotypical attributes, such as sex appeal. Second, we examined whether laboratory exposure to stereotypical music videos would prime stereotypic schemas, leading to a stronger endorsement of traditional conceptions of masculinity and femininity. Here our expectation was that exposure to the stereotypical content of music videos would temporarily prime stereotypical gender schemas, which would then be employed in responding to subsequent real-world material. In this way, viewers exposed to sexist content were expected to offer stronger endorsement of related stereotypes than viewers exposed to more neutral content. Finally, because media effects tend to be selective, we conducted exploratory analyses examining which individual-viewer variables strengthen or weaken media exposure effects. More specifically, we explored how viewers’ demographic backgrounds (e.g., age, gender, religiosity) and involvement with the content (defined here as general enjoyment and liking, identification, and perceived realism) help determine who is most at risk. METHOD Participants Participants were 152 African American high school students (70% female) attending a summer enrichment program at a large, midwestern university. Students participated in this study as part of a seminar on media images and later engaged in group discussions and projects on the topic. Participants ranged in age from 14 to 18 (M = 16 years), with relatively equal representation of 9th, 10th, and 11th graders. As a proxy for SES, information was obtained about parental education levels, which fell at 14.7 years of schooling for participants’ fathers and 15.2 years for their mothers, indicating some postsecondary education. Because the gender composition of the home may influence students’ gender role stereotypes, participants were asked to list their primary caregivers during childhood. In this sample, 72% of students were raised by a woman and a man, and 24% were raised by a woman only.

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To assess religiosity, the following three questions were used, each measured on a 5-point scale anchored by never or not at all and very or very regularly: 1. How religious are you? 2. How often do you attend religious services? 3. How often do you pray?

Responses to each question were scored from 0 to 4 and were then summed across the three questions to produce a religiosity score for each participant (α = .77). The mean for this sample was 8.7 of a possible 12. Measures Media measures. The first measure assessed the number of hours participants watch prime-time comedies and dramas, generally taken as the base of many students’media diets and the focal point of much media research. A list was provided of all comedies and dramas on the six major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, UPN, and WB) that had aired regularly (at least four times) across the past 3 months. Using a 5-point scale anchored by 0 (never or not this season) and 4 (every week), participants indicated how often they had viewed each of the 90 programs during the previous school term. Average monthly viewing hours (prime hours) were then calculated based on the frequencies with which each program was viewed and the length of the program. Using open-ended items, participants were then asked to indicate the numbers of hours in a typical day that they watch music videos, watch sports events or programming, and listen to music. To assess their level of movie viewing, participants were asked three questions that examined their monthly viewing of movies on cable or satellite, at a theater, or on rented videotapes. Responses were summed across the three questions to produce a movie-hours score for each participant. Emerging from these questions, then, were the following five media exposure variables: prime hours, music video hours, sports hours, music-listening hours, and movies. To examine the impact of exposure to specific stereotypical content, we selected a mix of commercial rap and hip-hop music videos that were in frequent rotation on BET. A team of research assistants first screened dozens of music videos recorded from weeks of BET programming. For the experimental stimulus, four music videos were needed that were high in content emphasizing the following stereotypes: women are sexual objects, men are “players,” men are emotionally and physically hard, sexual relationships are adversarial, and material wealth is important, especially as a symbol of

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power and masculinity. For the control stimuli, we sought four music videos that did not emphasize these stereotypes. Based on these criteria, four videos were chosen for each condition. Each of the eight videos selected was then evaluated for content validity by an outside, eight-person, multiethnic panel of undergraduates, graduate students, and one professor. Each video was evaluated for the presence of the gender and sexual stereotypes described above using a 7-point scale anchored by not at all present and a strong presence. The mean rating for the four videos in the experimental condition (M = 5.47) indicated a relatively strong presence of the themes under study and differed significantly from evaluations of the four videos selected as controls, M = 1.3, t(32) = 18.115, p = .0001. Gender stereotype measures. Three measures were used to examine students’ endorsement of gender and sexual stereotypes. The first measure, the Attitudes Toward Women Scale for Adolescents (ATWSA; Galambos, Petersen, Richards, & Gitelson, 1985), assessed participants’ general attitudes about the roles and appropriate behaviors of women and men. Respondents rated their level of agreement with each of 12 statements using a 4-point scale anchored by strongly agree and strongly disagree. Sample statements include “swearing is worse for a girl than for a boy,” and “boys are better leaders than girls.” Responses were averaged across the 12 items to yield a mean gender role attitudes score for each participant, with higher scores reflecting more traditional attitudes toward gender. The authors report alpha levels of .78 and .72 for boys and girls in Grades 6 through 12, which are comparable to the coefficient of .72 obtained in this study. The second measure, Sexual Stereotypes, examined participants’ beliefs about sexual roles and relationships. Created for this study, this measure was a revised version of the Attitudes Toward Dating and Relationships measure (ATDR; Ward & Rivadeneyra, 1999), which reflects stereotypical themes about relationships common both in the larger culture and on television. For this study, we selected and adapted several items from the original ATDR measure, added three items from Burt’s (1980) Adversarial Sexual Beliefs Scale, and created several new items to better reflect themes appearing in music videos. The resulting Sexual Stereotypes measure consisted of 22 statements reflecting the following themes: Men are sex-driven creatures, women are sexual objects, and dating is a game or recreational sport where status and looks dominate. Students were asked to rate their level of agreement with each of the statements using a 6-point scale anchored by strongly disagree and strongly agree. Responses to the 22 items were then subjected to a principal components factor analysis conducted using SPSS version 6.1 for

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the PowerMac. To determine the degree to which the items load together on one factor, no rotations were used. Including only those items loading at .45 or higher on the main factor and not loading higher on any other factors, analyses indicated that 15 items loaded onto Factor 1. With an eigenvalue of 5.24, this one factor accounted for 23.8% of the variance and produced factor loadings that ranged from .70 to .45. Reliability analyses were then conducted with these 15 items; one item was dropped to improve reliability, yielding the final 14-item Sexual Stereotypes measure provided in the appendix (α = .83 for the whole sample; α = .80 for the controls). The final gender measure examined students’ feminine and masculine ideals. Drawing from the literature in this area (Gibbons et al., 1996; Stiles et al. 1990), we created two measures that asked students to rate the importance, for each sex, of possessing eight specific attributes. For each measure, participants were asked, “How important do you think it is for a man (woman) to have each of the following qualities?” and were asked to rate each quality from 0 (not at all important) to 8 (very important). Included on each measure were the following qualities: athletic or in good shape, intelligent or good student, cool or stylish, daring or risk taker, physically attractive or “fine,” nice or polite, funny or good sense of humor, and has money or nice things. Qualities selected reflected both the superficial and stereotypical emphases of many media portrayals, as well as more substantive qualities, often encouraged by parents. Based on principal-axis factoring employing a varimax rotation (SPSS version 6.1), two factors emerged. One factor, later labeled FLASH, contained the attributes of athletic, rich, attractive, and cool and worked well in characterizing both women (α = .80) and men (α = .77). The second factor, later labeled SUBSTANCE, contained the items of nice, intelligent, and good sense of humor and held together well in describing both women (α = .84) and men (α = .75). The eighth attribute, daring or risk-taker, fell out of the factor analyses. Factor loadings for each item are provided in Table 1. Procedure Students participated in large groups across two sessions. During the first session (N = 148), students were introduced to the study in one large group and completed measures assessing their regular media use, gender role attitudes (ATWSA), and masculine and feminine ideals. During the second session (N = 115), held 2 to 4 days later, students were tested in classrooms, with some classes assigned to the experimental condition and others to the control condition. After a brief introduction, survey packets were distributed, and

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TABLE 1: Factor Analyses of Gender Ideals

Gender Ideals for Women Attribute

Factor 1

Attractive Cool Rich In shape or athletic Daring Nice Intelligent Funny

Attribute Attractive Cool Rich In shape or athletic Daring Nice Intelligent Funny

.75 .70 .70 .59 .35 .02 .12 .25 Gender Ideals for Men

Factor 2 .27 .18 .08 .16 –.20 .92 .86 .60

Factor 1

Factor 2

.70 .68 .62 .64 .28 .04 .05 .36

.33 .14 .20 .09 –.13 .88 .63 .62

NOTE: The numbers in bold represent the specific items that load strongly onto the particular factor.

each group was shown a set of four clips. Students were asked to rate each clip on the following dimensions: 1. 2. 3. 4.

How entertaining is this music video? How much can you identify with the characters portrayed? How realistic do you think the actions are? How much do you like the video overall?

Participants also were asked to indicate if they had seen each music video before. After viewing and evaluating the clips, students completed the Sexual Stereotypes measure and the two gender ideal measures. Students were then lead in discussions about media stereotypes and worked to devise new content that would be less limiting. Each session lasted 2 hr. Because of the 2-to 4- day lag between the testing sessions and because participants in Session 2 were not all of the same people who had participated in Session 1, this was strictly a between-subjects design. However, because of its novelty, the Gen-

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TABLE 2: Descriptive Statistics of Central Independent and Dependent Variables

Variable Media use variables Primetime hours/month Music video hours/day Sports program hours/day Music hours/day Movies viewed/month Gender stereotyping Gender role attitudes (ATWSA) Importance of FLASH for men Importance of SUBSTANCE for men Importance of FLASH for women Importance of SUBSTANCE for women

M

SD

46.80 3.33 2.07 6.84 20.71

31.12 3.09 2.64 5.01 13.88

1.82 4.90 6.80 5.12 6.65

.40 1.72 1.48 1.73 1.58

Range (Actual) 1 to 197.5 0 to 13 0 to 11 0 to 18 0 to 55 1.08 to 3.08 0 to 8 1 to 8 0.25 to 8 1 to 8

NOTE: ATWSA = Attitudes Toward Women Scale for Adolescents.

der Ideals measure was used with each session to examine the impact of both regular and experimental exposure. No other measures were repeated. RESULTS Descriptives and Preliminary Analyses Descriptive statistics for the key independent and dependent variables are provided in Table 2. Media exposure levels for these students were quite high. Participants reported spending approximately 47 hr each month watching primetime comedies and dramas and devoting an average of 3 hr each day to music videos, 2 hr to sports programming, and 6.8 hr to music. Indeed, all but eight students reported watching music videos, with a modal response of 2 hr a day. Although these numbers may be somewhat inflated because the survey was conducted during the summer months when leisure time is more plentiful, it is also likely that much of this media use may occur while participants are engaged in other activities (e.g., listening to music while riding in the car). Also included in Table 2 are means of students’ baseline gender stereotypes. A mean of 1.82 out of 4 on the ATWSA indicates that students did not strongly endorse gender stereotypes. Concerning students’ ideals for femininity and masculinity, the qualities labeled as FLASH were perceived as less important than were the qualities labeled SUBSTANCE for both women in

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society, MF = 5.1 versus MS = 6.7; t(135) = –9.02, p = .000, and for men in society, MF = 4.9 versus MS = 6.8; t(141) = –12.25, p = .000. However, neither set was seen as unimportant (i.e., ratings of 1 to 3). Before addressing the main research questions, preliminary analyses were conducted examining zero-order correlations between the six demographic variables (age, sex, mother’s education level, father’s education level, family structure, and religiosity) and the gender stereotype variables. Results indicate significant correlates for age and sex only. More specifically, being younger was associated with rating FLASH as more important for men, r(140) = –.256, p = .002, and for women, r(134) = –.19, p = .03, as well as with rating SUBSTANCE as more important for men, r(140), = –.18, p = .03. Male participants were more likely than female participants to endorse traditional gender role attitudes, r(148) = .46, p < .001. Based on these findings, age and sex were controlled in later correlational analyses. Finally, because this study used a between-subjects experimental design, it was necessary to determine whether participants in the experimental and control groups were equal in their backgrounds, media usage, and gender role attitudes at the start of the study. Accordingly, a series of one-way ANOVAs was run, examining experimental- versus control-group differences on the six demographic factors (age, sex, mother’s education, father’s education, family structure, and religiosity), the five media exposure variables, and the five baseline gender-stereotyping variables. There were no significant differences between the two groups on any of these measures. Thus, participants in the experimental and control groups were essentially equal at the start of this study. Testing the Main Research Questions The first research question addressed potential links between students’ regular media exposure amounts and their stereotypical conceptions of femininity and masculinity. To address this concern, a series of first-order correlational analyses was run between the five media exposure variables and the five gender-stereotyping variables assessed at Time 12, controlling for age and sex. As hypothesized, more frequent viewing of music videos was associated with holding more traditional gender role attitudes, r(143) = .23, p = .005, and with attributing greater importance to FLASH for women and for men, r(128) = .19, p = .03, and r(134) = .29, p = .001, respectively. Exposure to other genres was also influential. Frequent viewing of sports programming was associated with holding more traditional gender role attitudes, r(143) = .25, p = .003. More frequent music listening was associated with attributing greater importance to FLASH for men and for women,

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r(132) = .37, p = .000, and r(127) = .24, p = .006, respectively, as well as greater importance to SUBSTANCE for men, r(132) = .18, p = .04. Surprisingly, frequent exposure to primetime comedies and dramas and to movies played no role. Overall, regularly watching music videos and listening to music emerged as the strongest and most consistent correlates of gender stereotyping. The second research question examined whether directed exposure to stereotypical content leads to a stronger endorsement of related stereotypes. Because a different set of videos was used for each condition, we first examined if students’ perceptions and experiences of the videos were equivalent across the experimental and control conditions. As noted earlier, four aspects of students’impressions of each music video were measured on a 1 to 4 scale, and mean scores were taken across the four videos viewed. Results indicated that videos in the experimental and control conditions were rated as equally entertaining, Me = 3.14 and Mc = 3.10, F(1, 113) = .12, p > .05, and were liked equally, overall, Me = 3.09 and Mc = 3.24, F(1, 113) = 2.13, p = .15. Students in each condition also reported having seen equal numbers of the videos before, Me = 3.27 videos and Mc = 2.91 videos, F(1,113) = 2.61, p = .11. However, actions in the control videos were judged to be more realistic than those in the experimental videos, Mc = 3.38 and Me = 2.57; F(1, 113) = 43.17, p = .00. Similarly, participants identified more strongly with characters in the control videos (Mc = 2.90) than with those in the experimental videos, Me = 2.17; F(1, 113) = 26.39, p = .00. Thus, although students enjoyed both the experimental and control videos equally, they appeared to relate more directly to the less sexual control ones. To examine the impact of the experimental stimuli on students’ stereotypes, we ran a series of ANCOVAs, comparing the experimental and control means for the five experimental outcome variables (i.e., Sexual Stereotypes, FLASH-men, FLASH-women, SUBSTANCE-men, SUBSTANCEwomen), controlling for perceived realism and identification. Results are provided in Table 3. As predicted, students in the experimental condition offered stronger support of the sexual stereotypes and of the importance of FLASH for men and for women than did students in the control group. Students did not differ in their ratings of the importance of SUBSTANCE. Overall, exposure to the stereotypical music videos did lead to stronger acceptance of stereotypical beliefs about gender and sexual roles. Our final research question addressed the selectivity of media effects, asking whether specific aspects of the viewers or of their perceptions of the clips contributed to the experimental outcomes. To address this concern, we ran three regression analyses among the 65 participants in the experimental group only, using Sexual Stereotypes, FLASH-Men, and FLASH-Women as

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3.13 (65) 5.02 (65) 4.63 (63) 6.81 (65) 6.91 (63)

2.84 (48) 4.81 (45) 4.52 (46) 7.01 (45) 6.81 (46)

M

M

.28

.12

3.75

†

5.92**

11.14 ***

Difference by Condition (F)

.61

.47

1.06

1.54

5.51*

Covariate 1: Identification

.64

1.85

1.47

1.49

.53

Covariate 2: Realism

NOTE: Agreement with Sexual Stereotypes was rated on a 6-point scale such that higher scores indicated stronger endorsement of the stereotypes. Numbers in parentheses beneath each mean represent the cell size. † p < .06. *p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

Importance of SUBSTANCE for women

Importance of SUBSTANCE for men

Importance of FLASH for women

Importance of FLASH for men

Sexual stereotypes

Control Condition

Experimental Condition

TABLE 3: ANCOVA Results Comparing Participants’ Endorsements of Sexual Stereotypes by Viewing Condition (Controlling for Perceived Realism and Identification With Video Clips)

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TABLE 4: Summary of Simultaneous Regression Analyses Examining Factors Affecting Sexual Stereotypes Among Students in the Experimental Condition (Unstandardized and Standardized Regression Coefficients Reported)

Sexual Stereotypes Age Male Music video hours Videos—fun Videos—realistic Videos—identification 2 Adjusted R F Significance

–.02 .45 .05 .17 –.11 .32

–.25* .27* .22 .13 –.10 .32

.30 5.46 .000***

FLASH-Men –.04 .18 .15 .39 –.46 .70

–.25* .05 .32 .14 –.21 .32

.29 4.64 .001***

FLASH-Women –.01

–.06 +

.13 .28 .73 .26 .16 .07 .09 .04 .18 3.71 .006**

NOTE: Analyses included only participants in the experimental condition, N = 61 to 62. + p < .06. *p < .05. **p < .01.***p < .001.

the outcome variables. To select appropriate predictors, we first developed a composite variable labeled Videos-Fun, which combined scores for students’ liking of the clips with their perceived entertainment value because these factors were highly correlated, r(65) = .91, p = .000. Next, based on the findings of the correlational analyses discussed earlier, we entered the following variables as predictors in the three regression analyses: age, sex, music video hours, perceived realism of the videos, identification with video characters, and enjoyment of the videos (Videos-Fun). Results are summarized in Table 4. Results indicate that specific viewer dimensions did predict how students in the experimental group responded to the clips. Younger students in the experimental group were more supportive of the sexual stereotypes and of the importance of FLASH for men than were older students. Being male predicted greater support of the sexual stereotypes, and being a frequent music video viewer predicted attributing significantly more importance to FLASH for men and notably more for women. In addition, students who found the videos more entertaining were more likely to see FLASH as important for women than were students who were less entertained by the videos. Similarly, students who identified more strongly with the characters were more likely to endorse both sexual stereotypes and the importance of FLASH for men than were students with weaker personal connections. Each equation was statistically significant and accounted for 18% to 30% of the variance.

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DISCUSSION As a central feature in the media diets of many adolescents, music videos provide an outlet for showcasing both musical talent and gender and courtship ideals. However, their frequently stereotypical depictions of femininity and masculinity have raised concerns about the impact of this content on the gender and sexual schemas of young viewers. Addressing these concerns, this study investigated whether music video exposure might play a role in shaping and reinforcing stereotypical notions about gender among African American adolescents, a high media-consuming, yet understudied, group. Results presented here revealed that this does appear to be the case, providing both correlational and experimental evidence linking music video exposure with expressing stereotypical conceptions about masculinity and femininity. As expected, significant associations emerged between regular media exposure levels and gender stereotyping. Specifically, more frequent viewing of music videos and more frequent listening to popular music were each associated with holding more stereotypical gender role attitudes and with assigning greater importance to flashy qualities, such as physical appearance and sexiness in one’s gender ideals. Extending these correlational findings are experimental outcomes that suggest the same. Although students in the experimental and control groups were identical in their demographic backgrounds, media use, and baseline gender stereotyping, those who viewed videos laden with stereotypical representations of masculinity and femininity expressed more traditional views about gender and sexual relationships than did those who had viewed less stereotypical content. Therefore, although correlational connections are sometimes devalued because causal linkages are ambiguous, experimental evidence that reports the same outcome is harder to dismiss. And although experimental results demonstrate only short-term priming effects, our matching of these findings with survey data suggests that such priming may occur with everyday viewing. Taken together, these results provide powerful evidence of the potential contribution of music video exposure in shaping young viewers’ beliefs about how women and men should look, act, and behave. Finally, our results indicate that some students may be more vulnerable to these effects than other students. Closer examination of participants within the experimental group revealed that younger students exposed to the stereotypical images tended to endorse them more strongly than did older students. This was also the case, to some extent, for students who found the clips to be entertaining and who identified more with the actors or characters. Thus, as expected, the impact of stereotypical images appears to be selective, affecting some students more than others.

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Although many of our expectations were confirmed, a few surprises emerged that warrant further consideration. First, students’ regular exposure to primetime comedies and dramas did not contribute to their gender conceptions. Although these are the genres typically examined in media effects research, they made no impact here. Yet despite the null results, it may be premature to dismiss the viewing of primetime comedies and dramas as unimportant. Closer study is needed of the type of programs in students’ media diets. For example, some networks (e.g., Fox) may be more stereotypical than others, as might some genres. Future work should examine the influence of specific types of media diets, as well as contributions of genres not tested here, such as talk shows and reality programs. Second, it was surprising that perceived realism was not a significant factor in the experimental results. We had expected that within the experimental group, students who believed the images were more realistic would offer stronger support of the related themes. Yet this was not the case. It is likely that perceived realism is heavily influenced by age, with older teens perceiving media images to be less realistic because they have more real-world experience. Indeed, age and perceived realism were significantly correlated, r(114) = –.21, p = .02. As a result, perceived realism may contribute little when age is controlled. Further study is needed investigating the role of this and other viewer variables. Although this study offers compelling evidence of the potential power of music videos as gender socializers, it does have some limitations that future research may want to address. First, only a one-item, general assessment of music video exposure was used. Although this is a standard approach, it did not allow us to discern whether specific music video channels or genres were differentially influential. Second, although the issues were investigated within the framework of gender schema theories, other theories could explain these results. For example, the correlational results support premises of cultivation theory (Gerbner & Gross, 1976) and of Shrum’s (1996) work uniting cultivation theory and schema accessibility. It is probable that several mechanisms may be at work. Third, our sample was skewed by both sex and SES. Although all interested students attending the summer program were tested, 70% of attendees were female and most were from well-educated families. Further work is needed to see if these results can be reproduced among lower income Black adolescents, students of other ethnic backgrounds, and younger teens whose gender schemas appear to be particularly

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vulnerable. Finally, although both the correlational and experimental results indicate that exposure to music videos is likely to shape adolescents’ gender schemas, these outcomes are relevant only for those teens who choose such exposure. Because adolescents select media content according to their existing needs, beliefs, and interests (Arnett, 1995; Steele & Brown, 1995), teens who choose to watch music videos will likely differ on some dimensions from those who do not, and these differences might matter in critical ways. Additional study is therefore needed of the personality, experiential, and demographic factors shaping adolescents’ initial media choices. As presented here, Black adolescents’ exposure to the media’s stereotypical images of gender may have grave implications. Because of the popularity of music videos and music artists among Black teens, it is particularly troubling that the images available for emulation portray women and men in such limited and frequently offensive ways. Stephens and Phillips (2002) have identified eight stereotypes of Black womanhood that dominate Black music videos, including the opportunistic gold digger, the aggressive gangster bitch, and the sexually insatiable “freak.” Highlighting appearance and status over intellect and emotion, these characterizations, in most cases, imply that the only source of power available for a woman is the use of her body and sexuality. For young Black women, choosing between being seen as either a gangster bitch, “freak,” or gold digger is no real choice at all. For young Black men, these images perpetuate cultural stereotypes of Black men as criminal, sexually promiscuous, and amoral and offer poor models for Black children and adolescents who do not have a father in the home (45% of Black families; U.S. Census Bureau, 2001). In shaping students’ views of sexual relationships, these videos create expectations of adversarial dynamics and of mutual disrespect. Repeated exposure to these images with few alternatives available is likely to create a profoundly skewed sense of gender roles. In conclusion, television, without a doubt, has become a prominent force in the socialization of American adolescents. Although attention often focuses on the role of media violence, our results indicate that the media are likely to play a significant role in shaping viewers’ beliefs about gender roles and male-female relations. Not all media portrayals are stereotypical, and not all teens will select this content. However, because TV repeatedly presents content that is consistent with conventional gender stereotypes, it likely activates and strengthens existing stereotypical schemas much more often than it challenges them.

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Appendix INDIVIDUAL ITEMS IN SEXUAL STEREOTYPES MEASURE Factor Loading

.70 Most women are sly and deceptive when they are out to attract a man, often hiding their flaws, and play it sweet. .68 Women are most attracted by a muscular body and a handsome face. .66 A man will be most successful in picking up women if he has “game” or uses flattering, sexy, or cute pick-up lines. .61 Being with an attractive woman gives a man prestige (e.g., a trophy date). .58 What women find most attractive about a man is his money, job, or car. .57 There is nothing wrong with men whistling at shapely women. .56 Using her body and looks is the best way for a woman to attract a man. .53 Women should be more concerned about their appearance than men. .50 Dating is basically a game, a battle of the sexes, where both males and females try to gain the upper hand and manipulate each other. .50 Something is wrong with a guy who turns down a chance to score with a woman. .50 Men want sex; women want relationships. .47 Women should not be afraid to wear clothes that show off their figure; after all, if you’ve got it, flaunt it. .45 It is okay for a woman to pursue a man who is already taken. After all, all is fair in love and war. .45 Women should do whatever they need (e.g., use make-up, buy attractive clothes, work out) to look good enough to attract a man.

NOTES 1. Videos in the experimental condition included “Get Your Roll On” by Big Tymers, “No Matter What People Say” by Lil' Kim, “What You Want” by DMX and Cisqo, and “Vivrant Thing” by Q-Tip. Videos in the control condition included “Dance Tonight” by Lucy Pearl, “Miss Jackson” by Outkast, “Open Up My Heart” by Yolanda Adams, and “All For You” by Janet Jackson. 2. Although daring or risk-taker did not load as a component of the FLASH or SUBSTANCE variables, supplemental analyses were conducted examining associations between students’media use and this item. Analyses indicated a significant connection between frequent music listening and ascribing greater importance for men of being daring, r(126) = .17, p = .05. No other associations had emerged, and experimental and control students did not differ on this item.

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L. Monique Ward is an associate professor in developmental psychology at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on gender and sexual socialization, and the contributions of parents, peers, and the media to these processes. Edwina Hansbrough earned a master’s degree in communication studies from the University of Michigan. Eboni Walker is a graduate of Spelman College.

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