Looking for the Girls

"Historically, African Americans have stressed the importance of moving the entire community forward. Yet, these videos promote the progress of the individual by any means necessary" (pg. 189)

Reading Andrea Brown-Thirston's Looking for the Girls was eye-opening into the media that African Americans are exposed to. Andrea Brown-Thirston is an African American woman who took a day to watch R&B and hip-hop music videos. In addition, Brown-Thirston is the chief academic officer at the Chicago International Charter School. Her goal by watching these videos was to "get an idea of the images and messages that a child could potentially see" (pg. 187)

Some of the songs that she watched and discussed in this essay were "What You Want" by rapper DMX and "How Many Licks" by rapper Lil' Kim. These two videos touch upon social class and gender role issues. "Sisqo sits on the roof of a car that few men, let alone teenage boys, could afford" (pg. 188) which touches upon the social class issue. The video shows that fancy cars are an important part of life and that having that car will get you all of the girls. In the same video, it had a girl "lying across the car, with her legs spread apart and her head thrown back" (pg. 189). This is not an image that young women should see themselves portrayed as. 

“The women in the videos become the standard by which beauty and desirability are measured. Black girls may internalize these images and begin to accept the role of sex object” (pg 189)

Brown-Thirston goes on to discuss the effects that R&B and hip-hop music videos have on youth. She describes the music videos that she watched as "dangerous because they expose young Black men and women to a range of negative images" (pg. 188). These images include showing women as objects rather than the individuals that they are. The videos also do not depict relationships with an equal representation, something that we should be promoting everywhere. As far as messages for men, especially African-American, it shows that money can buy you everything. And by everything, she means women who are "beautiful, sexy, and seductive" (pg. 189).

Toward the end of the essay, the author asks some really great questions and tried to provide answers. These questions include, "What are the priorities we should be promoting? What are the alternatives to what the mainstream media feed our children?" (pg. 190). These questions are great guiding questions that I'm not sure anyone has specific answers to yet. If we did, I'm not sure that we would still need to be critically analyzing media as much as we are. 

While reading, I was able to make connections to Boyd and Christensen. Brown-Thirston state that she believes "we should encourage children to start being critical rather than passive consumers of the media" (pg. 190). Christensen also believes that youth need to be able to see things critically. This can be done by developing a critical consciousness in youth. We, as educators and adults in children's lives, need to develop this critical consciousness so that we can then continue to encourage children to analyze the media that they are consuming. In connection with Boyd, this only can be done by experience. Brown-Thirston states "In other words, adults need to give children opportunities to openly and honestly discuss the images in music videos and media in general" (pg. 190). Boyd believes that youth need time and opportunities to explore. 

This essay really allowed me to see the connections in what we have been studying this week and the importance of students being able to critically analyze the media around them. I found this article that explains the effects from a different perspective.