Interview with Erin Senack
On October 23, 2003, I had the pleasure of meeting with Erin Senack. Ms. Senack is a Women's Studies professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). I asked her numerous questions about her thoughts on the negative portrayal of women in hip-hop/rap videos, and she was able to give me much information that I used in my SIP paper. Here are some of the questions and paraphrased answers from the interview...
Q: What types of self-esteem issues are associated with the negative portrayal of women in these videos?
A: Women change their personalities and bodies to emulate those girls in the videos. They do this with hair dye, lightening their skin, and taking diet pills.
Q: How are women being treated by men who watch these videos? Do you think the videos have an effect on the men also?
A: I think that after seeing the women in the videos, men expect women to do everything for them. They see women as eye candy, and can be affected by seeing the women in the videos doing anything for the rappers.
Q: How successful do you tink the women in these videos are in life? What about those who view the videos?
A: The rappers making the videos are making a lot money, and selling plenty of records. The women in the videos must be making enough money, enough so that they don't care that they are half-naked. The women who view these videos might try to change themselves with hopes that they can someday make that much money.