A Picture is Worth Twenty Words (About the Self): Testing the Priming Influence of Visual Sexual Objectification on Women's Self-Objectification

Aubrey, Jennifer Stevens; Henson, Jayne R.; Hopper, K. Megan; Smith, Siobhan E.

doi:10.1080/08824090903293551

Cited by 67 publications

(82 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…For instance, exposure to objectifying media is likely to heighten women's self-objectification, appearance anxiety, negative mood, and body dissatisfaction (Harper & Tiggemann, 2008) and exposure to sexualized female models leads women to describe themselves in terms of appearancerelated traits (Aubrey, 2006;Aubrey, Henson, Hopper, & Smith, 2009).…”

Section: Trait Self-objectification and Attitudes Toward Harassmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

From bodies to blame: Exposure to sexually objectifying media increases tolerance toward sexual harassment.

Bernard

Legrand

Klein

2018

Psychology of Popular Media Culture

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This paper investigates whether exposure to sexually objectifying media leads to more tolerance toward sexual harassment of women in the context of a real-life scenario. Moreover, given that self-objectification reflects the internalization of gender-based inequalities, we also tested whether self-objectification was associated with greater tolerance toward sexual harassment of women. Two hundred and ten undergraduate students (112 men) were asked to watch sexually objectifying (vs. neutral) video clips before completing a questionnaire assessing tolerance toward sexual harassment. As expected, we found that watching sexually objectifying video clips led to more victim blame when evaluating a real-life scenario of sexual harassment, but it did not affect general attitudes toward sexual harassment. Moreover, trait self-objectification was associated with general attitudes toward sexual harassment of women, with more tolerance toward sexual harassment among people with high trait self-objectification. In contrast, neither exposure to sexually objectifying video clips nor trait selfobjectification affected perpetrator blame. These findings suggest that even short exposure to sexually objectifying media contributes to shifting attitudes toward sexual harassment of nonsexualized women in the real world, and they also illuminate the role of self-objectification in maintaining gender-based inequalities.

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Section: Trait Self-objectification and Attitudes Toward Harassmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

From bodies to blame: Exposure to sexually objectifying media increases tolerance toward sexual harassment.

Bernard

Legrand

Klein

2018

Psychology of Popular Media Culture

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“…It has also been suggested that exposure to sexually explicit media could foster misogynist attitudes and increase men's aggressive behavior towards women (Kalof 1999;MacKay and Covell 1997;Malamuth and Check 1981;Mundorf et al 2007;Ward 2002). The media's glorification of thin bodies and female sexualization is also linked to increased body dissatisfaction and decreased self-esteem among women (Aubrey et al 2009;Groesz et al 2002;Holmstrom 2004;Turner et al 1997). Adding to this, weight discrimination is correlated with hiring and promotional discrimination in the workplace and lower overall earnings, especially for women (Puhl et al 2008;Zagorsky 2004).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Although the findings do not suggest that sexualization is as prevalent on magazines covers as might be expected, the relationship between sexualization and activist mobilization commands careful consideration nonetheless. Recall that research has shown that female sexualization is increasing in other media spaces (Coltrane and Messineo 2000;Hatton and Trautner 2011), and that these images have been linked to sexist attitudes and behaviors (Kalof 1999;MacKay and Covell 1997;Malamuth and Check 1981;Mundorf et al 2007;Ward 2002), selfobjectification, and low self-esteem (Aubrey et al 2009;Groesz et al 2002;Holmstrom 2004;Turner et al 1997). The Nonhuman Animal rights movement and the mediums that represent it might consider avoiding this trend if the hope is to remain welcoming to marginalized groups and to avoid eroding the agency and selfefficacy of female-identified activists.…”

Section: Sexualizationmentioning

confidence: 95%

An Analysis of Diversity in Nonhuman Animal Rights Media

Wrenn

2015

J Agric Environ Ethics

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Lack of diversity in the ranks as well as a failure to resonate with disadvantaged groups and other anti-oppression movements has been cited as one important barrier to the American Nonhuman Animal rights movement's success (Kymlicka and Donaldson in Animal rights, multiculturalism and the Left. The Mellon Sawyer Seminar at the Graduate Center, CUNY. City University of New York, New York, 2013). It is possible that social movements are actively inhibiting diversity in the ranks and audience by producing literature that reflects a narrow activist identity. This article creates a platform from which these larger issues can be explored by investigating the actual demographic representations present in a small sample of popular media sources produced by the movement for other animals. A content analysis of 131 magazine covers produced by two highly visible movement actors, PETA and VegNews, was conducted to demonstrate that activist representations in at least some dominant American Nonhuman Animal rights media are mostly white, female, and thin.

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“…This pattern is thought problematic because media could foster anti-feminist attitudes and increase aggressive behavior toward women [62][63][64][65][66][67]. Furthermore, the media's glorification of thin bodies and its sexualization of women is linked to increased body dissatisfaction and decreased self-esteem [68][69][70][71]. Weight discrimination is also linked to hiring and promotional discrimination in the workplace and lower overall earnings, especially for women [72,73].…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

White Women Wanted? An Analysis of Gender Diversity in Social Justice Magazines

Wrenn

Lutz

2016

Societies

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Abstract:The role of media in collective action repertoires has been extensively studied, but media as an agent of socialization in social movement identity is less understood. It could be that social movement media is normalizing a particular activist identity to the exclusion of other demographics. For instance, Harper has identified white-centrism in anti-speciesist media produced by the Nonhuman Animal rights movement and supposes that this lack of diversity stunts movement potential. Using the lesser-studied Nonhuman Animal rights movement as a starting point, this study investigates two prominent Nonhuman Animal rights magazines. We compare those findings with an analysis of comparable leftist movements also known to exhibit diversity strains. A content analysis of Nonhuman Animal rights, women's rights, and gay rights magazine covers spanning from 2000 to 2012 was undertaken to determine the manifestation of gender, race, body type, and sexualization. We find that the Nonhuman Animal rights media in our sample overwhelmingly portrays white women with a tendency toward thinness, but with low levels of sexualization as comparable to that of the other movements. All three movement samples unevenly depicted gender, overrepresented whites, and underrepresented non-thin body types.

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A Picture is Worth Twenty Words (About the Self): Testing the Priming Influence of Visual Sexual Objectification on Women's Self-Objectification

Cited by 67 publications

References 31 publications

From bodies to blame: Exposure to sexually objectifying media increases tolerance toward sexual harassment.

From bodies to blame: Exposure to sexually objectifying media increases tolerance toward sexual harassment.

An Analysis of Diversity in Nonhuman Animal Rights Media

White Women Wanted? An Analysis of Gender Diversity in Social Justice Magazines

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