“I Might Get Your Heart Racing in My Skin-Tight Jeans”: Sexualization on Music Entertainment Television

This study explores the culture of sexualizing the (female) body in music entertainment television. A quantitative content analysis was conducted, analyzing 9,369 scenes from 1,393 music videos and 180 programs, broadcast on Belgian music entertainment channels. Results indicated that 39.3% of the coded scenes contained sexualizing messages. These sexualizing messages were predominantly messages equating (female) Western body ideals to being sexually attractive. Music videos were shown to be a more sexualizing genre than nonfictional programs and fictional programs. Findings are discussed in light of objectification theory.