Media Effects

For my assignment this week, my task was to look at a mass medium, television, movies, music, etc. that could send messages that were unfavorable, cruel or offensive.  For my medium I chose look at rap music and how it portrays women, both negatively and positively.

After review three secondary articles, I have come to the belief that rap music portrays women in a negative way that is degrading towards them.

I looked at three secondary articles that all had the same message in regards to women and rap music. 

My first article described rap music as, making women sexual objects.  Because black males perform most rap music, the females described in the music are black females.  These females are seen as being Eurocentric, with thinner noses and lips, as well as longer, thinner hair.  These characteristics are not typical black female characteristics and the article claims that is a form of degrading from the artists.  Finally the article states that, even female rap artists, like Lil’ Kim, portray themselves as sexual objects and makes themselves in role of submissiveness and again as a sexual object (Conrad et. al.).

The second article read, continued that the art of rapping is sexist.  It states that rapping is a paradigm, which Cary Greenwood told us was a set of rules and regulations that establishes boundaries.  The article says, in simpler terms, that in order for rap artists to be successful they must follow the rules of rapping, set forth by previous rappers.  The rule set, in the case of women is that, the women always needs to look submissive and never as strong as the man.  But this rule also needs to be used in a tasteful manner, which some contributors to this article are saying is not happening (Dixon, Linz).

The final article used, was a study conducted where the participants watched rap music videos and asked about their sexual attitudes towards the music and video itself.  Most of males questioned were most of the music and videos, while most of the females saw the videos as degrading towards women.  Some of the females thought that the women in the music and videos were acting and being treated like sex toys and every man’s sexual dream.  Some of the participants, male or female, did not see any gender separation between males and females in these songs or videos and thought that the roles were correct for the each sex (Arganbright,Lee).

My grounds are relevant to my claim because I found three secondary journal articles that all deal with this degrading of women in rap music.  Each article contains various facts and opinions that support my claim.

Some readers might argue that rap music is an art form that only enhances the human spirit and gives meaning to gender roles.  Also, the idea of free speech can be argued here.  That rap is a form of free speech and what is said is not always meant literally.  However, I believe that no one, male or female, should be degraded and but down for the purpose of entertainment.    

I listen to rap music quite often and I see this idea of degrading and unfavorable behavior to women in it all the time.  I am not one however to stop someone from doing what they love to do based on what they perceive others to be.  As we have found out, most rap stars see women as sex toys, but that is only their opinion.  But my findings matter on in the sense to show that this is a real problem., that the female gender is being put down for entertainment.  I choose not to question why this happens, but only bring awareness to it.

Sources:

Arganbright, Michelle, and Moon Lee. “Effects of Hip-Hop Music Video Exposure on the Sexual Attitudes of Young Adults.” Conference Papers — International Communication Association (2007).

Conrad, Katie, Travis Dixon, and Yuanyuan Zhang. “Current Images in Rap Music: A Content Analysis.” Onference Papers — International Communication Association (2007).

Dixon, Travis L., and Daniel G. Linz. “Obscenity law and sexually explicit rap music: Understanding the effects of sex, attitudes, and beliefs.” Journal of Applied Communication Research 25.