The ol' correlation vs. causation battle. Of course, if images didn't have the potential to affect us, we'd lose about 40% of the posts here (Heineken commercials, Halloween costumes) and the advertising industry would be begging for change rather than raking in billions per year.

Seriously. People need to get it through their heads that sex does not equal violence, and VIOLENCE DOES NOT EQUAL SEXY. Quite frankly, I'd have no problem with girls that age watching videos that truly are sexy. But typical rap videos and their misogynistic cock rock predecessors simply are not sexy; your entire view of sex and sexuality has to be beyond warped to find that sort of shit sexy.

Furthermore, do these researchers and journalists up on their high horses ever consider that black girls watch these videos not because they find them sexy, but because there are no other options that represent them, that they'd rather watch rap videos that acknowledge their existence rather than, I don't know, James Blunt or some similar whitewashed crapola?

And yeah, the research methods are extremely disturbing. I don't know that I've ever heard of researchers making white kids piss in a cup to find out whether they've smoked up unless the study is explicitly focused on drugs. In studies like this, don't they usually rely on self-reporting? I mean, I know that's also problematic, but it's just interesting that when they finally do decide to actually use an invasive research method, they do it on black girls, whether because it's more acceptable to invade their boundaries or because the researchers think black girls are likely to lie about drug use. Totally upfucked.

Also, I'd just like to say that I'm so goddamn sick of marijuana use being used as proof that a person has issues. I always wonder if the people who conduct studies like this have ever been within twenty yards of a joint, or of a person who's smoked one.

I've never learned less from a survey than I have from this one. The two things that they are testing for aren't really connected. And, if they claim a connection, it's a specious one at best. I know people that drink and smoke pot who don't listen to a single hip-hop track. So, I'm failing to see how there's a correlation. Additionally, I'm with the person above who is distressed by the testing methods.

Also, we can't talk about the self confidence issue because someone will then have to admit that there is a real problem facing women. This survey allows a whole series of fairly important issues relating to the woman's American existence get covered up by the fact that it is only relating to Black people, and we all know that Black people are America's scapegoats for everything except terrorism (Middle Easterners) and immigration (Latinos).

"Why not focus more on their self esteem and confidence rather than their sexual activity and pot smoking?"

In order to do that the researchers would have had to think of them as [i]human[/i] rather than... well, something less than human from all appearances.

And good call, ponies. There is a willingness to invade the personal space of these girls that I rarely see in similar studies done on other populations. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see why.

Firstly, putting "sexy" and "violent" within the same category is a bit disconcerting.

When people do that, I always want to say, "it's all about standards. STANDARDS!"

1. Why I like this study

A) Rap videos are pervasive and portray women in very objectified ways. I think it's important to see if people are copying what is portrayed as prestigious to them. This correlation suggests their may be a link. Correlation doesn't necessarily mean causation, but it fits with the general social constructionist argument that our behaviors are due to the messages we see, which we internalize and then act on. This provides even more fuel for people who want to argue that objectified images are harmful to girls.

B) I like that they provided some test other than simply self-report. I don't know how common that is (in response to the ethnicity question, but we take urine tests all the time in our lab to see how well they match up with self-reports, but for different purposes).

2) What I don't like

A) The conflation of violence and sex is problematic. They should code these separately and see if they independently predict those outcomes (attitudes toward sex, etc.)

B) Although I'm glad that people aren't just studying white middle/upper class college females as is the norm now-adays, focusing on just rap videos is problematic. Rock videos also portray very sexualized images of women, so in some ways this study will reinforce in some people's minds that black = bad.

C) Better methods are needed. Obviously you can't randomly assign people to watch videos or not for a year. That would be unethical if you think that would cause harm. But you could follow-up those same girls one year for now and measure if the sexual activity/drugs have increased since Time 1 for the individuals who watched more videos. It's still correlational, but that helps you make a little bit stronger claims about the potential for causation.

I did/am doing a study in which the ad said, "looking for young women ages 18-24 who has smoking pot in the last 3 months to answer survey. pays $150." thats all it said. and i thought, hell, ill tell them about pot for 150! so i got there and all the questions were like, "when was the last time you felt suicidal?" "uh.. never." "when was the last time your boyfriend beat you?" "uh.. never." "have you ever been to jail and why?" "no, goddammit!"

im hoping theyll publish the findings and theyll say not every person who smokes leads a messed up life, and not everyone with issues has a drug problem.

another question they kept repeating that really bothered me was, "how often do you have risky, unprotected sex?" "um. never. my boyfriend and i have prety much every night or so, but weve been tested for STIs and im on birth control." "right, but if theres no condom, we classify that as risky and unprotected, so im going to put you down as having risky, unprotected sex every day." grrr...

This post really made me think. First of all, why are they only targeting African Americans?! Don't you think other ethnic groups listen to rap or watch rap videos? Also, how about other music videos. I wouldn't consider Justin Timberlake rap, but he treats women as objects in his music videos as well. I think this study needs some work.

"Also, how about other music videos. I wouldn't consider Justin Timberlake rap, but he treats women as objects in his music videos as well."

Speaking of boy band members and of music videos, maybe they should just ask Snowball to make all their videos from now on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7IZmRnAo6s

Here is a copy of the actual study for people who want all the details.

http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/jwh.2007.0429?cookieSet=1

Also, the lead author is a Black woman, so my guess is that the study is probably motivated by "I want to know how these rap videos are effecting my people" rather than "let's show that black people are bad".

How about if boys are more likely to view women and girls in a negative way because of what they see in rap music videos? But it seems like these researchers believe that women objectify themselves, which I don't even know how that's possible.

The method is totally flawed. Why would you ask how often someone watches rap videos? If you wanted to make a correlation, you'd want to ask the group how long they've been watching the videos. You wouldn't be able to make a causal link, but you could still reasonably hypothesize that watching the rap videos leads to drinking. You can't say something leads to something else unless you have some sort of date range.

Why did they only speak to black girls? Rap is popular no matter what color you are.

BLURPLE: "Why did they only speak to black girls? Rap is popular no matter what color you are."

I'm assuming it's because the lead authors were Black women who wanted to study how objectified images of Black women in rap videos might negatively influence Black women?

FEMily "The method is totally flawed. Why would you ask how often someone watches rap videos? If you wanted to make a correlation, you'd want to ask the group how long they've been watching the videos"

They did something similar. They asked frequency with which they watched rap videos. Your point is good - they should also ask for how many years they have been. They used a crude measure, but it's a good start.

From the article:

Rap music video viewing habits were assessed
by asking three different questions. First, adolescents
were asked if they had ever viewed rap music
videos. Adolescents responding affirmatively
were asked about the number of hours they
viewed rap music videos during an average day
and the number of days in the week that rap music
videos were viewed. The two items were multiplied
together to create a measure of frequency
of exposure to viewing rap music videos.

FEMily "How about if boys are more likely to view women and girls in a negative way because of what they see in rap music videos? But it seems like these researchers believe that women objectify themselves, which I don't even know how that's possible."

I'm pretty sure they've done those studies. Most studies are on how viewing images of the same sex effect you (e.g., does viewing muscular men make guys feel worse about their bodies). But there are a good number of studies looking at how viewing objectified videos/images of women effects men's acceptance of rape myths, attitudes towards women, etc.

BLURPLE: "Why did they only speak to black girls? Rap is popular no matter what color you are."

I'm assuming it's because the lead authors were Black women who wanted to study how objectified images of Black women in rap videos might negatively influence Black women?

FEMily "The method is totally flawed. Why would you ask how often someone watches rap videos? If you wanted to make a correlation, you'd want to ask the group how long they've been watching the videos"

They did something similar. They asked frequency with which they watched rap videos. Your point is good - they should also ask for how many years they have been. They used a crude measure, but it's a good start.

From the article:

Rap music video viewing habits were assessed
by asking three different questions. First, adolescents
were asked if they had ever viewed rap music
videos. Adolescents responding affirmatively
were asked about the number of hours they
viewed rap music videos during an average day
and the number of days in the week that rap music
videos were viewed. The two items were multiplied
together to create a measure of frequency
of exposure to viewing rap music videos.

FEMily "How about if boys are more likely to view women and girls in a negative way because of what they see in rap music videos? But it seems like these researchers believe that women objectify themselves, which I don't even know how that's possible."

I'm pretty sure they've done those studies. Most studies are on how viewing images of the same sex effect you (e.g., does viewing muscular men make guys feel worse about their bodies). But there are a good number of studies looking at how viewing objectified videos/images of women effects men's acceptance of rape myths, attitudes towards women, etc.

I think the results of this study are inconclusive. As a psychology major I have learned a little about proper research. They did not cover a wide enough demographic or ask appropriate questions to get to that conclusion. This seems racist as well. There are many Caucasian teens that watch rap music videos as well. They should have been included in the research. I think the conclusion is ridiculous.

"Rap music video viewing habits were assessed
by asking three different questions. First, adolescents
were asked if they had ever viewed rap music
videos. Adolescents responding affirmatively
were asked about the number of hours they
viewed rap music videos during an average day
and the number of days in the week that rap music
videos were viewed."

Fourth, they probably should have asked what sorts of rap music videos the participants watched. I can't get the link to the study to work. Did they?

For example, I just checked YouTube again. It seems possible to spend hours a day, days a week, watching non-sexy non-violent rap videos ranging from professional productions to amateur fans dancing at home to pet birds (not only Snowball).

Spoeaking of amateur fans dancing to rap on YouTube, this article is interesting too:

http://www.boston.com/yourlife/articles/2007/10/10/the_new_moves/

"...The song-and-dance combinations include Huey's 'Pop, Lock & Drop It,' Cherish's 'Do It to It,' Lil Boosie's 'Do tha Ratchet,' Jason Fox's 'Aunt Jackie,' Unk's 'Two Step,' and Soulja Boy Tell 'Em's 'Crank That.' The craze often starts with a music video that showcases the new moves. The dances subsequently become Internet phenomenons as fans videotape themselves doing the motions and upload the results onto YouTube. Some fans put their own twists on the moves by creating new versions of the original..."