Gender Differences in Reactions to the Sexualization of Athletes

Abstract

Participants rated a series of photographs that depicted well-known male and female athletes in a sexualized fashion or not. In general, sexualized targets were perceived as more attractive but as less competent than non-sexualized targets, and for ratings of competence, sexualization effects were greater for female targets. Sexualization had no effects on women’s perceptions of the competence of male targets, whereas for men, sexualization affected their perceptions of the competence of both male and female targets, although the influence of sexualization was stronger for female targets than it was for male targets. These findings suggest that the gender of the target and of the perceiver needs to be considered when evaluating the influences of sexualization. The implications of these findings are discussed within the context of objectification theory, which has focused on the objectification of women by women.

Keywords:

• advertising
• objectification
• sex differences
• sexualization

Notes

1. Although it was possible to compare evaluations within the sexualized and non-sexualized conditions (e.g., sexualized males vs. sexualized females), we did not. Given that we had only two male and two female images (arbitrarily selected), if we had found differences between the ratings of male and female targets, we could not be certain if such differences reflected gender differences per se or if they were differences due to the specific targets we chose (i.e., the individual athletes). The analyses on which we focused (i.e., differences between sexualized and non-sexualized images) controlled for whatever differences existed among our targets per se.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

John B. Nezlek

John B. Nezlek is affiliated with the Department of Psychology, College of William & Mary, and with the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty in Poznan.

William Krohn

William Krohn is affiliated with the Department of Psychology, College of William & Mary.

Dannon Wilson

Dannon Wilson is affiliated with the Department of Psychology, College of William & Mary.

Laura Maruskin

Laura Maruskin is affiliated with the Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley.