From Screen to Self: Gender, Race, and the Objectification of Female Performers in Music Videos Across Four Genres

Abstract

This dissertation examines how objectification operates across music video genres and how those patterns are represented, negotiated by performers, and interpreted by audiences. Drawing on Objectification Theory, Intersectionality, and Constructivist Media Decoding, the project analyzes gendered and racialized portrayals across Hip-Hop/Rap, Pop, Country, and Rock/Metal.A three-study design was employed. Study 1 used content analysis to identify patterns of objectification, agency, and racialized representation across 104 contemporary music videos. Study 2 used narrative interviews with 20 performers to examine how artists navigate genre expectations, industry pressures, and self-presentation. Study 3 used an experimental design to test how audiences interpret these portrayals and whether a brief media literacy intervention alters those interpretations. Findings indicate that objectification is genre-structured rather than uniform. Study 1 shows that Pop and Hip-Hop/Rap more often emphasize sexualized and body-centered portrayals, while Country and Rock/Metal rely on alternative constraints such as authenticity, credibility, and norm enforcement. Study 2 demonstrates that performers negotiate these expectations through strategic agency shaped by genre-specific pressures. Study 3 finds that genre strongly influences audience interpretation, while a brief media literacy intervention produces limited effects. Overall, this dissertation argues that music video objectification is a genre-structured system linking representation, performer negotiation, and audience interpretation.