Learning sex from music videos

The following is the final of our four-part series of excerpts from Marcia Forbes' Music, Media and Adolescent Sexuality in Jamaica.

Brash Girl was clear that children learned "their behaviour and how they act and those things", including the various sex positions, from watching and listening to music videos - "Like how yu fi position and those things. Lizard lap, back shot, wheelbarrow (describing positions used during sexual intercourse)". In her opinion though, only "one or two of Wayne Marshall's (videos)" made any reference to using a condom for protection. At school, she and her friends mainly talked about "weh yuh watch last night". For her friends, this mainly consisted of "sex shows and those things", aired via cable TV.

Having no access to cable TV, she had to be content with music videos. From her report, she learnt a great deal about sex from them, especially the dancehall ones and, in particular, Kartel whose lyrics made her "feel good" even though she recognised that "in a way they are bad". Friendly Girl explained that, "You find that the schoolgirls dem try to copy what the video do. Because you see in the Coaster (type of bus used for public transportation), them play the music video and the girls them have sex inna di bus. Them have some secret holes in some a di bus them."

Miss Goody Goody was also quite sure that music videos taught a great deal about sex and sexual relationships. "Some music videos are about a boy and a girl, you could see that the video is all about sex, being in bed and when you view this it shows you like he'd meet the girl the first day and then she's in his bed like the next day." She believed "they more encourage you to have sex in the music videos", explaining that even the dances "like hot wuk" although "not a sex scene" nevertheless encouraged sexual activity. She noted that while "some music videos have condom in it, you don't learn about it" (some music videos featured condoms but did not mention the value of its use).

Similar views

In the excerpts above from Brash Girl and Miss Goody Goody, we hear from two different girls at different stages of adolescence and from widely different socio-economic backgrounds and family conditions expressing very similar views about the ways in which music videos foreground and normalise sexual intercourse, while failing to promote condom use. Focus group participants, especially the lower income ones, highlighted connections between lyrics and images which condoned sexual promiscuity without mention of its negative consequences such as HIV and AIDS. In six of the 13 groups, this was specifically brought out by participants. In all instances, the views expressed were supported by other participants - for example: "I agree with her because in a music video you will not hear people saying use a condom, but you will always hear 'wickedest ride'but not 'protect yourself'".

Miss Chat Room weighed in regarding sexual intercourse as portrayed in music videos. She fingered hip hop for this and pointed to 50 Cent (American rapper) as "head(ing) the list", noting, "him teach you how fi be pimp" (he teaches you how to become a pimp). In her opinion, girls liked being paid for sex. She referenced prostitution in the island's prime commercial area to support her point, "'cause if you go up a New Kingston right now, yuh see them a sell them body (she said while looking down at the table as if embarrassed)".

Male interviewees also commented on the ways in which music videos highlighted sex and talked about positions used in sexual intercourse. Mr Dance Teacher pointed to the "video that say how fi 'si down pon it' and tell how fi do it (perform sexual intercourse). He expressed concern for children, believing that videos such as these would 'bruck them out' (make them become sexually active or behave in inappropriate ways).

He said at school he saw actions similar to those portrayed in music videos where "the boys and girls dem sit down inna one another lap and the girls them a drag them down inna dem lap".

He pointed out how "the boys a touch up the girls" in the classrooms and believed that portrayals in music videos contributed to this phenomenon.