Too Sexualized to be Taken Seriously? Perceptions of a Girl in Childlike vs. Sexualizing Clothing

Graff, Kaitlin; Murnen, Sarah K.; Smolak, Linda

doi:10.1007/s11199-012-0145-3

Cited by 78 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Similarly, in reading or viewing media that are too old for them, girls are likely to be exposed to material that they do not fully understand nor evaluate sufficiently critically (Tiggemann & Slater, 2014). Further, Graff, Murnen, and Smolak (2012) have recently shown that a pre-teen (fifth grade) girl dressed in sexualized clothing was perceived as less intelligent, capable, moral, and self-respecting than the same girl dressed in childlike clothing. The authors conclude that such perceptions might affect girls' development in ways that limit their life opportunities, in particular, their achievement in domains not related to appearance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contemporary girlhood: Maternal reports on sexualized behaviour and appearance concern in 4–10 year-old girls

Tiggemann

Slater

2014

Body Image

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It is widely accepted that the sexualization of girls has increased markedly over time. The overall aim of the present study was to offer a description of the behaviours of young girls, with a particular focus on potentially sexualized behaviours and appearance concern. A sample of 815 mothers of 4-10 year-old girls completed a questionnaire about a range of behaviours exhibited by their daughters, in addition to measures of their own selfobjectification and material concern. It was found that many girls engaged with teen culture and used a variety of beauty products, but few exhibited more overtly sexualized behaviours.Involvement with teen culture, using beauty products, attention to clothes, and personal grooming were all associated with the measure of appearance concern, as were maternal selfobjectification and material concern. It was concluded that young girls do engage in 'grown up' behaviours and that such engagement is not benign for their development.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contemporary girlhood: Maternal reports on sexualized behaviour and appearance concern in 4–10 year-old girls

Tiggemann

Slater

2014

Body Image

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“…Clothing is public part of our gender performance that can be judged by others [76,77]. Feminist psychology must remain vigilant and attentive to the fact that powerful sources of gender role restriction and gender typing remain even in a seemingly mundane activity such as Halloween costuming and not to discount their influence despite so many cultural advances for women and girls [38,50].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female Disempowerment Disguised as a Halloween Costume

Sullivan¹,

Hipple²,

Hyers³

2017

TOFAMSJ

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Objective:We explore the relationship between gender stereotypes and North American Halloween costumes. Method (Study 1):Extending Nelson's analysis of gender-markers in mass-produced children's Halloween costumes, Study 1 explored gender-typing in children's costumes (n = 428), also adding a sample of adult's costumes (n = 428) from major retailers, coding for character archetypes (heroes, villains, and fools), active-masculinity/passive-femininity, and for degree of disguise. Results (Study 1):Compared to boys'/men's costumes, girls'/women's costumes represented more ornamental feminine-passivity. Method (Study 2):Ornamental feminine-passivity was explored in an additional sample of baby girls' (n = 161), child girls' (n = 189), teen girls' (n = 167), and women's (n = 301) costumes, coded for character archetypes and markers of infantilization and sexualization. Results (Study 2):In addition to age differences in character archetypes, women's costumes were most likely to be sexualized (especially heroes), girls' and teenage young women's costumes were most likely to combine both infantilization and sexualization, and baby girls' costumes were least likely to incorporate either gender-markers. Conclusion:Costumes reinforce gender stereotypes differentiating boys/men and girls/women and the ways in which girls/women are stereotyped varies across the lifespan. Patterns are discussed with regard to how gender stereotypes embedded in holiday traditions reinforce messages of disempowerment for women and girls.

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“…In experimental research on other-objectification (Graff et al, 2012;Gurung & Chrouser, 2007;Loughnan et al, 2010Loughnan et al, , 2013Nezlek et al, 2015) and on self-objectification (Fredrickson et al, 1998;Hebl et al, 2004) scholars have employed dress to manipulate objectification. But how exactly is dress defined beyond the commonly accepted usage?…”

Section: Dress Versus Costumementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Researchers have investigated objectification of others as a function of those others' revealing dress (Graff et al, 2012;Gurung & Chrouser, 2007;Loughnan et al, 2010Loughnan et al, , 2013Nezlek et al, 2015). Yet, what makes dress revealing is not always clear in the literature.…”

Section: Revealing Dressmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Objectification is harmful to the objectifying person (Aubrey et al, 2011;Johnson, McCreary, & Mills, 2007;Zurbriggen, Ramsey, & Jaworski, 2011), as well as to the individual being objectified (Frederickson, Roberts, Noll, Quinn, & Twenge, 1998;Hebl, King, & Lin, 2004). Many researchers have studied objectification of others as a function of those others' revealing dress (Graff, Murnen, & Smolak, 2012;Gurung & Chrouser, 2007;Loughnan et al, 2010;Loughnan, Pina, Vasquez, & Puvia, 2013;Nezlek, Krohn, Wilson, & Marusken, 2015). These researchers found that perceivers objectify others who are wearing revealing clothing.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Women’s revealing Halloween costumes: other-objectification and sexualization

2016

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Women are depicted in revealing dress in the media and the depictions have costs such as objectification. Objectification theory explains that women in Westernized cultures are looked at, evaluated, and potentially objectified by others. Accordingly, objectifying gaze (by others) evokes self-objectification which has effects such as habitual body and appearance monitoring. According to the theory being objectified by others precedes self-objectification, which suggests that objectification by others could be more prevalent than self-objectification and potentially just as harmful. Researchers have found that self-objectification and other-objectification can be induced by revealing dress manipulations that vary in tightness or body coverage. We studied Halloween costumes as a site for objectification of others. In Study 1, 124 pairs of men’s and women’s Halloween costumes were content analyzed. Women’s costumes were significantly more revealing than men’s in tightness and body coverage. Since sexual objectification in the media is assessed by the presence of revealing dress in media depictions, we reasoned that women’s revealing Halloween costumes could be sexually objectifying. In Study 2, 295 participants rated women wearing revealing or non-revealing costumes in an online experiment. Women wearing revealing costumes were sexually objectified by participants. Although men rated costumed women higher on the sexually objectifying traits than women, both men and women objectified the costumed women in the revealing dress condition. Dress researchers may wish to apply objectification theory to re-interpret and explain early research on revealing dress.

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Too Sexualized to be Taken Seriously? Perceptions of a Girl in Childlike vs. Sexualizing Clothing

Cited by 78 publications

References 36 publications

Contemporary girlhood: Maternal reports on sexualized behaviour and appearance concern in 4–10 year-old girls

Contemporary girlhood: Maternal reports on sexualized behaviour and appearance concern in 4–10 year-old girls

Female Disempowerment Disguised as a Halloween Costume

Women’s revealing Halloween costumes: other-objectification and sexualization

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