MTV's Portrayal of Women

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MTV's Portrayal of Women

I see the rattle and the hum of music television. Flash upon flash of sensory information lights the screen with sound bites, flashbulbs, sex and rock and roll. I am watching MTV in the semi-darkness of a friend's living room and it is easy for me to understand the attraction of this style of television. MTV is pure energy. It has vitality, powerful images, larger-than-life heroes, and the edginess that the best pop music always has. I find MTV strangely hypnotic. I could sit, entranced by the flickering images and incessant beats, for hours.

Yet, as I watched, I noticed that much of the imagery being thrown at me seemed more boring than vital, due to the sexuality it portrayed. One rapper after another indulged in his own personal hormonal fantasy, with slithering women flaunting acres of flesh into the camera. These women were not alive. They had become so objectified as to be sexualized robots.

Such accusations are nothing new for MTV; people have been blaming the station for the decline of human existence for as long as I can remember. Yet, the anti-MTV finger-pointers only wag their pointy fingers because MTV is such a prevalent cultural force. MTV has become so pervasive in our culture that contemporary teenagers are sometimes referred to as the MTV generation. Many argue that MTV merely reflects the amorality of our modern society and do not see that it could have a positive impact on society. But, since I rather enjoy music television and believe it can have a valid role in modern culture, I argue that MTV certainly is a powerful cultural force, but it could, and should, be a positive force (rather than the negative one it so often is) in creating positive gender roles an...

... middle of paper ...

.... pag. Academic Search Elite. Palni Site Search. Goshen College Good Library. 2 Mar. 2001.

Kaplan, D.A. and Rosenberg, D. "They want their MTV back." Newsweek 20

May 1991: n. pag. Academic Search Elite. Palni Site Search. Goshen College Good Library. 2 Mar. 2001.

Marks, Alexandra. "Central Park attacks on women--is MTV to blame?" Christian

Science Monitor 19 June 2001: n. pag. Academic Search Elite. Palni Site Search. Goshen College Good Library. 2 Mar. 2001.

Sean. "MTV Sucks." Sean's Homepage (2001): n. pag. Online. Internet. 3 Apr. 2001.

Available: http://welcome.to/avail138.

Seidman, Steven A. "Revisiting sex-role stereotyping in MTV videos."

International Journal of Instructional Media 26.1 (1999): n. pag. Academic Search Elite. Palni Site Search. Goshen College Good Library. 2 Mar. 2001.

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