Out of “Objectification Limelight”? The Contribution of Body Appreciation to Sexual Adjustment in Midlife Women

Abstract

According to objectification theory, women become culturally desexualized during midlife and have the opportunity to let go of their propensity to self-objectify. In young women, self-objectification is negatively related to sexual adjustment. Yet little is known about what could ameliorate this relationship or whether it continues after midlife. Body appreciation (i.e., acceptance and positive regard for the body) has been substantiated as a contributor to improved sexual adjustment in young and older women alike. Hence, this study was designed to examine whether it helps mitigate the deleterious effect of self-objectification on sexual function, satisfaction, and distress in women over the age of 50 (n = 193). Path analyses revealed that self-surveillance is related to body shame and appearance anxiety, the latter of which was related to body self-consciousness during sex. In turn, body self-consciousness during sex mediated the relationship between body shame, appearance anxiety, and all three indicators of sexual adjustment. Furthermore, high body appreciation attenuated the negative associations between self-objectification constructs, body self-consciousness during sex, and sexual satisfaction and distress. Overall, this study supports the use of objectification theory in midlife and older women. Sex therapy interventions that incorporate mindfulness and body appreciation principles are discussed.

Self-objectification and sexual satisfaction: A preregistered test of the replicability and robustness of Calogero & Thompson (2009) in a sample of U.S. women

“…Indeed, one proposed component of objectification theory is a diminished awareness of physical sensations, rendering self-objectification particularly relevant to investigations of women's sexual dysfunction (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). Previous research has supported self-objectification (commonly operationalized as self-surveillance; McKinley & Hyde, 1996) as a predictor of self-reported sexual functioning (Robbins & Reissing, 2018;Tiggemann & Williams, 2012;Vencill et al, 2015;Steer & Tiggemann, 2008;Lustig, 2012). Similar results have emerged demonstrating an indirect negative relationship between self-objectification and sexual satisfaction in women, with constructs such as appearance anxiety during sex (Vencill et al, 2015), body shame (Barzoki et al, 2017), and body self-consciousness during sexual activity (Claudat & Warren, 2014) mediating this relationship.…”