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The Counseling Psychologist 39(1) 153163 The Author 2011 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0011000010384279 http://tcp.sagepub.com
Abstract This article elaborates on three themes related to Szymanski, Moffitt, and Carrs major contribution aims. First, the article describes the promise of objectification theory as a grounding framework in research and practice, outlining how this theory integrates key aspects of several other important theoretical models. Second, this article suggests areas for theoretical refinement and clarification related to the conceptualization and operationalization of self-objectification, sexually objectifying environments, and the mechanisms linking sexual objectification with substance use. Third, this article offers considerations regarding the state of objectification theorybased intervention recommendations. The article concludes with a discussion of potential roles of counseling psychologists in advancing research, practice, and advocacy informed by objectification theory. Keywords objectification theory, self-objectification, body surveillance, gender, culture Szymanski, Moffitt, and Carrs (2011) major contribution is a commendable effort to provide an overview of objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) to counseling psychologists, apply this framework to the
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Corresponding Author: Bonnie Moradi, University of Florida, Department of Psychology, P.O. Box 112250, Gainesville, FL 32611-2250 Email: moradib@ufl.edu
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study of substance use among women, describe womens experiences in environments of heightened sexual objectification, and offer recommendations for clinical practice and training. In this article, I elaborate on three themes related to Szymanski et al.s aims: (a) the promise of objectification theory as a grounding framework in research and practice, (b) areas for theoretical refinement and clarification, and (c) the state of objectification theorybased intervention recommendations. I conclude with a discussion of potential roles of counseling psychologists in advancing research, practice, and advocacy that is informed by objectification theory. I hope that the discussion of these themes, along with Szymanski and colleagues important work, encourages further attention to objectification theory in counseling psychology research, practice, and advocacy.
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scope of consideration beyond thinness pressures, to include socialization and sexual objectification experiences, has been extended to include experiences of sexual objectification and recalled harassment for childhood gender nonconformity among sexual minority men (Wiseman & Moradi, 2010) and conflict between deaf and hearing cultures among deaf women (Moradi & Rottenstein, 2007), the concept of body surveillance has been extended to include skin tone surveillance among African American women (Buchanan, Fischer, Tokar, & Yoder, 2008), and the set of relations posited in the framework has been examined with racially and ethnically diverse samples (e.g., Hebl, King, & Lin, 2004; Mitchell & Mazzeo, 2009; Quinn, Kallen, Twenge, & Fredrickson, 2006) and with heterosexual and sexual minority women and men (e.g., Hill & Fischer, 2008; Kozee & Tylka, 2006; Martins, Tiggemann, & Kirkbride, 2007; Wiseman & Moradi, 2010). Objectification theory is also being used to study a broad range of criterion variables beyond those originally outlined (i.e., eating disorders, depression, sexual dysfunctions), including, for example, propensity for cosmetic surgery (Calogero, Pina, Park, & Rahemtulla, 2010), attitudes toward menstruation and breast-feeding (e.g., Johnston-Robledo & Fred, 2008; Johnston-Robledo, Wares, Fricker, & Pasek, 2007; Roberts, 2004), and substance use, as illustrated in this issue (Carr & Szymanski, 2011).
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On the basis of empirical support for the unique roles of internalization of cultural standards of attractiveness and body surveillance, however, a useful conceptual shift may be to consider self-objectification as a process rather than as a specific variable to be measured. As such, the process of selfobjectification may be promoted by sexual objectification experiences and manifested by internalization of cultural standards of attractiveness and body surveillance, and their links, in turn, with greater body shame, and the other intermediary variables delineated in objectification theory (for a figural depiction of this process, see Moradi, 2010). This conceptualization is consistent with some of Moffitt and Szymanskis (2011) qualitative findings with women who worked in an environment of heightened sexual objectification. Specifically, among the manifest changes from working in that environment, these participants described how they came to internalize the beauty standards of their work environment to the extent of applying them outside of that environment; they also described engaging in greater body surveillance. Both of these changesinternalization of beauty standards and increased body surveillancemay reflect manifestations of the self-objectification process promoted by working in an environment of heightened sexual objectification. These qualitatively reported changes suggest that measuring internalization and body surveillance directly may be important in future objectification theory research (Moradi, 2010; Moradi & Huang, 2008). Another point of theoretical refinement and an important contribution of Moffitt and Szymanski (2011) is an articulation of the characteristics of a sexually objectifying environment. These characteristics provide a framework for thinking about sexual objectification at the level of environments or institutions in addition to the typical conceptualization of the construct as an interpersonal phenomenon (e.g., Kozee et al., 2007; Moradi, Dirks, & Matteson, 2005). Moffitt and Szymanski (2011) described sexually objectifying environments as environments in which (a) traditional female and male gender roles exist, (b) a high degree of attention is drawn to physical/sexual attributes of womens bodies, (c) a high probability of male contact exists, (d) women have little power in that environment, and (e) there is approval and encouragement of male gaze. (p. 69) Moffitt and Szymanski (2011) described restaurants such as Hooters as examples of such environments.
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It seems that these five characteristics of sexually objectifying environments exist to some degree in many contexts in a patriarchal society where women and their bodies are treated as sexual objects. Indeed, at the societal level within the United States (and many other countries), these five characteristics may be inescapable; this omnipresence of the sexual objectification of women is a key premise of objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). Thus, one area of conceptual clarification may be to consider whether sexually objectifying environments are a qualitatively unique form of environment. If so, what is a nonsexually objectifying environment, and where do such environments exist? Alternatively, is Hooters (and other such restaurants) an environment that exaggerates and monetizes sexual objectification characteristics that exist more subtly in most other environments? In other words, is Hooters an environment of heightened sexual objectification relative to environments of typical levels of sexual objectification or a uniquely distinct type of environment? Similarly, are there environments of lower than typical levels of sexual objectification? Also, what are the effects of pay for sexual objectification on womens experiences of such environments? Such questions can be useful to address in clarifying whether the characteristics of sexually objectifying environments that Moffitt and Szymanski (2011) outlined describe differences in kind or degree across environments. Another important contribution made by Carr and Szymanski (2011) is the articulation of mechanisms through which sexual objectification experiences may be linked with substance use. Specifically, Carr and Szymanski (2011) proposed that sexual objectification may promote womens substance use (a) through media and cultural messages that pair womens sexual desirability with substance use, (b) by creating stress and negative affect that elicit substance use as a coping or numbing strategy, and (c) through promoting the series of relations posited in objectification theory among self-objectification, body shame, and depression. The cross-sectional correlational data offered by Carr and Szymanski (2011) suggest that the link between sexual objectification experiences and substance use is largely direct; a small total indirect effect also emerged from the series of links from sexual objectification experiences to body surveillance, to body shame, to depressive symptoms, to substance use. Several observations emerge from considering these data against the three posited mechanisms of translation from sexual objectification experiences to substance use. First, the proposition that one mechanism of translation is media and cultural messages that sexualize substance use suggests the utility of directly assessing internalization of these cultural messages in models of the link between sexual objectification experiences and substance use; perhaps the inclusion of internalization would suggest a larger indirect
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effect. Second, as in many objectification theory studies, self-objectification was operationalized as body surveillance in Carr and Szymanskis (2011) study. These two observations underscore the aforementioned point about the utility of assessing internalization of cultural standards of attractiveness and body surveillance as distinct manifestations of the self-objectification process. Finally, as in many tests of indirect effects, the cross-sectional correlation data offered by Carr and Szymanski (2011) provide groundwork for investigating the causal and temporal precedence implied in the model.
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Moradi Acknowledgments
I thank Brandon Velez for his assistance with preparing this article.
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Financial Disclosure/Funding
The author received no financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article.
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Bio
Bonnie Moradi is an Associate Professor of psychology at the University of Florida. Her research focuses on discrimination experiences and identities of women, racial/ ethnic minority, sexual minority, and other minority groups.
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