Sexual Objectification And Its Effects On Women

In society, women relate to friends, models and actresses which are actually people who are in the industry portraying the ‘ideal body.’ Women think too much about what others think of them instead of just caring about themselves. They also choose to take the unhealthy approach and gain all these bad habits to obtain the ‘ultimate’ body image of this ‘ideal woman’ society has created.

3) Objectification of Women was conceptually defined as a means for one to conceal the biological perception of womens’ characteristics and replace it with sexual objectification. Operationally it was measured using a scale to rank 10 body attributes, either as physically competent or attractive, from most to least important. 4) Gender-schematicity was conceptually defined as how feminine or masculine an individual is. Operationally it was measured using a 5-point scale Personal Attributes Questionnaire. 5) Physical Distancing was conceptually defined as purposefully physically avoiding the individual strictly to evade their menstruation. Operationally it was measured using chi-square analysis to measure the number of chairs between the confederate and the research participant (Roberts et al., 2002, p. 134-135).

The sexualization of women and girls surround Americans and is damaging to females as well as to American society. Females receive the sexualized messages regarding their appearance and how they should act via the media, retailers, and American society’s acceptance of these behaviors. As a mother, Girl Scout Leader, and school paraprofessional I cannot help but to question are these messages inflicting psychological damage on girls? Whom can I hold accountable for sexualizing female youth? What can I do to prevent sexualization from affecting all of the young girls in my life? The sexualization of girls is unacceptable because it is degrading to females, can cause serious life-long psychological damage and sexist attitudes, and may lead to violence against women and girls.

Social forces influence our daily lives regardless of our awareness to them. This understanding illustrates the sociological imagination which challenges accepted beliefs and encourages questioning certain practises. Generally, society accepts what they are told about what it means to be a female. We rarely question practises that degrade females despite the blatant diminishing of women being frowned upon. The objectification of women can not be solely blamed on men as both genders contribute to the sexualization of women.

“The media have taken many celebrity appearances into their own hands, many times without permission” (“The Objectification of Women” par.2). Because of the media photoshopping women 's beauty on TV, social media, and even advertisements, it began to create a high rate of accusations of teenage girls’ all over the world. “In a recent study, the University at Buffalo sociologists found that the portrayal of women in the popular media over the last several decades has become increasingly sexualized, even pornified"( Donovan par.1). Due to this, women have been treated as sexual objects everywhere. Objectification comes from the lack of confidence and media 's portrayal of beauty. Due to this, the portrayal of men is not the same as females. Objectification is when women are treated like sexual objects. ‘Objectification is often defined by physical appearance, rather than personality” (“The Objectification of Women” par.2). As a result, women struggle to keep up with these trends today. “In order to achieve a ‘perfect’ look, the media manipulates photos using unnecessary editing in Photoshop to completely contort the original, creating an unnatural image” (“The Objectification of Women” par.2). The media is the dominant cause of these actions of teenage girls insecurities, high rates of surgical treatment, and males creating these fictitious assumptions. Objectification in social media should end because it causes teenage insecurities, it

The average person spends a good portion of their day on social media or watching television. Furthermore, the new era of adolescents is even further exposed than the average person. This exposure can have many positive influences in a Child’s life; open new doors to meeting new people and having straightforward access to personal wants and needs. Unfortunately, this media can very well be a tool used to manipulate the tender minds of adolescents and open doors to self-hatred along with depression. Young girls tend to generally struggle far more than boys due to the social norms and societal pressures. The media can set unrealistic or inappropriate

Because of the way that women are represented in media, the messages sent to women is damaging to their lives. With women being seen as passive, flawless, inactive, dismembered, and submissive, it sends messages that women are always below men. It impacts what women perceive of themselves and others and causes them to feel inferior to men. The way in which improvement can be made is to limit the manipulation and exaggeration in media. By women also not being targeted and distorted, it will lead to a more realistic view of women and not trap them as members whom are less than men. With less distortion and inaccuracy portrayed in media, women can feel better in a sense that they are not a minority and that they are just as equal as men are. There is almost a link between each of the three topics, if the issue of sexualization and portrayal of women in media is improved and changed, then there is a possibility that mental issues and disorders will decrease and from there, physical health will also improve as body dissatisfaction will decrease. In a sense, all the factors are related to the well-being of the individual and thus are equally important topics of education and

Topics that really hit home for me were the rampant sexual objectification of women and our over dependence on technology, the new age addiction. Caroline Heldman brings into perspective the world of sexually objectifying women from music videos to TV advertisement and the clear line between objectification and empowerment. I think we are living in a very confused society, if we believe that women are empowering themselves when they are used as objects. We are sending a wrong message to the youth of our generation that it is ok to be objects and not be viewed for your intellect. Women are more that beautiful objects to be viewed for pleasure or eye candy (pop culture term), they should be viewed for their strength, love and kindness and help

Recently there has been a lot of buzz about catcalling that is directed towards women which are done by men. In one video, which captures the experience of one woman as she walks through the streets of a big city, dress in Western style clothing and later on when she is wearing the traditional Muslim outfit, the Hijab. Through this one video, one can notice how objectification, intersectionality and gender is at play.

Female body image and the Media's influence Media has become a main influence in Western society, as well as all over the world. Beauty has been defined by the media, and it has impacted how females are viewed by themselves and others. The ideal body has changed significantly over recent years from curvy to thin. Women all over the world thrive to be like the models and celebrities in the media and ads who are much thinner than the average woman.

Objectification theory, first proposed by Barbara Frederickson and Tomi-Ann Roberts in 1997, provided other psychologist with the framework for understanding experience women have through the context of sociocultural aspects that sexually objectifies the female body (Szymanski, Moffitt, & Carr, 2011, p. 6). Many references to the female body equate a woman’s worth with how well she fits within the socially ideal body type and how she functions sexually. Frederickson and Roberts (1997) presented the notion that women were sexually objectified and were seen as only valuable if they have a use to others. They also proposed that women’s body parts were seen as separate from their entire selves and viewed as the point of male desire. The objectification

In this article, author Suzannah Weiss begins with the idea that the objectification of women and girls is not separate from many other problems of sexism, but the basis of it. The rest of the article is about how women are taught to view themselves as objects by the media, societal expectations, double standards, and rape culture. She explains that victim blaming teaches women and girls that their bodies are to blame for anything bad that happens to them, and this sends the message that they are only objects of desire and must cover up if they want to be safe. Another way women and girls are taught that they are only objects is through society’s double standards when it comes to unnecessary beauty rituals. Women are told that they must wear

But what is sexualisation? To understand how sexualisation occurs, we must first know the basics of socialisation. Socialisation is the process of teaching or learning how to be a member of society. It creates what is recognised as gender roles. For example, if a girl is not an object of male sexual desire or does not meet other qualities socialisation promotes she will be seen as an unsuccessful member of society. As a result, through socialisation females believe that their value is determined by their sexual appeal.

An anonymously quote stated, “women are more than just bodies. See more, be more.” It is to an individual’s wildest guess that the same individual that wrote that quote has experienced being seen just for their body. In today’s society multiple bodies are seen everywhere one may look. These bodies are being objectified as ads. Being objectified is a lot more serious for women than men because women begin to lack self-esteem, demonstrate self-violence, and mimic imitations.

Alongside the Objectification Theory, other concepts and factors that are found to be strongly associated with it such as conformity to masculine norms. In addition, other social factors which may potentially serve as moderating factors will be included in the study in order to facilitate a wider perspective of investigating the phenomenon of women’s sexual objectification by men.