Body Ethnographic Study

The purpose of this study is to understand the effects hip hop music videos have on female body imaging. Body image is defined as subjective picture; a mental image of one’s own body. This study will demonstrate whether hip hop music has a positive or negative affect of how women view their body after being subjected to secular or misogynistic hip hop videos. Research participants include 20 Black-American adolescent females. Ages will vary in between the ages of 13 and 18. This research will be conducted through the use of the social learning theory. Female participants will be asked to watch 5 different hip hop music videos. After watching and listening to the music, we will ask the participants to answer several questions about themselves …show more content…
Over the years we have had several stations such as BET, MTV, and CMT as outlets for music television. In a previous study done in 1996, it showed that African American teenagers watched approximately 3.3 hours of music videos per day (Peterson, Wingood, DiClemente, Harrington, Davies 2007). Due to technology and the heighten amount of electronics from then to now, that number has most likely increased because music videos can be downloaded and or accessed from the internet on personal handheld devices. Tiggeman and Pickering (1996) investigated the relationship between the exposure of television and body dissatisfaction. Through their research, they discovered that when the amount of television watched was broken down into the programs they mostly watch, a correlation was found between TV and body dissatisfaction. Those that spent more time watching sports and music videos on television resulted positively towards having a drive for thinness. Tiggeman and Pickering’s study differs from this study because it focused on televisions effects on body dissatisfaction, and the results of watching certain television programs was the only positive correlation between the