“Stop Looking at Me!”

Abstract

Objectification has been conceptualized as a form of insidious trauma, but the specific relationships among objectification experiences, self-objectification, and trauma symptoms have not yet been investigated. Participants were women with (n = 136) and without (n = 201) a history of sexual trauma. They completed a survey measuring trauma history, objectification experiences (body evaluation and unwanted sexual advances), constructs associated with self-objectification (body surveillance and body shame), and trauma symptoms. The relationships among the variables were consistent for both women with and without a history of sexual trauma. Our hypothesized path model fit equally well for both groups. Examination of the indirect effects showed that experiencing unwanted sexual advances was indirectly related to trauma symptoms through body shame for those with and without a history of sexual trauma. Additionally, for women with a history of sexual trauma, the experience of body evaluation was indirectly related to trauma symptoms through the mediating variables of body surveillance and body shame. The data indicate that the experience of sexual objectification is a type of gender-based discrimination with sequelae that can be conceptualized as insidious trauma. Clinicians may consider the impact of these everyday traumatic experiences when working with women who have clinical symptoms but no overt trauma history.

The Social Interaction Model of Objectification: A process model of goal‐based objectifying exchanges between men and women

“…On the extreme end of the continuum, objectification manifests as unsolicited sexual touches (Kozee et al, 2007). These overt behaviors occur less frequently than more subtle objectification (e.g., gazes, commentary, Gervais, Davidson, et al, 2018;Kozee et al, 2007;Miles-McLean et al, 2015) and like other objectifying behaviors, they are perpetrated mostly by men (Gervais, Davidson, et al, 2018;Jewell & Brown, 2013). Initial unwanted sexual contact (Franz, DiLillo, & Gervais, 2016;Gervais, DiLillo, & McChargue, 2014) predicts sexual assault perpetration (i.e., verbally coerced intercourse, attempted rape, and rape).…”

“…Initial unwanted sexual contact (Franz, DiLillo, & Gervais, 2016;Gervais, DiLillo, & McChargue, 2014) predicts sexual assault perpetration (i.e., verbally coerced intercourse, attempted rape, and rape). Like other physical forms of assault (e.g., hitting women), unwanted sexual touching also is related to trauma symptoms in women (Miles-McLean et al, 2015).…”

The Detrimental Effect of Sexual Objectification on Targets’ and Perpetrators’ Sexual Satisfaction: The Mediating Role of Sexual Coercion

“…Moreover, the negative effect of sexual objectification on sexual satisfaction might be alternatively explained by self-consciousness during sexual intercourse having a negative effect on sexual satisfaction (Claudat and Warren, 2014). In addition to the indirect effect of sexual objectification on lower sexual satisfaction because of selfobjectification, being treated as a sexual object on an interpersonal level is directly related to insidious trauma symptoms (Miles-McLean et al, 2015) and safety anxiety (Fairchild and Rudman, 2008), which might prevent women from enjoying their sexual life.…”

Adopting the Objectifying Gaze: Exposure to Sexually Objectifying Music Videos and Subsequent Gazing Behavior

“…Moreover, numerous empirical studies have supported that assumption. For instance, experiences of interpersonal sexualization, including sexual gazes, positively correlated with body shame (Miles-McLean et al, 2015); other findings (Calogero, 2004) have suggested that the sole anticipation of men's gaze prompted body shame and social physique anxiety among women. The results of an experimental study showed that women who received objectifying gazes from men interviewing them performed poorly on a subsequent math test (Gervais et al, 2011).…”