How Sexual Objectification Affects Women: Self-objectification, Cognitive Performance and Collective Action

Sexual objectification occurs whenever a person is treated like a sexual object, reduced to a body (or sexual body parts) and used for the pleasure and consumption of others (Bartky, 1980; Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). According to Objectification Theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) women are the main targets of sexual objectification, which is mainly associated with the male objectifying gaze in two contexts: the exposure to sexually objectifying mass media (e.g. television, movies, magazines, advertisements in which women are depicted as sexual objects) and during social interactions. According to the objectification theoretical framework, sexually objectifying experiences are not devoid from important negative effects on women’s psychological well-being. Indeed, the theory proposed that the first direct consequence of sexually objectifying experiences is self-objectification, which leads women to internalize the objectifying observer’s perspective on the physical self, thus reducing the self to an object (Bartky, 1980; Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). In turn self-objectification has been linked to increased body shame, appearance anxiety, and proclivity to eating, depression, and sexual disorders (Moradi & Hefflick, 2008). We started our work noticing that, although sexually objectifying experiences are the precursors of self-objectification and its subsequent adverse outcomes on women, very few researchers have actually tested this causal chain by directly manipulating the exposure to sexually objectifying experiences. Therefore, the general aim of the present work was to contribute to the objectification theoretical framework by testing the causal role of sexually objectifying experiences on women’s psychological, cognitive and social responses. Therefore, in Chapter 1 we will present a brief introduction and review of previous research conducted within the objectification theoretical framework. In Chapter 2, we will present a set of three studies that have investigated the effects of the objectifying male gaze experienced in interpersonal encounters and the exposure to sexually objectifying visual media on women’s psychological outcomes and cognitive performance. In particular we aimed at overcoming possible limitations in the interpretation of previous research that have studied cognitive performance (i.e. Stereotype Threat); taking into account important moderators (i.e. Internalization of sociocultural beauty standards, Social appearance anxiety), we will provide evidence that supports the notion that the exposure to sexually objectifying experiences indeed affects women’s cognitive resources. In addition, we will also investigate possible mechanisms (i.e. Task Intrusive Thoughts, Flow experience) underlying the decrements in performance. Finally, we will bring novel evidence that sexually objectifying experiences are causally linked with adverse psychological outcomes for women (i.e. self-objectification and body dissatisfaction). Our results generally supported the idea that sexually objectifying experiences are the causal precursor of both adverse psychological and cognitive outcomes for women and that important moderators of such causal chain should be taken into account. In Chapter 3, we will present a final study that has investigated the effects of exposure to sexually objectifying television, as well as a reasoned critique of such media content, on gender collective action inclination and behavioral intentions to participate in activism. The results demonstrate, for the first time, that exposure to a reasoned critique of sexually objectifying television motivates women, but not men, to react and to participate in collective actions that aim at reducing such degrading TV portrayals. The results bring novel evidence that the promotion of a critical view of TV through, for example, sensitizing campaigns, might represent an effective intervention to promote social activism and contrast the sexual objectification vicious cycle. Finally, in Chapter 4 in light of the objectification theoretical framework we will discuss the implications of the present findings and suggest future directions.