- Self Objectification
- September 2008
Women 'see' themselves as they perceive they are seen by others
Viewing ourselves from the 'outside' as through the eyes of others negatively affects a women's self esteem, health, happiness and relationships.
On a daily basis women are confronted with 100's of ads featuring semi naked women, in seductive poses. These images are used to sell everything from cars to cameras. At the same time newspapers and magazines are overflowing with the images of digitally enhanced (airbrushed), ultra slim females for males and females alike to feast their eyes on.
The images are everywhere and in growing quantities.The young, particularly those in their late teens to early thirties, are particularly exposed to the internet via social networks (UK internet advertising market £2.8bn in 2007 ).
The constant exposure to sexual, 'perfect' (as defined by the ads) female images drip feeds into the female subconscious to such as extent, they they start to a) compare their bodies to the images and b) view their body as a sexual object for public consumption. This in turn creates a self-objectification viewpoint within women i.e. 'a sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others." W.E.B. DuBois' .
Researchers have been studying Self-objectification, a phrase coined in 1997 by professors Barbara Fredrickson Tomi-Ann Roberts for several years. More recent studies have confirmed their findings that females who self object, both young and mature, are more likely to have low self esteem, suffer from depression and have low expectation and low rates of success. Self-objectification individual also have an increased risk of suffering from an eating disorder e.g. anorexia.
More significantly, when studying the effects on body image, they display "habitual body monitoring" behaviour in an attempt to determine how their body appears to others. This focus on self and body issues, also results in a reduced mental and motor ability, largely because their attention is distracted by concerns about how they look rather that being focussed on what they are trying to accomplish. Two applicable studies are detailed below.
- Yale psychologists selected two groups of women to take an exam. One group wore swimsuits, the other sweaters. The swimsuit wearers, preoccupied with appearance concerns, performed notably worse than their counterpart in sweaters.
- Fredrickson and professor Kristen Harrison carried out a study on 202 girls ages 10 to 17. They found that self-objectification curtailed a girls' ability to throw a ball, even when age differences and prior experience were taken into account.
Surprisingly, self-objectification individuals also approached sex as if it was an activity viewed through the eyes of their partner. They were therefore unable to free their minds, relax and enjoy the act.
Self-objectification is here to stay unless we do something about it. What can we do? Quite a lot. As individuals we can reject companies that perpetuate the false sexual and beauty images of women as 'objects'. We can do so passively by simply not buying their products or actively by writing to them and expressing our concerns.
Just think about how liberating it would be if we women stopped viewing ourselves as objects. We would we lose body image issues, eating disorders, the desire to go under the knife ... etc ... Conversely we would gain, increased self acceptance, self esteem and self confidence. More importantly we'd gain the ability to create our own individual identity.
Collectively, women of all ages can work together to bring about a happier and more fulfilling future.