Gender, Rap Music, and Mexican American High School Students’ Perspectives on Sexual Harassment and Slut Shaming

• In Event: 2323 - Student Forum Refereed Roundtable
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: 10. Race and the Study of Gender and Sexuality

Abstract

The sexual objectification of women regularly appears in popular culture, including movies, rap songs, and music videos. Popular culture can influence the way people view women, including increasing negative perspectives on sexual harassment, sexual assault, and slut shaming. In our research, we surveyed 324 Mexican-American high school students on rape myth culture using a modified Illinois IRMA survey and a series of school-based hypotheticals. Using two different dependant variables, we created two regression models to examine influences on students’ perspectives on school-based harassment and slut shaming. Grade level significantly related to a rejection of rape myth culture, both for regression model 1 “school-based sexual harassment” (p<0.001)) and model 2 “school-based slut shaming” (p<0.001). Rap music was significantly and negatively related, suggesting a relationship between listening to rap music and acceptance of rape myth culture in school-based sexual harassment (p<0.05) and slut shaming (p<0.05). In other words, as students increased in grade levels, they were less likely to blame women for harassment shaming. Listening to rap music reflected the opposite effect, increased blaming of women for harassment and slut shaming. Finally, gender significantly related to acceptance or rejection of rape myth culture in both models. However, while female students were significantly more likely to reject rape myth culture for school-based sexual harassment (p<0.001), they were also significantly more likely to blame females for slut shaming (p<0.001). These findings can help school target programming or curriculum for male students to improve perspectives on sexual harassment, while also targeting programming or curriculum for female students to address slut shaming.

Authors

• Melissa Fonseca, University of Illinois Chicago

• Kristina Bravo, University of Illinois Chicago

• Alejandro Arellano, University of Illinois Chicago