Women are bombarded by images of a thin-ideal body form that is extremely hard, if not impossible, to emulate. Comparing themselves to these women can lead to feelings of inadequacy, depression, and an overall low self-esteem. (Expand on, need a good opening paragraph to grab the reader’s attention) Objectification Theory Objectification theory has been proposed as a standard for understanding the effects of living in a culture that sexually objectifies women (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). Objectification occurs when a person’s body is treated like a separate entity and is evaluated on its own merit, without consideration for the rest of the person. When an individual is sexually objectified, they are treated like an object that exists only for the pleasure of others and objectification theory asserts that women are uniquely subject to these types of experiences, especially in Western culture. Self-objectification (SO) leads the individual to create a third person perspective in their minds that they use to compare their physical selves to and in turn causes them to see themselves as an object instead of a whole person. SO also creates a form of self-consciousness, causing a habitual and vigilant self-monitoring of outward appearance. There are many cognitive and emotional consequences of SO. Among these consequences are increased body shame, increased appearance anxiety, and a decreased ability to reach high states of motivation. Many studies have shown that there is a positive relation between SO, body shame, and eating disorders (Mercurio & Landry, 2008). It can also be argued that depression, sexual dysfunction, and eating disorders are additional consequences. Depression is most often caused due to body shame an... ... middle of paper ... ...ly asked them to name the color of the ink in which the words appeared; and the rate of their responses were recorded. The experiment completed by Quinn et al. reported that the women who wore the swimsuits rather than the v-neck sweater experienced feeling more defined by their bodies and increased feelings of body shame. It also took the women in the objectification condition longer to respond to the Stroop task, thus showing a decrease in performance. This split in attention could happen throughout the day with women in “real world” situations, thus hindering every day performance and possibly removing joy from their tasks due to a lack of complete immersion. It is also important to note that this experiment focused on a task that is in no way related to any gender stereotype, helping to rule out stereotype threat as an explanation for the results obtained.
In the American culture, women are encouraged to objectify each other and themselves through the affects of advertising raunch culture in the media, this contributes to stereotypes of gender roles. Raunch culture has a major impact on society and on people contributing to their development. Disney princesses and Paris Hilton both promote a set body image by creating a perfect standard of living that is very appealing to females. This body image leads to self-esteem issues and insecurities. Females shouldn’t be judged on the basis of their appearance but should know their self-worth.
One of the most prominent and detrimental forms of sexual objectification is in pornography, where it defines a woman’s role as a sexual object for men to use freely (Insert Plato Citation). It was concluded that 88% of the scenes on porn contain acts of physical aggression, which can overexpose men into thinking that this sort of aggression is normal and raise their tolerance of violence (Insert PornStats Citation). It can further warp the minds of the watchers into thinking that this is what relationships and sex are truly like, when in reality many women are forced into the industry or are overly intoxicated to keep the entire experience feeling numb (Insert ThePinkCross Citation). Pornography also touches in on an even darker subject of pedophilia, or the paraphilia involving sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Pedophilia is mostly found in males, who are also the sex that is 543% more likely to watch pornography (Insert PornStats Citation). Television shows and movies exhibit men of all shapes, sizes, and ages married or dating women of one body type, which is usually young and slender. The combination of the media and pornography feeding into the desires for young, petite girls by exposing them in an explicit way leads to the statistic that one in five men are capable of being sexually aroused by children, to some degree, though they may never act on those feelings (Insert TheGuardian Citation). On the other hand, it is still likely to see people telling young girls to not dress in a revealing manner. In the way society uses this, it is almost an oxymoron. The media is telling girls to look a certain way and when they do they are shamed for it. It should be left at if a girl is too young to be wearing ‘that short of...
When you first hear the words 'female objectification' you might automatically think of men treating women as objects. And it's true. Men do play a role in degrading women to just their bodies. There is evidence of that in Men's magazines, music, and the everyday things that they say to or about a woman. However, women also play a huge role in their own objectification. Women change their bodies to make them more sexual and objectify each other.
Self-objectification leads to body dissatisfaction which is recognized through the constant evaluation and criticizing of one’s and others size, shape, and weight and diminishes woman’s sexual health through the hypersexualization and sexual objectification of the female body. I argue that self-objectification is a social problem that instills in body dissatisfaction from the perpetuation of the thin white female image in the media.
Consider for a moment the course typically taken in a class discussion. A person states that he is an egoist, or a relativist, or an absolutist. These various terms are used to classify an individual according to his moral philosophy. Nietzsche has an important objection to these simplistic definitions. "Shall we still speak this way today? May we do so?" (Nietzsche 463) There are difficulties in this simplistic approach to classifying an individual. The first is that an individual is not so easily crammed into a verbal box. Sartre would say that this is a way of objectifying the person under consideration. To say that I am an egoist, or that another student is an altruist, is to imply that egoism or altruism is the essential nature of the person, and that other considerations fade into the background and become unimportant under this veil of the person's ethical philosophy. It is to equate me with egoism, or to equate the other student with relativism.
The sexual objectification of women is detrimental not only to women, but also to their children and even the environment. This objectification may prevent women from breastfeeding.
“Oh I think that I found myself a cheerleader.” This song lyric by OMI, certainly makes a statement about women; but what really is the meaning behind this lyric? Our country has become one that is obsessed with perfection, and controlled ideals; especially in regards to women. This song may have been written with good intentions, or no ulterior motive, but that is not the only way that is being perceived. The song is degrading, and sexist because of its concept of the perfect women, her objectification, and the blatant use of degrading stereotypes.
When Susan Sontag describes her opinion on how women view their bodies, she writes, “Women are taught to see their bodies in parts, and evaluate each part separately” (Sontag 18). In order to fit the ideal mold of beauty, women are left to incessantly dissect and criticize each aspect of their bodies. Thus, as Sontag suggests, the societal constructs relating to attractiveness have created an unwinnable game of perfection for most women. Everyday, we see advertisements spread over magazines or billboards that depict that perfect model for a woman. However, the models we often see can be altered with new technologies today such as Photoshop, rendering an artificial idea of beautiful. Further, Nilsen uses a similar argument while comparing it to men: “In American culture a woman is valued for the attractiveness and sexiness of her body, while a man is valued for his physical strength and accomplishments” (Nilsen 7). Nilsen depicts the superficial nature of perceptions of women, focused on the external looks. In comparison, men are celebrated for their hard work and achievements, indicating a healthier focus on their inner qualities. Sontag suggests that “we are actually surprised when someone who is beautiful is also intelligent, talented, good” (Sontag 17), which reveals women don’t have the ability to be distinguished by their accomplishments, like men, without an influence from their outward beauty. Deborah Tannen argues that women are always “marked,” given a label for their actions and appearance. In relation to beauty, Tannen comments, “Each of the women at the conference had to make decisions about hair, clothing, makeup and accessories, and each decision carried meaning. Every style available to us was marked” (Tannen 2). While observing the women at a
Body dissatisfaction is so common among women that it is considered a normative female experience (Knobloch-Westerwick & Crane, 2012). Nearly half of American women experience poor body image (Peterson, Tantleff-Dunn, & Bedwell, 2006). Not only does body dissatisfaction prompt women to attempt to control their weight and shape through dieting (Groesz, Levine, & Murnen, 2002), but it is strongly correlated with eating disorder symptoms (Peterson et al., 2006). Furthermore, body dissatisfaction has been associated with psychological issues such as depression, sexual dysfunction, social anxiety and suicidal behavior (Myers, Ridolfi, Crowther, & Ciesla, 2012). With so many women affected by body dissatisfaction and the associated risks being so severe, it is important to discuss and examine possible interventional methods.
In this age, media is more pervasive than ever, with people constantly processing some form of entertainment, advertisement or information. In each of these outlets there exists an idealized standard of beauty, statistically shown to effect the consumer’s reflection of themselves. The common portrayal of women’s bodies in the media has shown to have a negative impact on women and girls. As the audience sees these images, an expectation is made of what is normal. This norm does not correspond to the realistic average of the audience. Failing to achieve this isolates the individual, and is particularly psychologically harmful to women. Though men are also shown to also be effected negatively by low self-esteem from the media, there remains a gap as the value of appearance is seen of greater significance to women, with a booming cosmetic industry, majority of the fashion world, and the marketing of diet products and programs specifically targeting women.
Fredrickson, Barbara L., and Tomi-Ann Roberts. (1997). "Objectification Theory: Toward Understanding Women's Lived Experiences and Mental Health Risks." Psychology of Women Quarterly. 21: 173- 206. Print.
The point of this study was identifying the cause and effect of how women are affected by the objectification in the media. The study analyzed television and the numerous ways women were viewed in television. They discussed the unrealistic images of models in television and how women were portrayed in a way that would the average women feel less than. They came to the conclusion that the media is a source of education that provides insight and a very strong influence on people, therefore a woman’s self esteem could easily be affected by things portrayed in the media. The reason is because television is used as an educational resource naturally most people believe what goes on in television so women believe what they see, and if what the see is not what they are they may want to change themselves. This study
16.)Utt, Jamie. "Navigating The Difference Between The Appreciation of Beauty and Sexual Objectification." Everyday Feminism 18 Apr. 2013: n. pag. Web. 19 Apr. 2014. .
Objectification can be roughly defined as the seeing a person as an object. Objectification has been around for years throughout society, and is unavoidable. Most people assume women are the only ones to be objectified, but there are many instances in society where men have fallen under the same circumstances. People fail to realize that they are sexualizing the male body as much as a female’s body, and do not realize the negative effects of objectification. Some say only women are being objectified in society, but in reality men experience objectification and have their own negative effects in regards to it.
There have been many studies done in the area of women’s body dissatisfaction and exposure to a “perfect” body image (Tiggemann, Slater, Smyth 1). Several different studies in this specific topic have “confirmed that there is a reliable negative effect of viewing thin ideal media images on body dissatisfaction” (Tiggemann, Slater, Smyth 1). One experiment demonstrated that when women were presented with an altered image and visually compared it to an image of them, their body dissatisfaction increased as they could see their “imperfections” (Tiggemann, Slater, Smyth