OBJECTIFYING THE FEMALE BODY IN CONTEMPORARY NIGERIAN MUSIC VIDEO: A GENDER CRITIQUE

This paper assessed existing Nigerian Music Videos for female sexual objectification is intent to discover how Nigeria contemporary Music videos have been implicated in the objectification of the female body, dissemination of sexually provocative dance styles, gestures and nudity. The prevalence of the internet has further aggravated the situation, with a myriad of music video websites. Contemporary Nigerian music videos have further been named as which the media gains attention from viewers by featuring sexually objectifying content. This study set out to identify elements of sexual objectification is Nigerian contemporary music s. The study adopted the content analysis research design. 20 Nigerian contemporary musical videos were purposively chosen from a population of top over 2000 online Nigerian contemporary music videos from 2015 to 2023. The instrument for data collection was the code sheet. Data obtained revealed that sexual objectification elements abound in online Nigerian contemporary music videos. Sexual objectification is evident through stomach, chest cleavage, upper thigh, liking of lips, self-touching of the female breast and buttocks revelation in shots, and that female body puts were often on display. The study also revealed that sexual objectification patterns come in the form of sexual gestures. Females are predominantly seen to carry out self-touching. Touching was predominant among the female and males. The study recommended that stakeholders in the industry should practice self-regulation. There should be conscious effort to produce Nigerian contemporary music videos that do not sexually objectify either gender.