This study is going to make a lot of smart people cringe …
As if there aren’t enough disconcerting things to worry ourselves with in the world, now we have to be concerned about rap music influencing youth (again) into having a ton of sex. According to one study, kids who listen to rap music have the horizontal relations more often than those who don’t — wait, what?
The survey, posted on the Journal of Adolescent Health by researchers from the University of Texas’ Health Science Center (of course it’s Texas), surveyed 443 mostly black and Hispanic middle-schoolers about their listening habits and whether or not they were sexually active — strangely concluding that the two have anything to do with one another.
What was found, is that listening to rap music correlates with the likelihood they’ll become sexually active at an earlier time than their — oh, we don’t know — rock, country or Irish folk listening peers? Who the fuck funds this stuff?
"Rap music influences your beliefs about what you think your peers are doing,” says lead author Kimberly Johnson-Baker in a press release. “It's a norming agent that tells you that certain things are okay, like drinking alcohol or having sex. It gives you the idea that everyone is doing it."
… what world do these researchers live in? Texas, we get that — which is their first problem — but are they completely unaware that this type of thing happens all the time in formative years, regardless of what type of music kids listen to?
And why the focus on only minority kids? Wouldn’t a legitimate study seek to find a valuable mix of all races, you know, to make it more reliable? By this study’s logic there’s all kinds of things we can deduce from it — white kids are prudes, minorities are the only ones who listen to rap (which isn’t true, 80 percent of hip-hop is consumed by white people) and 9/11 was in inside job! We know this because rap says so!
Get out of here with this “rap = child sex“ nonsense — any D-grade scientists will tell you that correlation never equals causation, and just because kids like rap music — a still-growing movement that gives a powerful voice to the voiceless — it doesn’t mean they’re out yanking down each other’s pants to appease Young Thug.
Kids have sex. Deal with it.
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