Men and women’s self-objectification, objectification of women, and sexist beliefs

ABSTRACT

Many studies have examined the consequences of being objectified by others and of self-objectification, but less attention has been given to those who objectify others. We therefore examined the relationship between attitudes accepting the objectification of women, self-objectification, and sexist beliefs. Using data from 314 male and female participants, analyses revealed that men and women’s self-objectification and hostile sexism significantly predicted their acceptance of the objectification of women. These findings suggest that adopting an objectified sense of self and sexist perspectives are associated with endorsing an objectifying view of women. Future research should continue to expand our understanding of the possible motivations behind the objectification of women.

KEYWORDS:

• Objectification
• self-objectification
• sexist beliefs

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Gender was alternatively recoded using −1 for women and +1 for men. This did not substantively change the results or interpretation of the regression analysis. Results of the analysis using this alternative coding are available from the authors upon request.