Pop Culture V. Rape Culture: The Media's Impact On The Attitudes Towards Women

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a relationship between media consumption and gender roles beliefs, sexual beliefs, interpersonal violence acceptance, and rape myth acceptance, based on an attitudinal survey structured from Martha Burt's (1980) Sexual Attitudes Survey. This research consisted of 100 respondents from a Mid-Atlantic Historically Black University. The main focus of this research was an analytic emphasis between the consumption of media outlets, such as magazines, movies, music, and television. Using the statistical process of Cramer's v, this research was able to determine if there were relationships between the aforementioned variables and media consumption. The findings were consistent with research conducted previously on this topic and confirmed that entertainment outlets do have an impact on how women are viewed. The variables HITTING, "a man is never justified in hitting a woman", and ENJOY "women secretly enjoy being raped", were present in all variables of the movie analysis between the presence of violence, violence against women, and rape. The variable ENJOY, "women secretly enjoy being raped", was also found to be prevalent in the music genre category. 93% of respondents either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement "Women secretly enjoy being raped". The variable COLD, "using force is the only way to turn on a cold woman", produced the strongest association observed throughout the entire study (Cramer's v=.628) in relation to the variable of religion. This research begins to show that there is a significant relationship between media consumption and it impacts how women are viewed.