The Effect of Thin Ideal Media Images on Women’s Self-Objectification, Mood, and Body Image

Abstract

Objectification theory (Fredrickson and Roberts, Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 173-206, 1997) contends that experiences of sexual objectification socialize women to engage in self-objectification. The present study used an experimental design to examine the effects of media images on self-objectification. A total of 90 Australian undergraduate women aged 18 to 35 were randomly allocated to view magazine advertisements featuring a thin woman, advertisements featuring a thin woman with at least one attractive man, or advertisements in which no people were featured. Participants who viewed advertisements featuring a thin-idealized woman reported greater state selfobjectification, weight-related appearance anxiety, negative mood, and body dissatisfaction than participants who viewed product control advertisements. The results demonstrate that self-objectification can be stimulated in women without explicitly focusing attention on their own bodies.

Social comparisons on social media: The impact of Facebook on young women's body image concerns and mood

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From bodies to blame: Exposure to sexually objectifying media increases tolerance toward sexual harassment.

“…For instance, exposure to objectifying media is likely to heighten women's self-objectification, appearance anxiety, negative mood, and body dissatisfaction (Harper & Tiggemann, 2008) and exposure to sexualized female models leads women to describe themselves in terms of appearancerelated traits (Aubrey, 2006;Aubrey, Henson, Hopper, & Smith, 2009).…”

El cuerpo y la corporeidad simbólica como forma de mediación

“…No es de extrañar, por tanto, que se haya encontrado un vínculo significativo entre la recepción mediática de determinados programas o la participación en determinados foros de Internet y enfermedades como la bulimia o la anorexia (Botta, 1999;Harrison y Cantor, 1997;Harrison, 2000;Harper y Tiggemann, 2008;Park, 2005;Tiggemann, 2006). Al mismo tiempo, muchas prácticas que comienzan a ser habituales -como la liposucción, la cirugía estética y otras operaciones quirúrgicas-son fruto de las imposiciones sociales vehiculadas por la publicidad y por los medios de comunicación masiva.…”