Understanding Sexual Objectification: A Comprehensive Approach Toward Media Exposure and Girls' Internalization of Beauty Ideals, Self-Objectification, and Body Surveillance

Objectification, Self-Objectification, and Societal Change

This review focuses on the ways in which the objectification of individuals and groups of people, as well as the self-objectification that typically develops from such treatment, is implicated in positive and negative societal change. Four areas are reviewed: (a) objectification (including dehumanization, infra-humanization, dehumanized perception, sexualization, and colonialism), (b) self-obje...

Sexualizing Media Use and Self-Objectification

Objectification theorists suggest that exposure to sexualizing media increases self-objectification among individuals. Correlational and experimental research examining this relation has received growing attention. The aim of this meta-analysis was to investigate the influence of sexualizing media use on self-objectification among women and men. For this purpose, we analyzed 54 papers yielding ...

Effects of Sexually Objectifying Media on Self-Objectification and Body Surveillance in Undergraduates: Results of a 2-Year Panel Study

This study used objectification theory (B. L. Fredrickson & T.-A. Roberts, 1997) to predict that the media’s insidious practice of objectifying bodies socializes individuals to take an outsider’s perspective on the physical self (i.e., self-objectify) and to habitually monitor their appearance (i.e., engage in body surveillance). To test these hypotheses, a 2-year panel study using an undergrad...

Influence of Media on Self-objectification, Body Image, and Rape Myths Acceptance among College Students

The Effect of Thin Ideal Media Images on Women’s Self-Objectification, Mood, and Body Image

Objectification theory (Fredrickson and Roberts, Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 173–206, 1997) contends that experiences of sexual objectification socialize women to engage in self-objectification. The present study used an experimental design to examine the effects of media images on self-objectification. A total of 90 Australian undergraduate women aged 18 to 35 were randomly allocated to...