Two professors conducted a study on N.C. State students involving sexism and rap music, and according to their results, people’s perceptions of rap music, rather than the lyrics, may affect sexist attitudes in listeners.
Michael Cobb and William Boettcher, of the political science department, published “Ambivalent Sexism and Misogynistic Rap Music: Does Exposure to Eminem Increase Sexism?” in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology.
“I study general attitudes such as sexism and racism,” Cobb, an assistant professor, said.
According to Cobb, he had listened to rap and realized no one had done a comprehensive test on its effects on sexism.
They conducted one part of the study in 2001 and continued in the years following, gathering information initially from 232 undergraduates.
These students were split into three groups: one with no music, one that listened to non-sexist rap and one that listened to misogynistic rap.
Students walked into a room and, if there was music, listened to either the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage,” which contains no direct sexist language, or Eminem’s “Kill You,” which does contain misogynistic language.
Afterwards, the participants answered questions about gender-stereotypical behaviors of women that measured sexism levels.
Cobb said there were differences in results among men and women, with men increasing in sexist feelings after listening to misogynistic songs.
“Women were more likely to reject sexism after listening to Eminem,” he said. “For Eminem, for women, there’s a stop-and-think process where the participants were either shocked or dismissive of the lyrics.
But sexism increased in both genders after the non-misogynistic “Sabotage,” which Cobb said he links to people’s perceptions of rap.
Because rap is generally associated with sexism, when a person hears any type of rap music, his or her mind associates it with the stereotype of misogyny, he said.
“It’s all driven by the marketplace,” Cobb said.
And the music that is profitable emphasizes the demeaning of women, and “that isn’t changing,” he said.
Jean Carlo, a sophomore in business management, said while rap may not provoke sexism, there is a common theme in it.
“It probably affects a younger generation more,” Carlo said.
Robert Gray, a sophomore in electrical engineering, said that repetition may affect others.
“If you’re constantly listening to it, it could have an effect,” he said.
Sexism is a two-dimensional-subject, Cobb said, because there are both hostile and ambivalent forms.
An ambivalent sexist would say, “I love women, but cook me dinner,” according to Cobb.
Someone exhibiting hostile sexism would show general hatred toward women, similar to racism, which Cobb said breeds more one-dimensional distaste.
The study only measured thoughts and feelings, according to Cobb, but not actions or behaviors, so there was no way of telling how far any sexist feelings would go after the participants left the study.
