Christina Roberts

Women in the Media

Prof. Chipley

Women in Music Videos and the Effect it has on our Youth

As human beings in today’s society a lot of our actions and what we become are a

result of our surroundings. Be it school, work, friends, or our environment, this molds

us into what we believe and how we carry ourselves in everyday life. The biggest

influence in our youth today comes from what they see on television, and in today’s

society SEX sells. Video models that are plastered over our television screens have

become more like celebrities in today’s society. This paper will discuss the influence of

Women in Music Videos on today’s youth, and the image being put forth about African

American and Hispanic women.

As stated in the article I Want to Become a Video Vixen! How Can I?, “Video Vixens

are now treated like celebrities in our society and are more identifiable to the media

then some of our politicians. They receive instant gratification to an elite club that once

never existed. Women are turned on by the appeal and attention that it instantly brings.

Immediately these girls are catapulted into the limelight and get invitations to the

hottest parties, modeling contracts, book deals to write about their escapades, dates

with wealthy celebrities, and extreme media coverage.” These women get paid good

money, travel the world, and get to liaison with our favorite artists, who wouldn’t want

that lifestyle?
This is the image that is put forth to the average viewer however; it isn’t all glitz and

glamour. These women are degraded on a regular basis, work long hours, and can

always be replaced for the next new model.

In the video exploitation of women in commercial rap you can see that the videos

that had women in less clothing and dancing in pools and money were rated higher on a

popular music countdown show.

The article I Want to Become a Video Vixen! How Can I? tells us that “If you are

not born with enhanced features no problem. All one has to do now is go and get some

extreme plastic surgery and enlarge their assets. The bigger your assets the more fame is

sure to come your way. Plastic surgeons once had a conscience but now it is all about the

money. If you have access to cash, you can get just about any surgery your heart

imagines. If you can't find a surgeon to do it in the United States, well there's always

another country where you can probably get the procedure at a discount.

Once you have your enhancements instantly you'll be considered as feature models in

the music videos. Once you start doing music videos and getting more exposure doors

just seem to fly open. Some women then go on to acting, calendars, hosting parties,

reality shows, etc. Women do get their five minutes of fame and some video vixens are

successfully able to sustain it.

LisaRaye, Melyssa Ford, Karrine Steffans, Coco, and Amber Rose are all former Video

Vixens who are quite successful today. They were more than just a beautiful face and

body. They seized the moment and used this as a stepping stone to get to the next level.”
As stated in Video Vixens: Friend or Foe? “Journalists who interview video girls often

ask them, "Is the fifteen minutes of fame worth it?" When video producers and directors

find a fresh new face to steal the show, where does that leave the "it" girl? In some cases,

ex-video vixens return to their everyday lives or begin doing x-rated videos to maintain

their lavish lifestyles.”

Video Vixen Karrine Steffans who wrote her autobiography Confessions of a Video

Vixen, explains to her audience that it was indeed the fabulous life of the fast money and

luxurious lifestyle that drew her in. That along with the feeling of being wanted and

needed by these big name rappers and producers. She confesses to being passed around

and used but allowing it to happen because it made her feel good. After years in the

industry Karrine turned to drugs and eventually became a danger to herself. She knew

the only way to survive was to get out of this toxic fantasy world.

In the video How Women Are Portrayed in Hip Hop Videos the panel places

emphasis on the fact that women’s bodies are seen in these videos but their voices are

never heard. They are also used as an accessory to the artist showing off their wealth and

status. It is also questioned as to how these music artists can have so much love and

respect for their mothers and daughters who are women yet treat the females in their

videos as disposable props.

I found it very interesting and didn’t even realize its truth until it was said in this video,

that even female artists when they come out into the industry in order for them to make

it big they still need that male counterpart to put them forth. Not only that, but they

need to still be feminine yet have enough skill to survive the industry with the men.
 Music is supposed to a form of poetry where one can express themself through song.

Instead, instead music has become a forum to where we can degrade our women. The

article Music videos influence our thoughts and acts remind us that “Until a few

years ago, listening to pop music was mainly just an aural experience. The visual aspects

of the musicians' performances were unnoticed except in movies and rock concerts.

Now we have MTV, and pop music has become a visual phenomenon. With this

additional sensory stimulus, it is influencing the ways we think and act more than ever

before.

For young children, this effect can be extremely damaging. Young children often have

trouble distinguishing between reality and fantasy, right and wrong. They do not have

enough personal experience to compare what they see on TV with real life.”

The video My Name Is Video Vixen shows the models themselves exposing the not

so pretty side of the business and the life after being a video vixen, because after all

these are videos, they are not reality so at the end of the day you still need to come back

to your reality and realize it was just a job for fantasy and that in no way does it reflect a

positive reality.

“TV, especially with the added glamour of MTV, will control our lives more than ever

before. Many of us already are robots programmed by what we see on the video screen.

We lose our individuality; many of our interests may be superceded by those shown to

be "cool:" partying, drinking and picking up girls. We will become a society of followers,

not leaders. ”
Children are easily influenced, by having our women degraded on television in clear

view of them to see is only making this worldwide issue worse. I have personally

witnessed my 10 year old sister try and mimic things she sees on regular daytime

television. Trying to sit down and explain to a child that what they see is not real, and it

is all for show and to make a profit doesn’t make sense to them. They’ve been taught

from a young age from the same television screen that seeing is believing.

“It is widely believed that TV plays a role in hastening the initiation of sexual activity in

teens. The first RAND study, funded by the National Institute of Child Health and

Human Development, examined this issue. Analysts surveyed a national sample of

households containing an adolescent from 12 to 17 years old. A total of 1,762 adolescents

were asked about their sexual experiences and also their televisionviewing habits and,

one year later, were surveyed again.

The researchers measured levels of exposure to three kinds of sexual content on

television: (1) sexual behavior, such as kissing, intimate touching, and implied or

depicted intercourse, (2) talk about sexual plans or desires or about sex that has

occurred, and expert advice, and (3) talk about or behavior showing the risks of or the

need for safety in regard to sexual activity: abstinence, waiting to have sex, portrayals

mentioning or showing contraceptives, and portrayals related to consequences, such as

AIDS, STDs, pregnancy, and abortion.

The results showed that heavy exposure to sexual content on television related strongly

to teens’ initiation of intercourse or their progression to more advanced sexual activities

(such as “making out” or oral sex) apart from intercourse in the following year. Youths
who viewed the greatest amounts of sexual content were two times more likely than

those who viewed the smallest amount to initiate sexual intercourse during the following

year or to progress to more-advanced levels of other sexual activity. In effect, youths

who watched the most sexual content “acted older”: a 12-year-old at the highest levels of

exposure behaved like a 14- or 15-year-old at the lowest levels.”

From reading the article Does Watching Sex on Television Influence Teens

Sexual Activity? we learn as a whole that one issue leads to another with the

depicment on Women on television and in music videos.

The attached graph shows us that children that are more exposed to sex on TV are more

likely to have sex. With shows like 16 & Pregnant in addition of the oversexed videos we

see our favorite music artists involved in this will only bring us down as a nation.

There needs to be more awareness of the self-misrepresentation of African American

women in the media. Black women need to stop allowing themselves to be put forth in

the media in such a negative life just for their 15 minutes of fame. The long term effects

that is has on our youth who are in fact our future is only putting us back instead of us

moving forward as a people. We need more positive, strong, women leaders to guide our

youth and serve as an example of what we as whole should strive to be, and to live in

reality and not the fantasy world of the entertainment business, because at the end of

the day it is exactly that ENTERTAINMENT.

Works Cited:

1) Does Watching Sex on Television Influence Teens’ Sexual Activity?

http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9068/index1.html

2) Video Vixens: Friend or Foe?

http://media.www.alcornchronicle.com/media/storage/paper512/news/200
8/02/04/Expressions/Video.Vixens.Friend.Or.Foe-3182120.shtm

3) I Want to Become a Video Vixen! How Can I?

http://ezinearticles.com/?I-Want-to-Become-a-Video-Vixen!-How-Can-I?
&id=2714538

4) Music videos influence our thoughts and acts

http://tech.mit.edu/V105/N48/elliot.48o.html

5) The Influence Of Music And Music Videos

http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/the_influence_of_music_
and_music_videos

6) Media and Self Esteem in Girls

http://kids.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Media_and_Self_Esteem_in_Girls
You Tube Videos:

1) Exploitation of women in commercial rap:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JItFEGl2W7I&feature=related

2) How Women Are Portrayed in Hip Hop Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2q5zlgkKas&feature=related

3) My name is Video Vixen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljoWlySJHtg&NR=1