Portrayal of Gender Roles in Music Television KEVIN F. MCNEILL Students (N = 429; women = 273, men = 156) enrolled at a junior college and state university in central California were assigned to 1 of 4 conditions (visual LUIS A.VEGA* only, audiovisual, audiovisual with discussion, and a no-videos-shown condi- tion) and asked to view three videos commonly seen on Music Television (MTV). California State University, At the conclusion of each video, participants filled out a questionnaire designed Bakersfield to elicit their perception(s) of particular gender role behaviors, such as sexism, objectification, etc. Factor analysis revealed the presence of three factors: Male Power, Female Power, and Overt Sexuality. Further analysis showed that factor scores were not significantly different by condition. Although the format of MTV is attune to society’s concerns, it still presents gender role stereotypes that are traditional and subtle. ESEARCHERS HAVE ANALYZED VARIOUS FORMS roles are no longer relegated to those of house- of television content in an attempt to better keepers, men’s attendants, or the “weak sex” R understand how each uniquely distorts every- (Dominick, 1979). day life (e.g., Craig, 1992). They have also examined Many positive changes have occurred in television the presentation of racial minorities, the elderly, programming over the last two decades, but more sex roles, social behavior, and family role structures quantifiable changes must occur for gender equality and interactions (Brown, 1976; Craig, 1992; Jeffries, to exist. In television today, women are still under- 1986; Kalof, 1993; Lovdal, 1989; Rubey, 1991; R. represented in positions of authority, and they are Sommers-Flanagan, J. Sommers-Flanagan, & Davis, portrayed more for their sexual appeal than for their 1993; Sun & Lull, 1986). Generally, these research- intellectual contributions (R. Sommers-Flanagan et ers have found that traditional and stereotypical rep- al., 1993). This subjective portrayal of women in tele- resentations of life prevail in television programming vision is not confined to a specific format, but is seen and advertising (Vincent, Davis, & Boruszkowski, on television’s prime time (Dominick, 1979), com- 1987). The effect that different types of formats in mercials (Craig, 1992), and rock music videos television programming have on viewers is an ongoing (Vincent et al., 1987). Although television programs area of research, and an area that we address in this can reflect actual discrimination of women, these paper. Over the last few decades, equality issues Author’s note. Kevin F. McNeill is currently in the doctoral program for women have been in the forefront of the mass of the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Riverside. media. Equality gains have not fully materialized, An earlier version of this manuscript was presented at the 76th however. Women still are overrepresented in statis- Annual Conference of the Western Psychological Association in tics related to poverty, earn less than men for San Jose, CA. We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Bruce Renehan, who assisted with data entry. We are particularly grate- comparable jobs, and continue to be demeaned in ful to Stephen Davis and Don Brown, as well as the anonymous the mass media, including commercials, music reviewers for the Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research, for their videos, and movies (Dominick, 1979; Franzoi, 1996). excellent feedback. Comments regarding this research and requests for reprints For example, women continue to be negatively por- can be directed to Kevin McNeill via Internet e-mail at trayed in television in subtle forms, although their [email protected]. PSI CHI JOURNAL OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH Spring 1997 17 Copyright 1997 by Psi Chi, The National Honor Society in Psychology (Vol. 2, No. 1, 17–23 / ISSN 1089-4136). *Faculty Supervisor GENDER ROLES IN MUSIC TELEVISION McNeill and Vega programs need not perpetuate such gender inequal- as opposed to musical genres that are more subtle ity. As a socializing agent, television has the potential and latent in form. to set the model for gender equality (Bandura & Although the manifest content of television pro- Walters, 1963). gramming has changed, practically no studies have On the other hand, subtle messages in rock music investigated subtle messages embedded in it. Content video programming are difficult to assess, with some analysis of television programming provides some an- studies finding equivocal results. For instance, Rubey swers (Dominick, 1979; R. Summers-Flanagan et al., (1991) examined the effects of programs typically shown 1993). However, these analyses refer to the content on Music Television (MT V), programming which is of those programs and less to the perceptions of view- characterized by rapid, visual images of glamorous, ers. Thus, in this study we examined (a) how content good-looking people, some nudity, and some violence. analysis of music videos can be organized so that any Based on the results of a qualitative study of the pro- subtle meaning embedded in music videos can be grams shown on MTV, Rubey concluded that most assessed and (b) what differences exist between view- of the programs shown on MTV were innocuous; for ers and nonviewers of music videos in this latent con- many individuals these programs were “thought pro- tent. Additionally, we explored (c) reasons that can voking.” To Rubey, people who watch MTV are cog- help explain the origin of these viewer differences nizant viewers, able to separate fantasy from reality. and (d) possible gender differences in how men and In contrast, R. Sommers-Flanagan et al. (1993) ex- women are portrayed in music videos. We center our amined music videos shown on MTV and concluded analysis on music videos, particularly of the type seen they perpetuate gender role stereotypes. Other re- on MT V. We take this approach because rock music searchers have found similar negative effects, particular- videos contain the strongest gender stereotypes ly with regard to rock music videos (Toney & Weaver, (Franzoi, 1996) and because they are directed at 1994; Took & Weiss, 1994; Vincent et al., 1987). young audiences, some of the most impressionable Experimental evidence also shows that viewing members of our society (Schuman & Scott, 1989). rock music videos can exacerbate negative gender stereotypes. Hansen (1989) found that viewers who Method saw rock music videos that depicted men acting Participants “macho” and women being “sexually submissive” Participants (n = 429; women = 273, men = 156) con- tended to endorse gender stereotypes more often sisted of undergraduate students enrolled in Intro- than viewers who saw neutral videos. This experiment ductory Psychology, Gender Roles, and Child Psychol- suggests a causal link between the portrayal of ogy courses at a junior college and state university in gender stereotypes in music videos and viewers’ central California. Participants were between 16 and perceptions of social reality. As a result, we have a 58 years of age (M = 23.47, SD = 7.67), with women reliable overview of the consequences of direct (M = 23.86, SD = 7.79) tending to be slightly older (blatant) manifestations of watching these videos. than men (M = 22.43, SD = 7.00). Participants were Less is known, however, of what might be the subtle recruited from classes, student clubs, and through (latent) consequences of watching negative gender informal channels (friends of students who decided stereotypes on MT V music videos. to participate and who agreed to tell others). All par- Some evidence suggests subtle messages are ticipants were 16 years of age or older, and all signed present in music videos. Christenson and Peterson informed consent forms. They also were assured com- (1988) found that music genres are organized into plete anonymity and were informed of their option several meta-genres. In analyzing 26 different music to withdraw during all phases of the study. genres (e.g., jazz, classical, soul, rock, etc.), they found that racial origin of music was a powerful “factor” in Materials determining music preference for both men and The test instrument consisted of a survey con- women. However, other factor structures were differ- taining 15 questions, each scored on the basis of an ent for men and women. For a factor with different 8-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (“not present”) forms of rock music, heavy rock had higher factor to 8 (“consistently presented as a major theme”). loadings for men (loadings are mathematical coeffi- These questions were adopted from a study con- cients showing degree of association between vari- ducted by R. Sommers-Flanagan et al. (1993). These ables and factors). For women, these different forms researchers developed categories “designed to focus of rock excluded heavy metal. Perhaps this gender on sex role behaviors frequently identified as stereo- difference is a manifestation of the degradation of typically male or female . [and] other sexually women shown in heavy rock (Took & Weiss, 1994), oriented behaviors” (p. 746), and focused on seven 18 PSI CHI JOURNAL OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH Spring 1997 GENDER ROLES IN MUSIC TELEVISION McNeill and Vega categories (Dominance/Subservience, Aggression All participants were told this was a study on their [Implicit and Explicit], Aggression with sexuality, attitudes and perceptions with regard to MT V and Objectification, and Sexuality [Implicit and Ex- its presentation of male and female gender roles. plicit]). The present study extends these categories They were also told the study was voluntary and anony- by modifying the questions to include a gender-based mous. After this presentation, the participants read origin (e.g., “Objectification” was divided into the and signed the informed consent forms. Participants separate categories of “Male portrayed as object or in the video viewing conditions (a–c) watched all decoration” and “Female portrayed as object or deco- three videos, which were counterbalanced to reduce ration”). A question asking the participants to rate order effects. After viewing each video, participants the presence/absence of “overt sexism” was also filled out the instrument shown in the Appendix.