Smile pretty and watch your back: Personal safety anxiety and vigilance in objectification theory.

Abstract

that everyday encounters with sexual objectification carry a diffuse nonspecific sense of threat that engenders personal safety anxiety in women. In this article, we provide direct evidence for this tenet across 5 studies and 1,665 participants using multiple methods. Study 1 (N ϭ 207) and Study 2 (N ϭ 161) explored and confirmed the factor structure of the Personal Safety Anxiety and Vigilance Scale (PSAVS), a measure of personal safety anxiety, and provided evidence for the reliability and construct validity of its scores. Study 3 (N ϭ 363) showed that personal safety anxiety is a conceptually different construct for women and men, and differentially mediated the relation between sexual objectification and restricted freedom of movement and the relation between self-objectification and restricted freedom of movement for women and men. Study 4 (N ϭ 460) included a comprehensive test of personal safety anxiety within an expanded Objectification Theory model, which supported personal safety anxiety as a mediator of the links from sexual and self-objectification to women's restricted freedom of movement. Study 5 (N ϭ 474) replicated these results while also adjusting for specific fears of crime and rape. Our findings offer a newly validated assessment tool for future research on safety anxiety, illuminate the real and lasting sense of threat engendered by everyday sexual objectification, and broaden understanding of the mental and physical constraints on women's lived experiences posited in Objectification Theory.

Buffering an Objectifying Culture: Interpersonal Sexual Objectification, Self-Objectification, and Attachment Anxiety

“…Fredrickson and Roberts (1997) argued that sexual objectification leads to both appearance anxiety and safety anxiety among women. Ample evidence has provided support for such claims (e.g., Calogero, Tantleff-Dunn, et al, 2011; Calogero, Tylka, et al, 2021; Moradi & Huang, 2008). Moreover, self-objectification was found to relate to increased social anxiety that further led to disordered eating and depression among women (Peat & Muehlenkamp, 2011).…”

“…This scale was originally validated with women, and its internal consistency ranged from α = .91 to .92 (Lindner & Tantleff-Dunn, 2017). While the scale has not been validated among men, various scholars have employed the scale with both male and female samples (e.g., Calogero et al, 2021; Terán et al, 2021). Participants indicated their level of dis/agreement with the items on a seven-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree , 7 = strongly agree ).…”

Debate: Don't mind the gap – why do we not care about the gender gap in common mental health difficulties?

“…Moreover, with gendered risk factors such as sexual harassment, the onus is placed on women to protect and prevent negative experiences, with blame attached when they are victims, and often the constant vigilance necessary in itself can be a cause of stress (Calogero, Tylka, Siegel, Pina, & Roberts, 2021;Kern, 2021). In addition, many of the preventative approaches currently focussed on by funders and researchers often involve providing skills or training to individuals to manage the distress arising from systemic stressors (e.g., emotional regulation training; Wolpert, Pote, & Sebastian, 2021), rather than efforts to change the systems that generate these inequities in the first place.…”

When strength is a weakness

“…Women have a greater fear of victimization (e.g., Gibson et al, 2002; Harris & Miller, 2000; Warr, 2000), while men are more likely to believe they can defend themselves (Lagrange & Ferraro, 1989). Men employ fewer strategies to protect themselves than women do, and they are less likely to avoid places where the risk of violence is greater (e.g., Calogero et al, 2021; Stanko,1993; Yavuz & Welch, 2010). 4 Men are also more likely than women to have lifestyles that lead to victimization (Mesch, 2000).…”