Theories Of Objectification Of Women

Objectification is perceiving a person as an object, being less than human. This research focuses on the objectification theory which states that in western cultures, women's physical appearance is a primary basis of their worth, but this does not pertain to men. The researchers hypothesized that women should be perceived as less warm, moral, and competent when focus is on their appearance. Also, that focusing on a man's appearance should not similarly induce objectification. The researchers conducted three studies that included the same conditions and methods to replicate the study for better results. They were randomly assigned to a video that included either a male or female newscaster and was told to focus on one of the conditions which …show more content…
This always includes women showing substantial amount of skin or dressed provocatively. When women are sexually objectified, they are created into a thing for one’s sexual use, and not seen as a person with independent actions and decision making. This comes with many consequences like the job market for example. Not very many women are seen in powerful positions and when they are, they are criticized on how they look and what they are wearing, rather than their qualifications for the position that they obtained. We have seen this recently in the 2017 elections when Sarah Palin ran for presidency. The media were always focused on how she looked rather than her ability to run a country. With the media having sexualization of women as the peoples focus, objectification only grows stronger towards women. Also, when you see men in the media they are always in a shoulder, and up shot which leads people to believe that they must be intelligent, while females are always a body shot with minimal clothing which leads people to think they are unintelligent. This be correlated with a very important social issue like the pay gap for women. If women are seen as less capable and unintelligent, then why would a company pay them as much as a man that is seen as intelligent, and strong willed. This research showed that our objectification of women is so strong now that women do not have to be …show more content…
If I were to come up with some solutions I would say ultimately, we must find a way to change the media. The media has most of the control of what we believe, how we look, and view things. If the media would use pictures of females in empowering positions like they would normally use for men people wouldn’t activate the part of their brain that objectifies things. These changes in pictures would include: being covered more, showing less skin, having shoulder and up shots of the person, etc. Also, I would suggest when giving women seen in powerful positions criticism, the media should look at what they do like their male colleagues. By evaluating women on their skills and abilities rather than their beauty and what they are wearing people can begin to view women as competent of decision making and intelligent. Lastly, I would also suggest closing the pay gap for women. By closing the pay gap people will be able to see women as equal to men rather than their lesser half. Women could also have opportunities for better job positions by doing this as well, which will show that women are just as capable and intelligent as men are. There is never just one simple solution to a social issue as great as objectification of women. I don’t believe that this issue will come to an end any time soon, but people can begin to do little things