Thin, sexy women and strong, muscular men: grade-school children's responses to objectified images of women and men
Murnen, Smolak, Mills & Good (2003) Sex Roles: A Journal of Research
Introduction: There are data that show that women are objectified in the media, that girls and women experience a high rate of body dissatisfaction and eating problems, and that exposure to objectified media images of women is related to the experience of self-objectification and body shame among women. One purpose of the present study was to examine the links between these variables from a developmental perspective by examining how grade-school girls responded to objectified images of women. A second purpose was to examine how grade-school boys responded to objectified images of men. Although such images of men are less common in our culture, there is a growing concern that they, too, might be problematic.Objectification of women and girls in our culture is pervasive (Frederickson & Roberts, 1997). In the media women's bodies are more likely to be shown to advertise products and there is often a focus on parts of the body, rather than the whole body, which emphasizes the view of woman as an object (e.g., Archer, Iritani, Kimes, & Barrios, 1983; Kilbourne, 1994). Images of women are often sexualized, which sends the message that men may "possess" women's bodies (see Frederickson & Roberts, 1997). Greater sexual objectification of women than men has been found in many media realms including fashion and fitness magazines (Rudman & Verdi, 1993), "MTV" (music television) commercials (Signorielli, McLeod, & Healy, 1994), and prime-time television commercials (Lin, 1998).
Summary of Results: Children as young as 6 years have been found to express body dissatisfaction and concerns about their weight (Flannery-Schroeder & Chrisler, 1996; Smolak & Levine, 1994). Groesz, Levine, and Murnen (2002) conducted a meta-analysis of the experimental research that related exposure to thin images and body dissatisfaction; they found that, across 43 samples, those groups of girls and women exposed to thin images of women expressed more body dissatisfaction than did control groups.
We also need to understand these processes better among boys. Rather than a thin, sexy object that someone else can "consume," as in the case of female objectification, the image of men emphasizes muscularity. Pope and colleagues studied the portrayal of action figures across time and found that they have become unrealistically muscular over the last 20 years (Pope, Olivardia, Gruber, & Borowiecki, 1999). It is possible that media images of muscular men encourage men to have larger, more muscular bodies and are contributing to men's body dissatisfaction problems, including unhealthy behaviors like anabolic steroid use to increase muscularity.Read extended version of this journal article >>
Images borrowed from The Gender Ads Project >>
Created by Scott A. Lukas, Ph.D.
Created in 2002, South Lake Tahoe, California.
Accessed on: [6 June 2007]
georgie
19 Comments
The same goes for me with women, I'll see someone that catches my attention but that doesn't mean I want to sleep with them.
I think arousal doesn't always have to be based on the physical. Maybe it's the way someone sings, or speaks, or acts. Personality is not always a physical attribute, and I have found myself attracted to a girls personality, and not their looks.
These aren't my thoughts on this but I have worked in the advertising world for a number of years and yes I have tried to change attituides - but basics are a thin beautiful girl draped across a new car will sell it faster than an average looking/build woman.
though i dont agree with the objectification of women or men, sex does sell -
look no further than the enormous increase in the distribution and sales of porn
I think porn objectifies sex or sexuality and the people who participate in the porn, are objectifying themselves. That's just my thought to your question.
For women specifically- we have been looking at images of ourselves for those centuries as well- as they protray for the most part- the "ideal" that the artist wanted to show. is it any different because we're more high tech now?
Hmm, that sounds like a great name for a 70's cop. Hi my name is "Arty Porn"
Hey you know AdGuy always gets the last word! ;)