Social Issue Post: Objectification and the Ideal

As a woman, I can say that one of the biggest struggles many females face is navigating their body image and their sense of self during the most critical developmental years. People take information from the world around them, including the representation of what a normative woman should look and behave like. This intake and internalization of information builds on a woman’s identity. If there is a dissonance between how a woman thinks she should look and how she actually looks, then it can cause great discomfort and possibly lead to harmful, negative cognitions.

When one flips through a magazine and finds oneself on an advertisement page, it is unsurprising to see a highly sexualized image of a woman with the product in question. Women are portrayed as sexual objects in advertising in order to get men to take the desire for the pictured woman and associate it with a desire for the product companies are trying to sell. These sexualized advertisements are also directed to women and makes them believe that if they buy the product that they can get closer to looking as beautiful as the women in the advertisements.There are important implications in the fact that so many magazines are filled with multiple pages of these types of advertisements, as teenage girls often spend time reading them. Publishing and viewing these images encourage the idea it is socially acceptable to view women as objects first and then as intelligent, agentive people (Miner-Rubino et al., 2002).

In the film industry, the majority of protagonists are male and have elaborate backstories that make them more interesting and relatable while many female roles are those of supporting characters whose qualities support the male protagonist. Because of this trend, male audience members are better able to identify with the protagonist while female audience members cannot. A film theory concept of male gaze, which “refers to the lens through which mostly white, heterosexual men are viewing the world” (Lueptow, 2013), is applicable here as it allows for men to feel entitlement to women’s bodies and for women to accept objectification. This theory also translates into real life situations. As Calogero (2004) found, women who anticipate a male gaze felt significantly more body shame than if they anticipated a female gaze. Many of society’s gender roles come from and are reinforced by advertising and cinema, including roles women are expected to play in everyday life. If young women are getting the idea that they need to be a certain kind of beautiful and behave a certain way, but their behavior and physical attributes do not match, then these women will feel negatively about themselves. This type of cognitive process could hinder any healthy identity exploration that would lead to positive self-concept and self-esteem. It is important that the media changes in some significant ways in order to combat these negative constructs.

Making major changes to industries is difficult, but there are changes that are worth attempting. In reference to the advertising world, women should stop being used as sexual objects that are used to sell products. Instead, these companies should use women’s status and accomplishments to legitimize these products. Advertisements can also have a female spokesperson that is famous for their humor or intellect. For example, Ellen DeGeneres is a famous comedienne who is known for advocating for people to be true to themselves and “be kind to one another”. Ms. DeGeneres has also posed for the makeup brand Cover Girl, appearing fully clothed and not sexualized at all. She is still a role model for young women and encourages healthy identity exploration. Dove® also launched their "Real Beauty" campaign in which women of all sizes, races, and ages are featured in their commercials instead of the thin ideal in an attempt to boost women's self-esteems and redefine societal beauty. Their campaign states that "beauty should be a source of confidence, not anxiety" (The Dove Campaign). In regards to the film industry, there should be more films that are shot in the perspective of a female protagonist so that there are more young women who can identify with strong and admirable female roles.

References:

Calogero, R. M. (2004). A test of objectification theory: The effect of the male gaze on appearance concerns in college women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 28(1), 16-21.

Lueptow, K. (2013, May 27). 4 Ways To Challenge The Male Gaze. Retrieved November 15, 2014, from http://everydayfeminism.com/2013/05/changing-male-gaze/

Miner-Rubino, K., Twenge, J. M., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2002). Trait self-objectification in women: Affective and personality correlates. Journal of Research in Personality, 36(2), 147-172.

The Dove® Campaign for Real Beauty. (2014, January 1). Retrieved December 10, 2014, from http://www.dove.us/Social-Mission/campaign-for-real-beauty.aspx