self-objectification among people from different gender identities and sexual orientations
Creators: name: Kahalon, Rotem
name: Eisner, Léïla
name: Hässler, Tabea
Publisher: name: Open Science Framework
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences

description: Objectification theory was developed to understand and explain the experiences of girls and women. According to this theory, girls and women in Western society are socialized to view themselves as objects meant to be looked at and evaluated based on their appearance (Fredrickson &amp; Roberts, 1997). This process, called self-objectification, includes adopting a male observer's perspective on the physical self (i.e., internalization of the male gaze). It leads women to a form of self-consciousness characterized by monitoring their body's appearance, which results in decreased health and well-being. Most of the research on objectification theory focused on heterosexual women and/or assumed heterosexuality (Calogero, 2012). Yet examination of objectification theory among people of other genders and sexual orientations is important. From a theoretical perspective, it can allow testing different aspects of the theory. To illustrate, one central assumption of the theory includes the internalization of the male gaze. Yet, this assumption has hardly been tested among men, non-binary people, or women who are at least partly attracted to women. The examination of objectification theory among people of other gender identities and sexual orientations is, however, important because it allows broadening the scope of the framework (see Moradi, 2011; Moradi &amp; Huang, 2008). First, objectification of men in Western society is on a constant increase (Rhode, 2010). To better understand whether and how objectification differs across gender identities, it is therefore important to also assess self-objectification among men, non-binary people, and women. Second, the postulated internalization of the “male gaze” suggests that people who are (at least partially) attracted to men tend to objectify themselves more than people who are not. Finding that self-objectification is higher among people who are attracted at least partially to men in comparison to people who are attracted exclusively to women would provide support for this aspect of the theory. Finally, it is important to understand whether the experience of objectification among people from different gender identities and sexual orientations is related to negative outcomes, particularly decreased well-being and increased substance abuse, as in the case for heterosexual women. This is crucial to allow developing and testing empirical-based intervention strategies (Moradi &amp; Huang, 2008). Despite the importance of systematically assessing the interplay of gender and sexual orientation on a) the level of objectification, b) the level of appearance anxiety, and c) the association between objectification as well as appearance anxiety and health/well-being, research that tested objectification among a broad range of cis-heterosexual women and men as well as various subgroups of the LGBTIQ+ community is still needed. A systematical examination among people of different genders and sexual orientations will help us to understand to which degree the gender and/or sexual orientation are linked to self-objectification and potential negative health outcomes. The first purpose of the present study is therefore to fill out these gaps in the literature by examining the endorsement of self-objectification in a sufficiently powered sample that includes people of different gender identities and sexual orientations. Specifically, we examined differences in means of self-objectification between the different sub-groups (gender identity * sexual attraction). We aim to test differences in objectification by gender identity, sexual attraction, and the interplay between the two variables. For example, we expect that those who most likely to seek out men as romantic and/or sexual partners (e.g.., heterosexual women, gay men, and bisexual people) will tend to endorse self-objectification to a greater extent than those who do not (e.g., lesbian women and heterosexual men). We will further explore the level of self-objectification among people without a sexual attraction (i.e., asexual people). The second purpose of this study is to examine the association between self-objectification and appearance anxiety, an important manifestation of self-objectification. Previous research on heterosexual women found that greater self-objectification is associated with higher appearance anxiety, (e.g., Adams et al., 2017; Fredrickson et al., 1998, Patrick et al., 2004; see Moradi &amp; Huang, 2008 for an overview). This is because when women take an objectifying view of their own bodies, they become increasingly anxious over whether they satisfy cultural standards of physical attractiveness (Fredrickson et al., 1998). A recent study, which was conducted among lesbian women, found appearance anxiety to be a key unique correlate of depressive symptoms (Moradi &amp; Tebbe, 2022). Yet to our knowledge, a systematic comparison of the magnitude of appearance anxiety across different gender identities and sexual attraction is still missing. Beyond examining the magnitude of self-objectification and appearance anxiety and whether they differ between people of different gender identities and sexual attraction we also aim to examine their association with two important outcomes, namely well-being and substance abuse. Research suggests that self-objectification negatively impact heterosexual women’s overall mental health, including indicators of well-being (e.g., Breines et al., 2008; Choma et al., 2009; McKinley 1999; Mercurio &amp; Landry, 2008; Sinclair and Myers 2004). Furthermore, detrimental mental health among women resulting from experience of self-objectification may further contribute to their engagement in health risk behaviors such as alcohol abuse. According to Szymanski and colleagues’ experiences of sexual objectification may increase women’s likelihood of substance use due to the internalization of sociocultural messages that women should engage in substance use to be sexy, attractive, and worthy of attention from men (Szymanski et al., 2011). Support for this comes from recent studies showing that among heterosexual women, sexual objectification and alcohol use are positively correlated (Carr &amp; Szymanski, 2011; Haikalis et al., 2015) and that sexual objectification mediates this effect (Baildon et al., 2021). The effect of self-objectification on health and alcohol abuse may be partly mediated by increased appearance anxiety.