Objectification theory (Fredrickson and Roberts 1997) proposes that women are especially vulnerable to eating disordered behavior when they live in cultures in which their bodies are a constant focus of evaluation. The current study examined whether predictions of objectification theory involving the associations among sexual objectification, body surveillance, body shame, and eating disordered behavior were supported in groups that varied by both gender and sexual orientation. Adults from a U.S. community sample in the Chicago area (92 heterosexual women; 102 heterosexual men; 87 gay men; and 99 lesbian women) completed self-report measures of these constructs. Results suggest that group differences in experiences of sexual objectification and body surveillance may partially explain gender and sexual orientation-based differences in eating disordered behavior.

This study explored college women's cognitive processing of print advertisements featuring images of highly attractive female models. The relationship of counterarguing (critical processing) and social comparison in response to these images with a number of body image-related variables was examined. Participants were 202 undergraduate females. Research was conducted in two phases. In one phase, participants wrote their thoughts in response to three advertisements taken from recent women's magazines. In the second phase, women completed a number of self-report measures focusing on body image, along with a number of distracter measures. Results suggest that making negative outcome, upward social comparisons in response to such images is significantly associated with greater internalization of the thin ideal and decreased satisfaction with one's own appearance. Despite predictions that counterarguing might act as a protective factor, the tendency to generate counterarguments in response to these images was not related to appearance-related dissatisfaction, internalization of the media ideal, or importance of appearance.In 1984, Rodin, Silberstein, and Striegel-Moore coined the term normative discontent to refer to troubling findings of widespread body dissatisfaction among girls and women in Western cultures. Irving, DuPen, and Berel (1998) offered similar commentary to Rodin and her colleagues, noting that, in the epidemiological sense, body dissatisfaction among fe-

This study explored college women's ideas regarding how their lives would change if their appearance were consistent with a media‐supported female beauty ideal. Participants rated self‐generated life changes they associated with looking like a media ideal in terms of likelihood and positivity. Women's tendency to link positive and likely life expectations with looking like the media ideal was significantly associated with both internalization of media ideals and appearance‐related dissatisfaction. However, internalization fully mediated the relationship between expectations and appearance‐related dissatisfaction. Results are discussed in terms of implications for understanding the nature of internalization and implications for the design of programs targeted at reducing appearance‐related dissatisfaction and eating disordered behaviors.

No abstract

No abstract