Objectification is the "process of representing or treating a person like an object" rather than treating them as full and equal human being with equal rights and needs. The process of representation could include portrayals of women in ways and contexts which suggest that women are objects to be looked at, ogled, touched or used, anonymous commodities/things to be purchased or to be taken and once tired of, even discarded, often to be replaced by newer, younger editions which can be further analyzed through articles mentioned here.
Per Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997, objectification theory postulates that many
women are sexually objectified and treated as an object to be valued for its use
by others. Research by APA taskforce on sexuality of girls indicates that young women and adult women are frequently, consistently, and increasingly presented in sexualized ways in advertising, creating an environment in which being female becomes nearly synonymous with being a sexual object using indirect advertising techniques.
There is a strong impact made by the objectification of women within society which is shown by videos like these and ads displayed here which portray interconnectedness between violence against women (domestic and sexual violence) and the objectification of women in the media.
- Per M. Meghan Davidson in 2015, intimate partner violence is found to be linked to body shame through body surveillance, as well as the combined effect of self-objectification and body surveillance, as theorized by objectification theory.
In addition, these findings extend objectification theory, suggesting that objectifying experiences that are not necessarily explicitly sexual in nature, but are still related to violence and dehumanization within the context of a romantic intimate relationship, can predict objectification-related variables. This finding is also consistent with the notion that violence and objectification are linked for people who perpetrate it (Moller &
Deci, 2010) as objectification is often a precursor to enacting violence (Haslam, 2006; Johnson, 2005), as well as people who experience it given that being objectified and dehumanized is associated with experiencing violence.
2. Some studies suggest that objectification can lead to dehumanization, which increases risk of violence. Dehumanized social perception may have detrimental consequences on attitudes and behaviors toward women, including sexual coercion, assault, and violence as well as victim-blaming.
Objectification is a form of dehumanization (Heflick & Goldenberg, 2009; Heflick, Goldenberg, Cooper, & Puvia, 2011; Loughnan, Pina, Vasquez, & Puvia, 2013; Puvia & Vaes, 2013). This research further connects to issues of violence against women because it is considered easier to physically violate an object compared to a human (Bandura, 2002; Nussbaum, 1999). Indeed, Loughnan, Pina, Vasquez, and Puvia (2013) found that an objectified woman was more often blamed for her own rape than a woman who was not presented in an objectified manner, and this effect was due to a decrease in moral concern for the objectified woman.
3. There is limited but important empirical evidence for the link between objectification and violence against women.
Rudman and Mescher 2012 demonstrated that men who implicitly associate women with objects have a higher proclivity toward sexual aggression.
4. Some studies have connected media exposure to sexist beliefs and acceptance of violence against women. Given that viewing sexualized and objectifying portrayals of women is associated with many of these attitudes, viewing sexualized portrayals of girls may also lead to these same effects and to a greater acceptance of child sexual abuse myths, child sexual abuse, and viewing
child aged girls as acceptable sexual partners.
Several studies have shown that viewing objectifying media perpetuates violence against women. For example, men who viewed nonviolent scenes from a movie that portrayed the objectification of women were more likely to perceive a date rape victim as enjoying her rape and being partly responsible for it occurring, compared to men who viewed a control video of a cartoon (Milburn, Mather, & Conrad, 2000).
Similarly, objectification in video games causes increased rape myth acceptance among men (Beck, Boys, Rose, & Beck, 2012). Perhaps even more starkly, aggressive erotica has been experimentally shown to increase aggression toward a female target (Donnerstein, 1980).
- Research by Sarah J. Gervais et.al. in 2012 shows that women are sexually objectified. Also, there’s no real difference between men and women’s perception of women as sexual objects.
Women's bodies were reduced to their sexual body parts in perceivers' minds. Local processing contributed to the sexual body part recognition bias, whereas global processing tempered it.
This shows that the cognitive process behind one's perception of objects is the same that one uses when looking at women, and both genders are guilty of taking in the parts instead of the whole. When one looks at men, he or she uses global processing to see them more fully as people.
Per Theresa K. Vescio, recent research revealed that sexual objectification is related to decreased mind attributions, diminished perceptions of personal agency, and dehumanization.
Per Caroline Heldman, "internalized sexual objectification has been linked to problems with mental health (clinical depression, “habitual body monitoring”), eating disorders, body shame, self-worth and life satisfaction, cognitive functioning, motor functioning, sexual dysfunction, access to leadership and political efficacy".
Shana Meganck through review of research literature argues that regular degradation of women and portrayal of sexualized violence in the media (with particular attention paid to advertising throughout this review of the literature) provides a backdrop for rationalizing gender violence within our society.
