The Impact of Sexually Objectifying Media Exposure on Negative Body Emotions and Sexual Self-Perceptions: Investigating the Mediating Role of Body Self-Consciousness

Abstract

Objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) contends that an objectifying culture can create a heightened level of body self-consciousness among young people. This study explores the role of body self-consciousness in mediating the relationship between exposure to sexually objectifying media (television and magazines) and two sets of criterion variables: negative body emotions and sexual dysfunction. A survey of 384 undergraduates was conducted. Results suggested that body surveillance partially mediated the relation between exposure to sexually objectifying television and magazines and body shame, appearance anxiety, and body image self-consciousness during physical intimacy. Surprisingly few gender differences were found in these relation.

Notes

A complete list of the programs, rankings, and ratings is available from the author.

Because African Americans have been shown to have significantly fewer body image concerns than Caucasians (e.g., White, Kohlmaier, Varnado-Sullivan, & Williamson, 2003), the regression analyses checking for gender differences were run without African Americans to compare with the results for the entire sample. Because the results were not substantively different when African Americans were deleted from the sample, they were included in the analyses in Table 4, with race entered as control variables. Still, it should be noted that the sample size of African Americans was small (N = 24); thus, future research will need to better examine race differences in the relations examined here.