Empowerment and Objectification: Displaying Female Sexuality in Music Videos
Vera de Lange 10545603 Master’s Thesis
Master’s Programme Communication Science Graduate School of Communication
University of Amsterdam
Mw. Dr. Susanne E. Baumgartner, Supervisor
Abstract
Possible negative effects of sexual objectification displayed in music videos are a current concern in society. However, not every case of sexual display of women might be
objectifying, but in some cases it could also be empowering. This research attempted to make this distinction and explore whether music videos depicting an empowered artist could have positive effects on women’s feelings of self-esteem, self-efficacy, and autonomy. Moreover, it was investigated whether an empowered artist caused more egalitarian gender role beliefs and less self-objectification or less objectification of other women compared to a video depicting an objectified artist or a control condition. Finally, this research studied the influence of trait social comparison. This experiment with 182 participants showed that women exercise less self-objectification and objectify other women less when exposed to an empowered artist in comparison to an objectified artist, but not in comparison with the control video. Women placed more emphasis on their competencies instead of their appearance after seeing an empowered woman. No effects were found for the type of music video on women’s feeling of empowerment (defined as self-esteem, self-efficacy, and autonomy) and their egalitarian gender role belief. Social comparison did not interact with different types of music videos as well. The findings suggest that music videos might not be as harmful as represented in previous research, and more research is needed to explore other possible effects of empowering media content.
Empowerment and Objectification: Displaying Female Sexuality in Music Videos Like other media, music videos can impact the way in which people observe, act, and think (Bussey & Bandura, 1999). Music videos are often watched online on platforms such as YouTube, where 5 billion videos are watched each day (“YouTube by the Numbers”, 2018). YouTube is most popular among 18 to 34 year olds (“YouTube for Press”, 2018). Compared to any other media, music and the internet are the activities this specific age group engages in most often (Coyne, Padilla-Walker & Howard, 2013). The ten most watched videos on YouTube are all music videos (“Top ten most watched”, 2017). According to a content of music videos, female artists dress significantly more sexually than male artists (Aubrey & Frisby, 2011).
Dressing provocatively, moving sexually, and emphasising body parts in music videos have often been defined as sexual objectification (Aubrey & Frisby, 2011;
Sommers-Flanagan, Sommers-Flanagan & Davis, 1993; Vandenbosch & Eggermont, 2012). Sexual objectification theory posits that a person is used as an object, by showing body parts for the pleasure of others (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). In a meta-analysis by Ward (2016), sexual objectification displayed in several media was linked with a weakened view of women’s capabilities, humanity, and morality by both women and men.
These negative effects of sexual objectification in media were established and proven multiple times. However, this research field has so far overlooked important aspects of sexual body exposure. Instead of being used as a sex object, sexual empowerment theory states that one can claim control over their sexual identity, by expressing agency and independency (Emerson, 2002; Peterson, 2010). In many articles, the concept of sexual empowerment is missing and possible positive consequences of body exposure are ignored. In such cases,
content that could have been labeled as portraying sexual empowerment is regarded equal to content that clearly depicts sexual objectification.
If negative effects related to sexual objectification are found, possible positive effects of sexual empowerment might emerge as well. With this in mind, this study aims to add to the current research field a clear distinction between sexual objectification and empowerment, and to study possible positive effects of sexual empowerment. Therefore, the main research questions is: Does watching artists that expose their body in an empowering or objectifying manner in music videos affect women’s gender role beliefs, (self-)objectification, and feelings of self-esteem, autonomy, and self-efficacy?
Moreover, the potential moderating role of trait social comparison will be investigated. Social comparison often causes more negative self-evaluations (Collins, 1996). If this effect emerges when women compare themselves with music video artists, it could weaken the effects of an artist displaying empowerment. Therefore, the second research question is: Does trait social comparison interact negatively with a music video depicting an empowered artist in relation with women’s feelings of self-esteem, self-efficacy, autonomy, and state
(self-)objectification?
Theoretical Background
Sexual objectification theory by Fredrickson and Roberts (1997) describes that women are often reduced to sexual objects in media. Sexual objectification is associated with
submissiveness, being gazed upon, adjusting to the desires of others, and the dehumanisation of a person by isolating specific body parts (Aubrey & Frisby, 2011; Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). The effects of music videos and sexual objectification can be explained by priming theory and social cognitive theory (Bandura, 2001; Higgins, Bargh, & Lombardi, 1985).
According to priming theory, when someone is exposed to an image, video, text, or sound, this results unconsciously in more subject-related thoughts (Doyle & Lee, 2016). Priming theory states that every concept is stored in the mind as a node, which is connected with a network of other concepts. When a concept is primed, established connections of these nodes become activated as well, and tend to remain for a short period of time on the surface of thought afterwards (Higgins et al., 1985). Thus, when women are exposed to music videos that objectifies other women, they may connect concepts of female sexuality to the notion of sexual objects.
Concepts can be linked to other networks simultaneously. Examples for this are the concept of female sexuality and having the freedom to express desire. However, the most recently activated network is most likely to be used again (Domke, Shah & Wackman, 1998). This means that when women are primed often with images of sexual objectification, this network structure would become stronger, and other connections of female sexuality would fade. This is called a threshold, which means that when concepts are not connected frequently they become harder to reach (Higgins et al., 1985). Therefore, being primed with female sexuality might evoke related ideas of objectification, when this is the most frequent expression of sexuality women encounter. Consequentially, other related concepts such as sexual control and independency, would become harder to reach.
A second theory that could potentially explain these effects is social cognitive theory (Bandura, 2001; Bussey & Bandura, 1999). According to social cognitive theory, the media has an influential role in life, and people might apply standards and values learned from media to other parts in life (Bandura, 2001). The theory emphasises that people have agency and control over their actions. People perceive conformation to the general standards and norms as desirable, and media can serve as a platform on which correct behaviour is displayed
(Bandura, 2001). People re-evaluate behaviour based on the behaviour of others and may change their own actions accordingly (Bandura, 2001).
When the media display behaviour differently from what people generally assume is correct, they may change their behaviour to fit in. Thus, being exposed with images of women displaying objectifying behaviour such as sexual movements and submissiveness towards men could lead to the impression that the behaviour displayed is the one to adjust to.
Especially when this behaviour is rewarded, through the suggestions that only beautiful, sexy women can get the attention of the male artist, and that getting sexual attention from a man is something to aspire to in the first place.
Men are more prominent in music videos and female artists expose their bodies more frequently (Aubrey & Frisby, 2011). Women dance more sexually than men in music videos (Aubrey & Frisby, 2011; Sommers-Flanagan et al., 1993; Wright, 2009). Furthermore, music videos often convey stereotypical gender roles, depicting women as sex objects and
subordinate to men (Wallis, 2011). Men often play the dominant or aggressive role (Sommers-Flanagan et al., 1993), and are more frequently displayed as the perpetrator of gazing
behaviour than women (Aubrey & Frisby, 2011). Arnett (2002) described women depicted in music videos as props, not real people: “They appear for a fraction of a second, long enough to shake their butts a couple of times, then the camera moves on” (p.256).
Consequently, research found that seeing content like this resulted in negative self-images of women and a diminished view of women by men (for an overview see Ward, 2016). Noticing that sexually objectifying media content is being rewarded, by creating the illusion that men solely want women that expose themselves, teaches women to self-objectify (Vandenbosch & Eggermont, 2012). This has been demonstrated in previous research frequently (e.g., Aubrey, 2006; Aubrey, Hopper & Mbure, 2011; Aubrey & Gerding, 2014;
Grabe & Hyde, 2009; Grabe, Ward, & Hyde, 2008; Karsay & Matthes, 2016; Kistler & Lee, 2009, Mischner et al., 2013; Prichard & Tiggemann, 2012).
Yet, there also might be content in music videos that actually shows empowered women, although this occurs much less frequently than objectifying content. Andsager and Roe (2003) mention Queen Latifah, Madonna and Pink as artists who reclaim power by exposing themselves. According to Emerson (2002), artists such as Elliot, claim agency, self-reliance and independence by voicing their own desires and being in charge over their destiny. Roberts (1991) states that feminist rappers such as the hip-hop group Salt-N-Pepa raise
attention towards gender oppression. They are vocal about fighting for women rights and express the viewpoints of women (Roberts, 1991).
According to Tolman (2012), sexual empowerment is accomplished when women overcome gender inequity which is normative in current heterosexual relations. This idea is based on the premise that women are mostly taught to be submissive and please men, and to surmount this notion and accept that women have personal desires as well, equates to empowerment (Tolman, 2012). The difference between sexual objectification and sexual empowerment lies in the degree to which you are in charge of a situation, by having agency and control over you own sexual identity and being able to voice your own desires (Lamb & Peterson, 2010).
Sexual exposure of artists is not necessarily objectifying and the effects of sexual objectification might be very different. Being primed with empowering content might lead to more positive views about women, such as connections in the minds of women related to being strong and independent, instead of being sexual objects. Being empowered might convey a message less directed towards appearance and more towards competence, and thus to less (self-)objectification.
Therefore, because empowered artists could have a positive influence, in contrast to those who are objectified, the following hypothesis was constructed:
H1: Viewing a music video that depicts a sexually empowered artist will result in less (a) self-objectification or (b) objectification of other women in comparison to viewing a video that depicts a sexually objectified music artist or to the control condition.
Wallis (2011) stated that music videos often present stereotypical gender roles, by showing women as submissive and men as dominant and aggressive. This division becomes even more apparent in sexual relationships (Arnett, 2002), since women are taught to let men take the first step in these relationships (van Oosten, Peter, & Valkenburg, 2015). When participants were exposed to content that depicted stereotypical gender relations, it affected them to have similar attitudes (Ward, Hansbrough, & Walker, 2005). Furthermore, exposure to sexual music videos increased misogynistic beliefs among adolescents (van Oosten et al., 2015).
However, one could also argue that if these gender roles are reversed or countered in music videos, people would change their attitudes accordingly. When women claim power and control, they defy stereotypical gender roles and as a result might influence women to re-examine their standpoints, and believe in more egalitarian gender roles. Therefore the second hypothesis predicted:
H2: Viewing a video that depicts a sexually empowered artist will result in more egalitarian gender role beliefs in comparison to viewing a music video that depicts a sexually objectified music artist or to the control condition.
While acknowledging that a clear theoretical concept of sexual empowerment is impossible in current society and in contemporary discussions, Lamb and Peterson (2012) came to the agreement that women can feel empowered, that this feeling is subjective and is interconnected with self-efficacy, self-esteem, and autonomy. Although other verbalisms are used, such as independence, confidence, self-reliance, and agency, this approach to
empowerment is supported in other research (Emmerson, 2002; Bay-Cheng, 2012).
Previous studies showed that women expressed more self-objectification after being exposed to objectifying content of women in media. Oppositely, when being exposed to women that empower themselves, viewers could feel more empowered themselves and change their current attitudes about women to strong and independent. Thus, when exposed to sexually empowered music video content, women might also gain a feeling of higher self-efficacy, self-esteem, and autonomy. Therefore, the third hypothesis explored the following:
H3: Viewing a music video that depicts a sexually empowered artist will result in more feelings of (a) self-esteem, (b) self-efficacy, and (c) autonomy in comparison to a music video that depicts a sexually objectified music artist or to the control condition.
The Moderating Role of Trait Social Comparison
Although the distinction between empowered and objectified content is scarce in research, there are two studies that have researched the difference. The first, by Halliwell, Malson, and Tischner (2011) studied if advertisements in which female models show sexual agency could positively influence women. They found that expressing sexual agency was actually more harmful for state self-objectification and weight concerns than sexually
effects of both a woman with agency and without, as portrayed in super hero movies. Negative effects such as lower self-esteem and an increase in body importance were found between the sexualised heroine and control condition. However, both studies disregarded researching the effects of social comparison.
According to Festinger (1954), people compare and evaluate their abilities relative to those of others. Social comparison is a personality trait, and it differs for every person (Festinger, 1954). However, women compare themselves more than men, and young adults compare themselves more than older individuals (60+) (Callan, Kim & Matthews, 2015; Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2004; Young, Len-Ríos & Young, 2017). Upward comparison is described by Festinger (1954) as comparing yourself with someone “better” than you. Upward comparison can lead to envy, negative feelings about oneself, or the motivation to improve yourself (Blechert et al., 2009; Collins, 1996; van de Ven, 2017).
In the aforementioned studies, women were asked how they felt about themselves after being exposed to super heroines and witty models. If the women compared themselves with the empowered women, they would compare upward, which could have resulted in more negative feelings about their own body and competences. This might explain why both studies concluded that empowered women were actually more harmful to women's self-evaluation than objectified women.
Similarly, seeing music videos depicting empowered artists might result in upward comparison as well, which could influence women to experience less feelings of self-esteem, autonomy, and self-efficacy. To research why empowered depictions of women cause more harmful self-evaluations for women, a fourth hypothesis was added:
H4: Women with high upward social comparison will have less feelings of (a) self-efficacy, (b) self-esteem, and (c) autonomy than women with low upward social comparison after viewing a music video that depicts a sexually empowered artist.
Hargreaves and Tiggemann (2004) found that adolescent girls have more body-dissatisfaction after they compare themselves with media personas than boys. Therefore, a person with more trait social comparison could focus more on appearance features, and thus objectify themselves to a greater degree. Because of this tendency, they could also focus more on other women’s appearance features. Therefore the final hypothesis predicted:
H5: Women with high upward social comparison will (a) self-objectify and (b) objectify other women more than women with low upward social comparison after viewing a music video that depicts a sexually empowered artist.
Methods Participants
The participants solely exist of female young adults, due to the fact that previous research has focused on women, and multiple negative effects of music videos are established for women. This study focuses on emerging adults, because they are the main users of music videos on YouTube (“YouTube for Press”, 2018). Although, adolescents might be particularly vulnerable to the potential effects of sexualised videos (van Oosten et al., 2015), previous research frequently used convenience samples consisting of college undergraduates and established effects among this age group as well (Aubrey et al., 2011; Halliwell et al., 2011; Pennell & Behm-Morawitz, 2015).
In each group (empowering, objectifying, and control video), were 60 participant needed so that there were about 30 high and 30 low in social comparison per group.
Therefore, 180 participants were needed in total. Participants were recruited via social media (Facebook, LinkedIn and Email), face-to-face and via online platforms for women, such as ‘Dag van de Vrouw’. Participants were randomly assigned to a condition. Responses were collected with Qualtrics, and analysed with SPSS version 25.
In total 191 people participated, of which 9 were removed because they identified as men or had an age above 30. Thus, 182 female participants between the age of 18 and 30 years (M =24.08, SD = 2.51) remained. A one-way ANOVA showed that the control group (M = 24.86, SD = 2.83) differed significantly in age from the group that saw the objectified video (M = 23.64, SD = 2.42) and the empowered video (M = 23.75, SD = 2.11), F(2, 179) = 4.55, p = .012. However, this age difference was only approximately 1 year, and is it thus unlikely that this changed the results substantially.
Participants originated mostly from the Netherlands (84.1%). The remaining participants (15.9%) originated from Belgium, Germany, China, America, Japan, Taiwan, Mexico, Slovakia, Lithuania, Colombia, Italy, Turkey, Romania, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. There was no significant difference between groups and country of origin (X 2 (2, N = 182) = . 406, p = .816).
Design and Procedure
The design was a between-subjects experiment with three conditions. After participants filled out a consent form, they watched a music video that depicted sexual objectification, sexual empowerment, or a control video that did not display sexual material. After watching the video, the participants filled out a survey. The study was an online
experiment; participants could therefore complete the survey on their own, at any location. Subjects were told that the study was about their attitudes towards music videos.
Stimulus Material
Video selection. Following the discussion in the theory section, the difference between
sexual objectification and empowerment can be described as submissiveness or being in control, being reduced to body parts or shown as an entire person, being a subject of gaze or not, and voicing your own desires instead of wanting to please others (Aubrey & Frisby, 2011; Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997; Karsay, Matthes, Platzer, & Plinke, 2018; Lamp & Peterson, 2012; Peterson, 2010; Tolman, 2012)
Considering that hiphop and rhythm and blues are genres with the most sexualised content (Aubrey & Frisby, 2011), and are seen as the most misogynistic and objectifying music genres (Penney, 2012; Wright, 2009), this research focuses on the genres hiphop and rhythm and blues.
This study makes use of a female artist, because previous research showed women are objectified more often, display behaviour in music videos that evokes sexual tension, and there is general concern over how they are currently being displayed in music videos (Aubrey & Frisby, 2011; Sommers-Flanagan et al., 1993; Ward 2016). To increase internal validity, two music videos from the same artist were chosen. An artist who is named music’s most influential woman by the BBC and that has more than one hundred million views on YouTube on almost all her music videos is Beyoncé (“Beyonce”, 2018). She could be seen as a popular music artist. Her music is a mix between hiphop, dance, and rhythm and blues. Moreover, she made videos that could be described as objectifying or empowering.
Two music videos from Beyoncé were chosen for this research. The first, Partition, was used as a music video depicting sexual objectification. Beyoncé exposes her body and is
frequently gazed upon by men. She often sings the lyric “I just want to be the girl you like” (Knowles et al., 2013), which expresses submissiveness towards someone else. The video also frequently displays close-up shots of her body. At one point in the video she is reduced to a sexualised female shape. Therefore, this music video can be seen as an expression of objectification.
As a video displaying sexual empowerment, I chose the video Run the World (Girls). In this video Beyoncé expresses empowerment by voicing ideas and opinions. Her
movements are nevertheless sexual, but the camera frame does not single out body parts at any given moment. When men are looking at her while she makes suggestive movements, they display fear, rather than pleasure. She shows herself to be in control multiple times, by managing an army, holding hyenas on a leash, and toying with men. Her song lyrics contain sentences like “Disrespect us no they won’t”, “My persuasion can build a nation”, “I’m rapping for the girls, who taking over the world” and finally one lyric is shouted throughout the song: “Who run the world? Girls!” (Knowles et al., 2011).
The control video for this experiment is No no no by Beirut. This video is suited as a control video because it shows neither women, nor sexual behaviour. Sixty-three (34.6%) participants saw the video Run the World (Girls), 60 (33.0%) saw the video No no no, and 59 (32.4%) participants saw the video Partition.
Measures
Stimulus material and manipulation check. To check whether the videos Partition and
Run the World (Girls) embody objectification and empowerment, participants were asked
about the videos at the end of the survey. Participants were asked on a scale from 1 (fully disagree) to 10 (fully agree) if they enjoyed the video, if they agree or disagree if the music video was sexual, and if they thought from a scale from 1 (not at all) to 10 (a great deal) if the
artist was (1) autonomous, (2) strong, (3) empowered, (4) objectified, (5) skilled, and (6) has self-esteem. These items could also indicate whether manipulation was successful by
comparing the perceived level of objectification and empowerment between different groups. The items on the survey were inspired by the pretest of Pennell and Behm-Morawitz (2015).
Self-Objectification was measured by the previously verified self-objectification
questionnaire by Noll and Fredrickson (1998). Participants had to rank from 1 (most important) to 10 (least important) what body attributes they found important. Five of these attributes were appearance based (physical attractiveness, weight, sex appeal, measurements, and muscle tone), and the other five were based on competences (Muscular strength,
resilience, health, physical fitness, and physical energy). To measure differences, sum scores for competence based features (M = 29.86, SD = 5.26) and appearance based features (M = 25,18, SD = 5.30) were computed for every participant, and then reverse-coded to make the outcomes more logical. The range for the scores was between 15 and 40. Fifteen was the lowest score possible, indicating that these items were ordered by the participant as least important. The highest score possible is 40, indicating that the five features of competence or appearance were ranked most important.
Objectification of others. The objectification of others was measured through
measuring the objectification of the depicted artist. This measure was inspired by research of Garcia, Earnshaw and Quinn (2015). In this research, 4 items that focused on extrinsic (clothing, appearance, body, sex appeal) and 4 items that focused on intrinsic features (feelings, personality, career, family) of the artist were measured by asking participants on a scale from 1 (not at all) to 5 (all the time) how much they thought about these things while watching the music video. After conducting a principal component factor analysis (PCA) with oblique rotation, two factors with an eigenvalue above 1 resulted (2.64, 1.56) which
cumulatively explained 52.5% of the variance. The KMO measure for sampling adequacy was is .71 and Barlett’s test of sphericity was significant (X2(28) = 313.56, p < .001). Two scales
were computed, one defining the level of focus on intrinsic features and one on extrinsic features. The scale for extrinsic values was reliable (Cronbachs alpha = .76, M = 3.27, SD = 1.52), the scale for intrinsic values was however, moderately unreliable (Cronbach’s alpha = . 56, M = 1.98, SD = 1.11). Cronbach’s alpha could not be improved by removing items, thus all items were retained.
The variables self-efficacy, self-esteem, autonomy, egalitarian gender role beliefs, and trait social comparison were all measured with a five-point Likert scale from “strongly disagree” (1) to “strongly agree” (5).
efficacy was measured with a shortened version of the NGSE (New General
Self-Efficacy scale) by Chen, Gully and Eden (2001). The shortened version was measured and validated by Rompell et al. (2013). It consisted of 6 items which indicated how participants perceive their abilities. An example is: “No matter what comes my way, I’m usually able to handle it”. To test the factor structure, a PCA with oblique rotation was conducted. The results showed only one factor with an eigenvalue above 1 (1.99), which explained 49.9% of the variance. The KMO measure of sampling adequacy was .66 and Barlett’s test of sphericity was significant (X2(6) = 108.99, p < .001). Two items were removed due to low factor
loadings below .25 (see appendix A). All residual items loaded on one factor, with the lowest factor loading being .50. A scale was constructed with 4 factors representing self-efficacy. The scale was reasonably reliable, because Cronbach’s alpha = .65 (M = 3.58, SD = .25).
Cronbach’s alpha could not be further improved by removing items.
Self-esteem was measured with a reduced version (Tambs & Røysamb, 2014) of the
for instance “I take a positive attitude toward myself” (Rosenberg, 1965, p.18). The factor structure for the scale self-esteem was measured with a PCA with oblique rotation. Before the analysis, item 2 and 3 were reverse coded (see appendix A). The results showed one factor with an eigenvalue above 1 (2.06), which explained 51.6% of the variance. All items loaded to one factor, with the lowest factor loading being .48. The KMO measure of sampling adequacy was .66, and Barlett’s test of sphericity was significant (X2(6) = 125.75, p < .001). The scale
self-esteem could therefore be constructed with 4 factor items. The scale was reasonably reliable (Cronbach’s alpha = .67, M = 3.5, SD = .73). Cronbach’s alpha could not be improved by removing items. It was therefore decided to leave all items in the scale.
Autonomy was measured with 5 items from a scale that originally contained 30 items,
(Bekker & van Assen, 2006) measuring autonomy on three different levels: Sensitivity with others, capacity for managing new situations, and self-awareness. In this study only items with the highest factor loading with self-awareness were inserted because they described autonomy as being able to define opinions, desires, and being steadfast. The scale consisted of five items such as “I often find it difficult to determine what I really want”.
The factor structure for the scale autonomy was tested with a PCA with oblique
rotation. Before analysis, items 1 and 3 were reverse-coded (see appendix A). Two factors had an eigenvalue above 1 (2.10, 1.22) which cumulatively explained 66.7% (42.1%, 24.5%) of the variance. The KMO measure of sampling adequacy was .64 and Barlett’s test of sphericity was significant (X2(10) = 157.25, p < .001). Due to the small number of items, only one scale was constructed with 5 items. Items that loaded with the second factor also had a factor loading higher than 0.3 with the first factor, with the lowest being .36. The scale was
reasonably reliable (Cronbach’s alpha =. 65, M = 3.37, SD = .89), but could not be improved by removing items. Therefore, all items were kept.
Egalitarian gender role beliefs. To measure if people have egalitarian gender role
beliefs, the attitudes towards gender role scale by Andrade (2016) and attitudes towards women scale (AWS) by Whatley (2008) were combined, because they represented different aspects (e.g., stereotypes and capabilities of women) of egalitarian role beliefs. Due to lengthy response time for participants, only items that had a factor loading higher than 0.5 were selected for this research. The shortened version of the AWS originally contained 15 items, of which 5 were used, and the attitudes towards gender role scale originally consist of 23 items, of which 6 were used. The scale used consisted of 11 items, such as “Some jobs are not suitable for women”. The wording of the phrases was overall stereotypical. Thus, women who strongly disagreed (1) had actually more egalitarian gender role beliefs.
The factor structure for the scale egalitarian gender roles was tested with a PCA with oblique rotation. Before analysis, items 5, 8, and 9 were reverse-coded (see appendix A). The results showed three values with an eigenvalue above 1 (3.51, 1.29, 1.10). However, the scree-plot indicated only one factor. The first factor explained 32.0% of the variance, the other factors 11.8% and 10.0%. Therefore, only one factor was chosen, and one item with a factor loading less than .3 was removed (“It is harder for a women to find a job than it is for a man”). The residual items all loaded to one factor, with the lowest factor loading being .38. The KMO measure of sampling adequacy was .83 and Barlett’s test of sphericity was significant (X2(45) = 384.53, p < .001). A new scale representing egalitarian gender role beliefs was computed with 10 factor items. The scale was reasonably reliable (Cronbach’s alpha = .78, M = 1.53, SD = .64).
Trait Social Comparison. To measure social comparison, a shortened version of the
INCOM (Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Scale) was implemented in the survey (Gibbons & Buunk, 1999). While constructing the INCOM scale, Gibbons and Buunk (1999)
found two factors. In this research only one factor was used which related more to opinions about oneself. Participants were questioned with 6 items if they compare themselves with others often. For example: “I am not the type of person who compares often with others”.
The factor structure for the scale trait social comparison was tested with a PCA with oblique rotation. Before analysis, item 4 was reverse-coded (see appendix A). One factor had an eigenvalue above 1 (2.94), which explained 49.0% of the variance. The KMO measure of sampling adequacy was .82 and Barlett’s test of sphericity was significant (X2(15) = 291.52, p < .001). All items loaded to one factor, with the lowest factor loading being .38. A new scale for trait social comparison was computed with 6 factor items. The scale was reasonably reliable (Cronbach’s alpha = .77, M = 3.30, SD = .90).
Demographic Variables and Control variables. At the beginning of the survey,
participants were asked about their age, gender, and country of origin. These questions were asked to establish if participants are actually female and between the age of 18–30 years old. For the complete survey, please refer to appendix A.
Results Manipulation Check and Stimulus Material Check
To check whether the two sexual music videos were indeed perceived as more sexual than the control video, a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with music video as
independent variable and the question if the video contained sexual images as dependent variable was conducted. The results showed significant differences between the empowered (M = 5.09, SD = 2.83), objectified (M = 8.19, SD = 2.13), and control (M = .90, SD = 1.36) videos on the level of sexualised images (F(2, 179) = 163.96, p < .001). However, the
.001. Nevertheless, the results indicate that the control condition was not perceived as sexual as the other two videos.
To test whether the manipulation videos were interpreted differently by participants in terms of sexual objectification and empowerment, an independent samples t-test was
conducted between the music video depicting an objectified and empowered artist. The videos were compared on the answers of the questions if the artist was objectified, gazed upon, has self-esteem, strength, was in control, empowered, and exposed her body. As can be seen in Table 1, the results indicated significant differences between the empowered and objectified video on the level of perceived objectification, self-esteem, and body exposure of the artist. Thus, the manipulation was successful.
Analysis of Hypotheses
The first hypothesis posited that music videos depicting a sexually empowered artist might result in less (a) self-objectification and (b) objectification of others after exposure, in comparison to a music video depicting an objectified artist, or a control video. To research hypothesis 1a, a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted with music
1Violated Levene’s assumption of equal variances, adjusted values are therefore reported.
Table 1 - Results of independent samples t-test of artist and music video characteristics Objectified
video (n = 59) video (n = 63)Empowerd
M SD M SD t df p 95% CI Objectification 6.75 2.68 5.56 2.71 -2.44 120 .016 -2.16, -.22 Gazed upon 7.75 2.22 7.75 2.27 .00 120 .999 -.81, .81 Self-esteem1 7.76 2.07 8.84 1.37 3.37 99.65 .001 .44, 1.71 Strength1 6.18 2.92 8.22 1.44 4.83 83.42 <.001 1.20, 2.87 Control1 6.53 2.66 8.23 1.48 4.36 89.37 <.001 .93, 2.49 Empowerment1 6.00 2.72 7.67 1.65 4.07 94.32 <.001 .85, 2.28 Body exposure 8.72 1.49 6.97 1.98 -5.47 120 <.001 -2.37, -1.12
videos as grouping variable and competence and appearance based values as dependent variables. The results indicate a significant, although small effect of the type of music video on the perceived importance of competence based features (F(2,179) = 3.27, p = .040, ηp2 = .
035) and appearance based features (F(2,179) = 3.50, p = .032, ηp2 = .038). An inspection of
the post-hoc Bonferroni test indicated that women exposed to the music video depicting an empowering artist (M = 31.14, SD = 5.45), value competence aspects as significantly more important than women exposed to the objectified artist (M = 28.80, SD = 4.80), Mdifference = 2.35, SE = .94, p = .041. The results further showed that women exposed to the empowered artist (M = 23.86, SD = 5.45) valued appearance aspects as less important than women exposed to the objectified artist (M = 26.32, SD = 4.93), Mdifference = 2.46, SE = .95, p = .030. There were no significant differences between the manipulation videos and the control video for both competence (M = 29.55, SD = 5.29) and appearance (M = 25.45, SD = 5.30).
The results for H1a demonstrate that women exposed to the empowered artist exercise less self-objectification because they value competence features as more important, and appearance aspects as less important than women being exposed to the objectified video. However, this only partially confirms H1a because there was no evidence that empowered women afflict less self-objectification in comparison to the control condition.
H1b stated that women objectify other women (in this case the depicted artist) less when exposed to an empowered artist in comparison to the objectified artist or the control video. To test hypothesis 1b, a MANOVA was conducted with the scales for intrinsic and extrinsic aspects as dependent variables and the type of music video as independent variable. The results show moderately strong and significant effects for focusing on extrinsic values (F(2,179) = 88.49, p < .001, ηp2 = .497) and significant, but weak effects for intrinsic values
that women exposed to the empowered artist (M = 3.47, SD = .75) focus significantly less on extrinsic aspects than women exposed to the objectified artist (M = 3.98, SD = .68), p <.001. However, both the objectified (p <.001) and empowered (p <.001) artist caused more focus on extrinsic aspects than the control condition (M = 2.38, SD = .57). Moreover, women exposed to the empowered artist (M = 2.20, SD = .71) focused more on intrinsic aspects than women exposed to the control condition (M = 1.81, SD = .63), p = .006. No other significant
differences between conditions were found for the thoughts on intrinsic values. The results partially confirm H1b, women objectify the artist less, when viewing an empowered artist in comparison to an objectified artist, but not in comparison to the control condition.
The second hypothesis questioned whether an artist depicted in an objectifying, empowering, or non-sexual music video could influence how people view gender roles. To test the second hypothesis, a one-way ANOVA was conducted with the constructed scale of egalitarian gender role beliefs as the dependent variable, and music video condition as
independent variable. There were no significant differences found between the empowered (M = 1.50, SD = .43) and objectified artist (M = 1.58, SD =.49), nor between the sexualised videos and the control music video (M = 1.51 , SD =. 40) on the level of egalitarian gender role beliefs among participants (F(2,179) = .563, p = .571, η2 = .006 ). This indicates that
women in general have a very high egalitarian gender role belief, inconsequential of music video stimuli. Therefore, hypothesis 2 was rejected.
The third hypothesis relates to whether an empowered artist could enhance
participants’ (a) self-esteem, (b) self-efficacy, and (c) autonomy. The third hypothesis was tested with a MANOVA. The independent variable was the music video condition and the dependent variables were self-esteem, self-efficacy, and autonomy. Results indicate that the type of music video did not have an effect on (a) self-esteem (F(2,179) = 2.75, p = .067, ηp2
= .030), (b) self-efficacy (F(2,179) = .64, p = .529, ηp2 = .007), and (c) autonomy (F(2,179)
= .60, p = .552, ηp2 = .007). Therefore, hypothesis 3 was rejected: The type of music video did
not influence women’s feelings of self-esteem, self-efficacy, or autonomy. Mean scores and standard deviations for each music video condition and the variables can be found in Table 2 in appendix B.
Hypothesis 4 predicted that women with high trait social comparison, will have lower feelings of (a) self-esteem, (b) self-efficacy, and (c) autonomy after viewing a music video that depicts a sexually empowered artist. Before the hypothesis could be tested, a median split was conducted for the scale trait social comparison (Median = 3.41). The hypothesis was tested with a MANOVA. The music video condition and the divided trait social comparison variable were independent, the dependent variables were self-esteem, self-efficacy, and autonomy.
As stated in the previous hypothesis, the different music video stimuli did not have an effect. However, interesting is that this MANOVA did found a significant effect of the music video stimuli on the level of self-esteem (F(2, 176) = 3.74, p = .026, ηp2= .041). Nevertheless,
the post-hoc Bonferroni test depicted no significant differences between music video groups. The results from the MANOVA showed significant main effects of social comparison on the level of self-esteem, (F(1, 176) = 15.66, p <.001, ηp2= .082), self-efficacy (F(1, 176) =
8.63, p = .004, ηp2= .047), and autonomy (F(1, 176) = 7.89, p = .006, ηp2= .043). Self-esteem
was higher for women with low social comparison (M = 3.66, SD = .53), than for women with high social comparison (M = 3.34, SD = .64). Similar results occurred between women with low (M = 3.70, SD = .53) and high (M = 3.45, SD = .57) social comparison on the feeling of self-efficacy. Comparable results occurred for autonomy between low (M = 3.50, SD = .60) and high (M = 3.25, SD = .59) social comparison.
No interaction effects were found between the level of social comparison and exposure to different music video stimuli on self-esteem (F(2, 176) = .27, p = .761, ηp2= .
003), self-efficacy (F(2, 176) = .48, p = .623, ηp2 = .005), and autonomy (F(2, 176) = .32, p = .
728, ηp2= .004). The outcomes suggest that social comparison did have a significant effect on
women’s feeling of (a) self-esteem, (b) self-efficacy, and (c) autonomy, this effect did however not interact with exposure to an empowered or objectified artist in music videos. Therefore, H4abc were not supported.
The final hypothesis (H5ab) questioned if social comparison could influence the relationship between (a) self-objectification and (b) objectification of others after the exposure to a music video that depicts a sexually empowered artist. H5a was tested with a MANOVA. The music video type and level of social comparison were independent variables, the
importance of appearance and competence based features were dependent variables. The results are presented in Table 3.
The outcomes suggest a significant main effect of social comparison on the perceived importance of appearance and competence based features. Women with low social
comparison (M = 23.91, SD = 5.44) found appearance based features less important than women with high social comparison (M = 26.45, SD = 4.86). Similarly, women with low social comparison (M = 31.16, SD = 5.34) found competence based features more important than women with high social comparison (M = 27.58, SD = 4.77). The interaction effects between social comparison and music video condition on the perceived importance of appearance and competence based features were not significant (see Table 3).
Although social comparison did influence the perceived importance of appearance and competence based aspects, this effect did not interact with music video stimuli. Therefore hypothesis 5a was rejected.
To test H5b, a similar MANOVA was conducted, it tested intrinsic and extrinsic aspects of the artist as dependent variables, and the type of music video and the level of social comparison as independent variables. The results are presented in Table 4. The results
demonstrated significant main effects of the level of social comparison on the level of thoughts on extrinsic aspects of the artist depicted. Women with low social comparison (M = 3.10, SD =.94) thought less about extrinsic features of the artist than women with high social comparison (M = 3.45, SD =.91). However, there was no significant effect of social
comparison on the volume of thoughts about intrinsic aspects. Neither did the interaction effect between social comparison and the type of music video on the thoughts on intrinsic and extrinsic features of the artist emerge.
The results indicate that social comparison did influence the level of objectification of others, by focusing more on extrinsic values. However, there was no interaction between social comparison and the type of music video, therefore H5b was rejected.
Table 3 — Results of a MANOVA testing hypothesis 5a
dependent
variable squaresSum of df squareMean F p ηp2
Social comparison appearance 313.20 1 313.20 12.09 .001 .064
competence 333.31 1 333.31 13.13 <.001 .069
Music video appearance 206.74 2 103.37 3.99 .020 .043
competence 191.99 2 95.99 3.78 .025 .041
Social comparison*
music video appearance 29.75 2 14.87 .57 .564 .006
competence 28.10 2 14.05 .55 .576 .006
Error appearance 4560.02 176 25.91
competence 4468.77 176 25.39
Total appearance 120497.00 182
Discussion
This experimental study attempted to make a distinction between sexual
empowerment and sexual objectification depicted in music videos. This distinction has been frequently overlooked and therefore, this research explored the possibility that not all women in music videos are objectified, and not all presentations of women in music videos are harmful. In contrast, depictions of sexual empowerment might even have positive effects on women’s egalitarian gender role beliefs, feelings of empowerment (defined as self-esteem, self-efficacy, and autonomy), and it might reduce self-objectification and objectification of other women.
Previous studies that researched the difference found that claiming sexual agency was actually more harmful to women’s self-perceptions in general than showing women being submissive or objectified in superhero movies and advertisements (Halliwell et al., 2011; Pennell & Behm-Morawitz, 2015). The present study found contradictory results, indicating that women actually objectify themselves less. Women found their own appearance less
Table 4 — Results of a MANOVA testing hypothesis 5b
dependent
variable squaresSum of df squareMean F p ηp2
Social comparison intrinsic .003 1 3 6 .939 <.001
extrinsic 2.84 1 2.84 6.43 .012 .035
Music video intrinsic 4.83 2 2.41 5.17 .007 .056
extrinsic 75.79 2 37.90 85.85 <.001 .494
Social comparison*
music video intrinsic .35 2 .17 .37 .690 .004
extrinsic .24 2 .12 .28 .759 .003
Error intrinsic 82.16 176 .47
extrinsic 77.69 176 .44
Total intrinsic 802.44 182
important and placed more attention to their competences when they viewed a music video depicting a sexually empowered artist in comparison with a sexually objectified artist. This corroborates with one of the findings of Pennell and Behm-Morawitz (2015). They found that women exposed to a superheroine focused more on their own competences as well.
The difference between the findings of this study and the other two studies could be explained by the differences in stimulus material. The study of Halliwell et al. (2011) used a photo of a model, not a moving person claiming control, showing strength, and voicing ideas. A sexualised photo with a witty slogan is perhaps not enough to express empowerment. The difference in results might also be explained by being able to relate to the depicted content. A movie-scene or music video allow more engagement with the material than a photo. Affective engagement is theorised to evoke stronger responses (van Oosten et al., 2015). Being able to evaluate the actions and behaviour of another woman could help to interpret whether she is empowered or objectified, which might allow more attention given to the strength and competence of the woman, instead of her appearance.
Despite the finding that a sexual empowered music video had positive effects on valuing competence based features, this study also found that participants exposed to both sexual music videos placed more importance on their appearance in comparison to the control video, which only depicted men. This finding is in line with previous research which found that women placed more emphasis on appearance after viewing sexual music videos depicting women (Aubrey & Gerding, 2014; Karsay & Matthes, 2016; Prichard & Tiggemann, 2012). This study thus confirms Fredrickson and Roberts (1997) theory of sexual objectification. Women do objectify themselves more when exposed to sexual material of other women. Yet, this study also confirms Bandura’s (2001) social cognitive theory. If women are exposed to an
empowered woman, they adjust their behaviour and focus less on their appearance and more on their competence.
Still, this research could lead to the impression that all sexual depictions of women lead to more appearance attention and thus more self-objectification than music videos not displaying women at all. Moreover, some researchers challenge the validity of sexual empowerment: If female artists are really empowered and have the choice to express themselves differently, why are the images of the new empowerment the same as the old images of objectification (Levy, 2005)? Aubrey and Frisby (2011) question if female artists by expressing sexual agency, actually objectify themselves by transmitting the idea that success is only reachable by exposing yourself.
Furthermore, the manner in which one reaches the feeling of empowerment is problematic. For instance, Lamb (2010) questions the feeling of empowerment that can be learned from current media. Gill (2008) argues that media use the concept of empowerment to influence women to buy products, by stating that the products make women independent, strong, and empowered. For example, the current raunch culture in the U.S.A creates the illusion that when females expose their bodies, submit to stereotypical gender roles and established objectifying images, they are actually empowering themselves (Levy, 2005). Levy (2005) further argues that the media exhaust the third wave feminism ideal of being sexually active, attractive, and submissive as the new empowered, with Hugh Hefner as the figure head.
On the other hand, empowerment is also defined as an individual determination over one’s life and a process in which people gain control over an issue which is important to them (Rappaport, 1987). Therefore, the use of formerly suppressive and demeaning images can be seen as a form of reclaiming and restating power (Lamb & Peterson, 2012). This has been
done by other suppressed groups before, like the curse word ‘queer’, which is now used by the LGBTQ+ community. As a result, the discussion around the concept of sexual
empowerment and whether all sexual presentations of women are harmful, endures. More research is into the concept of empowerment is needed to establish whether it could be damaging to women’s self-evaluations.
However, previous research never established whether non-sexual depictions of women in music videos are less damaging to women’s self-evaluations than sexualised images of women. Studies that established that sexualised displays of women are harmful to state self-objectification only compared high and low sexual objectification (Aubrey & Gerding, 2014; Karsay & Matthes, 2016; Prichard & Tiggemann, 2012). Not a single study, the present research included, used a non-sexual representation of women in music videos as control condition, probably because these could not be found. Establishing whether the effect persist when non-sexual images of women are displayed in music videos could indicate whether all sexual depictions of women are actually more harmful. Otherwise, music video depictions of women in general could be harmful for women’s self-evaluations.
Previous studies found that women expressed more objectification of other women after exposure to music videos (Karsay et al., 2018). This research found contradictory results: Women thought more about non-appearance related aspects (such as career and family) of the artist when they saw the empowered video in comparison to the control video. Similarly, they thought less about the appearance of the artist in comparison to the objectified video. Nevertheless, both sexualised videos caused more focus on extrinsic aspects than the control condition, which indicates that women still objectify other women more when primed with a sexualised artist. This is an indicator that all depictions of sexualised women lead to more focus on other women’s appearance. However, empowered women can also lead to
more focus on other women’s competences. This study indicates that some nuances can be found between empowering and objectifying video stimuli on the evaluations of other women.
A non-significant finding of this research relates to egalitarian gender role beliefs. Previous research by Ward, Hansbrough and Walker (2005), found that women exposed to stereotypical music videos expressed more stereotypical beliefs afterwards. This study found no significant effects of the music video on the level of egalitarian gender role beliefs. This result does not only show that women in this study have a very strong belief of egalitarianism, but also that an artist depicted in an objectifying video does not cause a diminished view of these roles.
This result indicates that women in this research are not that vulnerable to the effects of music videos in terms of changing strong pre-existing attitudes. According to priming theory, frequent exposure to stimulus material makes processing of a material easier, which reduces the threshold for subject related thoughts, which in turn make acceptance of these stimuli easier (Higgins et al., 1985). Strong pre-existing attitudes could therefore be changed, but only after frequent exposure. Because this research only made use of one video, the stimulus might not have been prominent enough to alter pre-existing attitudes.
It was predicted that after viewing a sexually empowered artist, women would feel more self-esteem, self-efficacy, and autonomy, but this study did not find significant effects confirming this assumption as well. An explanation might be that a woman’s feelings about these steadfast personality traits are not easily changed by the exposure to a single music video. An alternative explanation might be that opposing thoughts, such as appearance anxiety or competence insecurities were triggered when watching a famous artist, which could have negated the effects on self-esteem, self-efficacy, and autonomy.
The last non-significant finding ought to describe the relationship between sexual music videos and high upward social comparison. Social comparison theory states that people evaluate their own abilities in accordance with other people, and if someone is comparing upward, this could result in more negative feelings (Festinger, 1954). It was hypothesised that women with a high trait social comparison would feel less empowered (defined as
self-esteem, self-efficacy, and autonomy) and exercise more (self-)objectification when comparing their own abilities upward with a famous artist. Yet, there were no results that indicated that social comparison differed between music videos. Perhaps, strong personality traits like social comparison are not easily affected by music video stimuli.
In conclusion, a video depicting a sexually empowered or sexually objectified artist did not influence women’s egalitarian gender role beliefs, feelings of esteem, self-efficacy, and autonomy. Nonetheless, the sexual music videos featuring an empowered artist did influence women’s level of self-objectification and objectification of others. The present findings indicate that it is important to make a distinction between different types of sexual music videos and that sexual music videos might be less harmful than portrayed in previous research.
Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research
The current research does have some limitations. First of all, the external validity of this research is weakened because the participants consisted mostly out of Dutch women. Thus the results are not generalisable to other populations. Peter and Valkenburg (2007) argued with reports from the United Nations Development Programme (2001) that the Netherlands has a liberal and progressive approach towards sexualised media and that the country scores high on gender equality and empowerment. These characteristics of the sample could also explain the non-significant findings of the type of music video on the beliefs of
equal gender roles. Women with a progressive mind-set and already high egalitarian gender role beliefs might be less influenced by depicting stereotypical gender roles in music videos. Future research could explore other populations than the Netherlands. Not all populations have similar gender equality views. Moreover, because this research focused on emerging adults (18-30), possible effects for adolescents should be explored too. Previous research indicated that especially adolescents could be vulnerable to music video content (van Oosten et al., 2015).
The second limitation relates to internal validity. Because participants were asked to participate voluntarily without any monetary compensation, the time for completing the survey had to be reduced in order to recruit more participants. This caused the material to be reduced to one video, which could have resulted in less effects than showing participants for example three videos in every condition. Moreover, every measurement scale was reduced, because of the length of time filling in every question, which made the scales less reliable. Some scales were unreliable because Cronbach’s alpha was below .7 and once below .6. This might have affected the outcomes and the number of significant results. Future research should implement more stimulus material and use the original verified scales, which enhances reliability.
The third limitation is the content of the music videos. The artist used in this study, Beyoncé, might have affected the outcomes of the study. She is well-known and generally respected artist among women. Results could be different for unknown artists. Moreover, the control condition displayed a band consisting of solely men. This was due to the fact that no other video could be found that showed non-sexual women and no stereotypical gender roles, without being a horror themed music video. Future research should include a video depicting non-sexual women. However, it should be noted this is hard to find.
Finally, this experimental research only measured short-term effects. Long-term research is needed to confirm whether the effects persist. Long-term research could also study whether women, who experience frequent exposure to sexually empowering music videos change their behaviour and attitudes, as theorised by Bandura (2001).
Nevertheless, this research could be seen as a stepping stone to more research associated with the notion of empowering content. It is the first study exploring potential differences in the effects of sexually empowered and objectified artists in music videos. It also demonstrated that music videos depicting a woman with agency are not as harmful as videos depicting a woman expressing submissiveness. More research is needed to explore the
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