The Effect of MTV

Paper Summary:

MTV is considered a station that supports and perpetuates dangerous stereotypes and contributes to the dumbing down of 18-24 year olds all over the world. This paper examines literature and published studies on the subject where the common thread is noted that MTV contributes to a low level of self esteem, eating disorders, violence and gender stereotypes among young people.

From the Paper:

"The portrayal of women in MTV music videos and commercials made for MTV have been the subject of controversy for a long time. According to Else, males who watch MTV have a "greater belief in rape myths, more conservative sex-role stereotyping, greater belief in sex role stereotyping, greater belief in adversarial relationships between the sexes, more conservative attitudes towards women, lower ratings of victim injury in a date-rape scenario, and a greater tendency to classify events in a date rape scenario as forced sex rather than rape" (Else, 1995).

Given the amount of time young men spend watching MTV, is it any surprise that the incidence of rape is as high as it is in the United States' If this study resembles reality at all, these young men don't even think they have done anything wrong. MTV is promoting an attitude that is physically dangerous for young women and dangerous also for the young men, who will be surprised to find themselves in jail for crimes they did not even know they were committing. That is, if the female, who has been drained of self-esteem by this very institution has the courage and the self respect left to press charges against him."

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