Role of Media in self Objectification of Women

Role of Media in self Objectification of Women

                                                                                                                                                                

Kashmira Khanam, Reserach Scholar

Women as a gender and sexual category are objectified due to external forces; one such is media. Women in society tend to undergo self objectification due to societal and cultural pressures and expectations. Sexual Objectification occurs when a woman’s body or body parts are singled out and separated from her as a person and she is viewed primarily as a physical object of male sexual desire. Objectification theory posits that Sexual Objectification of females is likely to contribute to mental health problems that disproportionately affect women like eating disorders, depression, and sexual dysfunction via two main paths. The first path is direct and overt and involves Sexual Objectification experiences. The second path is indirect and subtle and involves women’s internalization of Sexual Objectification experiences or self-objectification. Many women also experience immersed forms of Sexual Objectification that occur when women are part of situations, environments, and subcultures where the Sexual Objectification of women is encouraged and promoted. For example, certain situations that accentuate awareness of observers’ perspectives on women’s bodies, such as ballet dancing, beauty pageants, modeling, cheerleading and receptionist are likely to enhance Sexual Objectification. In addition, many women work in environments whose main purpose is to offer explicit targets for men to objectify them and that reward them for treating themselves as sexual objects (e.g., exotic dancing and cocktail waitressing, live open video chat). Self-objectification leads to broader psychosocial constructs, including poorer self-esteem, lower life satisfaction, less relationship satisfaction, self-harm, and negative attitudes toward breastfeeding.

 

Internalized Sexual Objectification may intersect with other forms of oppression, such as heterosexism and racism. For example, the intersections of self objectification and internalized heterosexism may encourage some lesbians to devalue homosexuality and place superior value on heterosexuality and it implies what it means to be an ideal woman, criticize other lesbians who have unfeminine appearance. Internalized racism also influenced the ways in which self objectification is experienced. For example, some racial/ethnic minority women may idealize the White female beauty image that is often promoted in the media and wish to alter their physical appearance to try to attain these ideals (e.g., coloring or straightening their hair; using cosmetics to achieve a lighter skin tone; dieting, and/or undergoing plastic surgery to change their body features). In addition, there were commercial industries where most of the camera shot focused on a woman’s chest. There were also no male crotch shots, but female crotch shots appeared frequently in ads. Another important observation is that the majority of women appeared in either swimwear or leisure wear, whereas the men often appeared in work clothes. Commercials like these are direct instances of Sexual Objectification of women any time we turn on our television and social media pages. Electronic media and Advertising also promotes or influences women to follow certain pattern of dress and engage in substance use they will be hot, sexy, and both admired and desired by men. Societal pressures for thinness, belief that smoking is a good method to control weight, and exposure to tobacco ads that promote women’s cigarette use to attain sexiness and thinness have been shown to increase the odds of being a smoker. In addition to cigarettes, many young women are using other substances, including the nonmedical use of steroids, to be thin and maintain low body fat to maintain cultural standards of beauty and behavior.

 

It can be concluded that there is no inherent self Objectification among women. Self objectification develops over the period of time because of external factors like media, culture. Women’s self objectification is determined by desire to be equal with men by adopting men’s way of life. The perception of society towards women binds them to express their self in a way that they should look women. But in earning equality, women are adopting all the male attributes as part of their self expression.  So, ultimately women are using men as reference group for their equality or upliftment. Capitalism is further using women as commodity in their commercial advertisements and other fields. Entertainment industry is also portraying women as sexual object that to gratify men. Women’s body exposure may be the entertainment for men even in modern society.

 

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Author of the Article is Kashmira Khanam, Research Scholar, Dept. of Sociology, Central University of Haryana.  It is the author’s own view point developed from her research in gender.