GENDER STEREOTYPES AND COUNTRY MUSIC VIDEOS: A Content Analysis
The purpose of this content analysis is to determine the presence of gender stereotyping in country music videos through analyzing the songs and coinciding videos by male and female music artists.
Music videos by female artists:
Heart Like Mine by Miranda Lambert
A Little Bit Stronger by Sara Evans
You Lie by The Band Perry
Back To December by Taylor Swift
Look It Up by Ashton Shepherd
Music videos by male artists:
This by Darius Rucker
Bullets In The Gun by Toby Keith
Colder Weather by Zac Brown Band
What Do You Want by Jerrod Niemann
Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not by Thompson Square
I found that the information necessary to compile the content analysis for gender stereotypes in country music videos could be narrowed down in to six distinct categories. I chose the categories based on the most reoccurring themes of music videos in today’s society, the six most common being; dominance and superiority, implied sexual persuasion, alcohol use, violence, religion, and relationships. The categories were then applied to five top country songs by male artists and five top country songs by female artists.The six categories are defined below:
Dominance: One gender exhibiting superior behaviors over the other.
Sexual persuasion: One gender exhibiting implied sexual persuasion to the audience or to the actor of the opposite gender in the music video.
Alcohol: The mentioning or use of alcohol, or alcohol paraphernalia, including but not limited to, bars, shot glasses, drinking games, beer mugs, bottles, wine glasses, etc.
Violence: Any act that involves one gender being injured or killed, including but not limited to, open gun fire, car accidents, knifes, weaponry, fist fights, fighting words, etc.
Religion: The use of any religious regalia, or mentioning of religion either directly (i.e. “Jesus Christ”) or indirectly (i.e. “Him” “Amen”) etc.
Relationships: One gender expressing feelings towards the opposite gender, including, but not limited to, falling in love, verbal fights, breakups, marriage, divorce, kissing, holding hands, etc.
Music videos by female artists:
Heart Like Mine by Miranda Lambert
A Little Bit Stronger by Sara Evans
You Lie by The Band Perry
Back To December by Taylor Swift
Look It Up by Ashton Shepherd
Music videos by male artists:
This by Darius Rucker
Bullets In The Gun by Toby Keith
Colder Weather by Zac Brown Band
What Do You Want by Jerrod Niemann
Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not by Thompson Square
The conclusion of the analysis is provided here in two separate graphs:
The analysis of female artists is shown in pink, and the analysis of male artists is shown in blue.
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| Female Artists |
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| Male Artists |
GENDER STEREOTYPES AND COUNTRY MUSIC VIDEOS: The Conclusion
The findings of the analysis coincides with the cultivation theory, stating that over time, continued exposure to a certain message will leave the audience believing that message is in fact reality. The results prove to be similar to the gender stereotyping of music videos in previous decades, where in videos where the male was the main singer, females are generally found to demonstrate a much greater implication of sexual persuasion, where as if the main singer is a female, the female actor in the video is found to demonstrate a much greater superiority or equality to the male actor, contradicting previous gender stereotypes believing that women were subordinate to men. It is proven through the analysis, that gender stereotypes are evident in country music videos, however, those stereotypes are seen two different ways as is apparent through the analysis of male and female country music singers and the videos that coincide with their songs.
GENDER STEREOTYPES AND MASS MEDIA: A Literature Review
The basic mission of a stereotype is to provide a fixed image of a person or group. Stereotypes can be either positive or negative, but in very few cases do they actually communicate accurate information. Gender stereotyping, thus, is the portrayal of a person or group based on the fixed image of their gender, from the traits, differences and roles they place in society. Gender definitions impact the lives of men and women across the world in almost all aspects of life. “Notions about what it means to be a woman or a man shape “opportunities for education, work, family, sexuality, reproduction, authority, and the chance to make an impact on the production of culture and knowledge.”” (Gow, 151) Gender stereotypes generally change over time as the definitions of genders are shifted and negotiated by the power of the major social institutions, including, the church, the government, schools, and mass media. The fourth of those, mass media, is a particularly important source of gender stereotyping as it allows for the wide spread broadcast of the stereotypes through all mediums of publication, from videos dispersed over the world wide web, to television shows, produced, directed, and aired on national television.
Stereotypes typically categorize groups along two dimensions, competence, the ability to achieve goals, and likeability, the overall pleasantness of the individual. Competence is usually determined by a group’s social status, with higher status groups stereotyped as more competent. Whereas, perceived likeability is determined by intergroup competition, negative interdependence verses positive interdependence. Traditionally, stereotypes of subordinate groups become prescriptive and paternalistic when the dominant group is significantly dependent on the subordinate group. (Spence, 194) In terms of gender, the dominant group has typically been males, seen as the authoritative and powerful race, and the subordinate group, females, have been seen as the submissive and dependent race.
The portrayal of females took a drastic change with the end of World War II in the 1950s, giving the American public a chance to focus on the importance of family. With fear of nuclear attack, many women left the workplace and returned to their homes to take care of their families, believing that life was too short and that their rightful place was in the home. During this time, mass media shifted its angle to direct its attention to the homemaker lifestyle; magazines, newspapers and movies all began focusing on women in the home rather than the workplace. This homemaker lifestyle that swept the media gave off the impression that in order to be a good mother and wife, a woman had to be a stay-at-home mom. Television shows coincided with this impression, portraying the idea that girls needed to marry hard working men who could provide and take care for them and their family instead of focusing on being able to take care of oneself. (Fredericks, Wisconsin.edu)
To this day and age, mass media still stereotypes the male race as the dominant character in most forms of media publication. The 1999 report, Boys to Men: Media Messages about Masculinity, by the Children Now organization, categorized males into five classes, the joker, the jock, the strong-silent type, the big shot, and the action hero. Each of these classes reinforces the assumption that females are subordinate to men. The most common category of men according to the report is ‘the strong-silent type,’ in this category, the character focuses on being the one in charge, reinforcing the impression that men should always be seen as superior to women. (Childrennow.org)
Gender stereotyping in the music industry is no different. In the early 1980s, music videos became a new source of gender portrayals. It was determined by a Newsweek magazine during the mid-1980s that “video clips were presenting a particularly narrow image of a woman’s place in the music world.” (Gow, 153) As rock music swept the United States during the 80s, the music videos to coincide with the music were both praised and ridiculed. That same Newsweek article mentioned previously addressed the impression that women were portrayed as bimbos in the videos. “Dressed in fishnet and leather, they drape themselves over car hoods, snarl like tigers, undress in silhouette behind window shades. Most rock videos give free reign to the cheesiest imagery of women as playthings.” (Gow 153) In a report of MTVs “Top 100 of the 90s,” researchers viewed a compilation of music videos and analyzed them in order to determine whether the content of gender stereotyping had changed from the 80s to the 90s. The analysis concluded that the “music videos had continued to portray women in a manner that emphasized physical appearance rather than the actual musical ability.” (Gow, 151)
The social theory of cultivation, in its most basic definition, states that the more a person is exposed to a message provided by the media, the more likely that person is to believe that the message is real. This theory, developed by George Gerbner, is extremely important in mass media, including in television shows, films and music videos. Due to the repetition of certain messages, the perception of reality to the audience can become a false reality. For example, the more a person views television shows portraying high crime rates, whether it be reality shows or scripted dramas, the more likely the person will believe that there is a lot of crime in the area where he or she lives. Gerbner’s cultivation theory can be applied in both positive and negative lights. When it comes to mass media, the theory can have an extremely negative effect on gender stereotypes. If the public is bombarded with negative materials about a certain gender, it is possible that the public will no longer view that gender as it used to. For example, if music videos continue to portray women as subordinate “playthings,” the more likely it is that society will begin to view women in the same respect.
Mass media is an extremely powerful and influential factor in the beliefs of the public. Whether its broadcasts reflect reality in a truthful or less truthful way, the society as a whole relies so heavily on mass media that people will believe whatever they hear, read, or see. Through Gerbner’s social theory of cultivation, one can find that the exposure of multiple messages containing the same false reality can lead the audience to believe the false reality to be true. Gender stereotyping, thus, can be portrayed both positively and negatively through mass media and can be warped with repeated exposure of certain character traits by one or the other genders. In the world of music videos, gender stereotypes will continue to coincide with the mediated reality of gender traits through all other forms of mass media.
REFERENCES
Gow, Joe. (1996) Communication Reports. London/New York: Taylor & Francis Group
Online Journal. Volume 9, No. 2.
Spence, Janet Taylor. (1999) Sexism and Stereotypes in Modern Society. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association
Basow, Susan A. (1992) Gender: Stereotypes and roles (3rd ed.) Belmont, CA: Thompson Brooks/Cole Publishing Co.
Basow, Susan A. (1992) Gender: Stereotypes and roles (3rd ed.) Belmont, CA: Thompson Brooks/Cole Publishing Co.
Beal, Carol R. (1994) Boys and Girls: The development of gender roles. New York, US: McGraw Hill.
Fredericks, Michelle. (July 2009) Media Portrayal of Gender Stereotypes in the 1950s. Retrieved from: http://minds.wisconsin.edu/handle/1793/35528
Miller, Patti. (September 1999) Boys to Men: Media Messages and Masculinity. Retrieved from: http://www.childrennow.org/index.php/learn/reports_and_research/category/medias_impact/all
Potter, W. James. (March 2006) Cultivation Theory and Research: A Conceptual Critique. Retrieved from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2958.1993.tb00313.x/abstract
Dill, Karen E. and Thill, Kathleen P. (2007) Video Game Characters and the Socialization of Gender Roles: Young People’s Perceptions Mirror Sexist Media Depictions. Retrieved from: http://www.springerlink.com/content/d7667776258nt866/
Ward, L. Monique and Harrison, Kristen Cole and Daniel, Jessica Henderson. (2005) The Impact of Media Use on Girls' Beliefs About Gender Roles, Their Bodies, and Sexual Relationships: A Research Synthesis. Retrieved from: http://psycnet.apa.org/books/11213/001
Sommers-Flanagan, Rita and Sommers-Flanagan, John and Davis, Britta. (2011) What's Happening on Music Television? A gender role content analysis. Retrieved from: http://www.springerlink.com/content/g426698081674872/
