The Relational Burden of Objectification: Exploring How Past Experiences of Interpersonal Sexual Objectification Are Related to Relationship Competencies

Buffering an Objectifying Culture: Interpersonal Sexual Objectification, Self-Objectification, and Attachment Anxiety

“…For example, some studies found that self-objectification was associated with body shame, appearance anxiety, lowered self-esteem, and loneliness among both women and men, and the strengths of these associations were comparable across gender (e.g., Choma et al, 2010;Teng et al, 2019). On the other hand, other researchers reported that the effects of interpersonal sexual objectification on self-objectification and of self-objectification on negative affect about the body were stronger among women than men (Terán et al, 2021). Moreover, some effects of sexual objectification were only observed among women or men.…”

“…Third, without examining the potential mechanisms through which objectification and attachment were related, we were not able to explain why the associations occurred. Objectification theory research has shown, for example, that self-objectification mediates the links between interpersonal sexual objectification and negative mental health outcomes (e.g., Terán et al, 2021), but it is not clear if attachment would behave similarly in such a mediational approach. Indeed, we found that interpersonal sexual objectification did not prospectively predict self-objectification for either men or women.…”

“…Indeed, men can exhibit self-objectifying tendencies due to pressures they face for muscular bodies from advertising and media (Morrison et al, 2003), and these tendencies can cause them to focus first and foremost on their appearance. For instance, Terán et al (2021) found that the main assumptions of objectification theory held true for both men and women: experiencing interpersonal sexual objectification was positively associated with self-objectification, which in turn was associated with negative affect (i.e., body shame, appearance anxiety, and stress). Nonetheless, most of these tendencies were consistently stronger for women.…”

The relationship between different types of objectification, sexual pressure, and relationship satisfaction in Chinese heterosexual dating relationships

“…The majority of women have reported experiencing interpersonal sexual objectification (ISO), such as body evaluation (e.g., being leered at, receiving sexual comments about the body) and unwanted explicit sexual advances (e.g., unwanted touching, sexual harassment; Holland et al, 2017; Kozee et al, 2007). As objectification theory postulates (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997; Roberts et al, 2018), the experiences of ISO are instrumental in the greater self-objectification of women (Garcia et al, 2016; Kozee et al, 2007; Terán et al, 2020), which is subsequently related to intrapersonal distress (e.g., body shame and appearance anxiety; Holland et al, 2017; Kozee et al, 2007; Terán et al, 2020) and increased interpersonal worry (e.g., difficulty in relationship initiation; Terán et al, 2020).…”

“…A growing number of studies have reported the destructive outcomes of objectification in the context of relationships (Roberts et al, 2018). For example, women objectified by others tend to talk less in interpersonal interactions (Saguy et al, 2010) and feel lower relational initiation competence (Terán et al, 2020). Given the harmful consequences of objectification on women’s socialization, some scholars have shown interest in investigating the impacts of objectification on romantic relationships.…”