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Article Excerpt
Theorists have increasingly emphasized the importance of the sociocultural context in the development of women's body experience. As a result, mental health professionals working with individuals suffering from negative body experiences should be apprised of culturally relevant theories. One such theory, objectified body consciousness theory, proposes that cultural constructions of the female body as an object and expectations of physical and sexual appeal lead to a myriad of negative mental health outcomes for women. This study investigated the relationship among objectification experiences, sociocultural attitudes toward appearance, and objectified body consciousness. Findings provide strong support for a feminist and sociocultural understanding of the development of objectified body consciousness. Implications for mental health counselors and for research are presented.
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Part of the experience of being a woman, particularly in Western cultures, is being looked at and evaluated by others. Research findings indicate that women are gazed at more than men and that women are more likely to feel "looked at" in interpersonal gatherings (McKinley & Hyde, 1996; Nigro, Hill, Gelbein, & Clark, 1988). In addition, men direct more nonreciprocated gaze toward women than vice versa (Bente, Donaghy, & Suwelack, 1998; Mulac, Studley, Wiemann, & Bradac, 1987), and men's gazing is frequently accompanied by sexually evaluative remarks (Fromme & Beam, 1974; Gardner, 1980; Henley, 1977). Increasingly, women's experiences of such scrutiny and sexualized appraisal are being explored as an important area of study. In particular, scholars from various disciplines have begun to examine Western culture's widespread practice of sexually objectifying women's bodies and have begun to explore the physical and psychological consequences associated with such objectification (Bordo, 1993; Calogero, 2004; Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997; Kaschak, 1992; McKinley & Hyde; Roberts & Gettman, 2004). What has emerged is a critique of U.S. culture's fixation on the female body and a recognition that women's bodies are inscribed with complex social, economic, and political meanings. Specifically, researchers and mental health professionals have located the female body as the site wherein judgment regarding body weight, shape, and attractiveness is waged (Fredrickson & Roberts; McKinley & Hyde).
There is abundant research examining the experiences of women and their physical bodies, particularly in the areas of dieting, eating disorders, body image, body satisfaction, and body esteem (e.g., Cook-Cottone & Phelps, 2003; Palladino-Green, & Pritchard, 2003; Stice & Whitenton, 2002). Findings indicate that a large proportion of women feel dissatisfied with their bodies, constantly monitor their weight and diet, and most perceive themselves as overweight, regardless of the accuracy of this assessment (e.g., Allaz, Bernstein, Rouget, Archinard, & Morabia, 1998; Emslie, Hunt, & Mcintyre, 2001; Rodin, Silberstein, & Striegel-Moore, 1985). A recent meta-analysis of 222 body image studies from the past 50 years revealed continual increases in women's body dissatisfaction (Feingold & Mazzella, 1998). Furthermore, women are becoming more concerned about their weight at younger ages (Cavanaugh & Lemberg, 1999) with girls as young as five expressing anxiety about weight and body shape (Davison, Markey, & Birch, 2000). Finally, researchers have suggested that females constitute 90% of the eating-disordered population (Murnen & Smolak, 1997).
Body related disturbances remain a major health concern for women. Dissatisfaction with shape and size is so common among women that labels such as "normative discontent" (Rodin et al., 1985, p. 267), "obsession," "tyranny of slenderness" (Chernin, 1981, p. 3), and "cult of thinness" (Hesse-Biber, 1996, p. 5) have been used widely. In fact, "there is considerable overlap between clinical populations of women with eating disorders and 'normal' women in terms of eating behaviors and attitudes toward body and weight" (Rodin et al., p. 267). Given this normative discontent, a great deal of literature has been focused on the etiology of women's negative body experiences. Researchers have focused primarily on the family dynamics, psychological variables, perceptual or cognitive distortions, and biological factors thought to be associated with body disturbances and disorders (Abbott, 2001; Freedman, 1990; Hsu, 1990). Another body of literature has attributed the phenomenon of women's profound body dissatisfaction to the influence of the mass media (Groesz, Levine, & Murnen, 2002; Jung & Lennon, 2003; Tiggemann & McGill, 2004). Although studies on the psychological, biological, or cognitive aspects of women's body experience offer a certain level of understanding, they do little to explain the prevalence of these experiences among women (Heinberg, 1996).
In a similar vein, explanations of women's normative discontent vis-a-vis the family or mass media are important and the influence of these factors should not be underestimated; yet these explanations have not informed researchers how these factors are translated into experiences such as anorexia or objectified body consciousness (Bordo, 1993; McKinley, 1995). In addition, although the family and the media fan the flames and aggravate cultural pressures, they, nonetheless, remain reflections of cultural practices, not their root cause (McKinley, 2000).
In response to these limitations, theorists have increasingly emphasized the importance of the sociocultural context in the development of women's negative experiences with their bodies, arguing that a more comprehensive and precise explanation emerges when researchers stand back and examine the broader lens through which women's body experience is understood (Bordo, 1993; Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997; McKinley & Hyde, 1996; Polivy & Herman, 2002; Stice, 2001). In particular, special attention has begun to be paid to the underlying cultural beliefs and pressures that influence women's body experience. Along these lines, this study was designed to explore, both theoretically and empirically, the relationship between certain sociocultural variables and women's body experience. The primary purpose of this study was to explain the variance in objectified body consciousness (OBC) by reference to two antecedent constructs: objectification experiences and sociocultural attitudes toward appearance. A brief summary of literature on OBC is presented as a foundation for better understanding the variables used in this study.
OBJECTIFIED BODY CONSCIOUSNESS THEORY
McKinley (2000) conceptualized OBC theory as a unified theoretical framework for understanding women's body experience in U.S. culture and proposed that this theory provides more explanatory power than traditional theories of women's obsession. Largely based on feminist and social constructionist theories, OBC theory proposes that cultural constructions of the female body, and expectations of physical and sexual appeal, lead to a myriad of negative experiences for women, including constant monitoring of one's appearance, body shame, negative body esteem, and restricted eating and eating problems (McKinley, 1998, 1999; McKinley & Hyde, 1996).
The central tenet of OBC theory is that the feminine body is socially constructed as an object, to be looked at (McKinley, 2000). To substantiate this premise, researchers point out that early on, girls are evaluated for how they look whereas boys are evaluated on other dimensions, such as strength, coordination, and alertness (McKinley, 1995; Spitzack, 1990; Stern & Karraker, 1989). Objectification is defined as "separating out a person's body parts or sexual functions from the rest of her identity and reducing them to the status of mere instruments or regarding them as if they were capable of representing her" (Bartky, 1990, p. 26). Examples of objectification include catcalls and stares, workplace sexual harassment, and sexualized media images of women, including pornography, beauty pageants, television commercials, and magazine advertisements (Kilbourne, 1994; Noll, 1997). Objectification experiences range along a continuum, from sexualized gazing or visual inspection of women's bodies (arguably the most subtle and pervasive form) to the extreme of sexual violence.
Perhaps the most profound effect of objectifying treatment is that it coaxes many women to view and treat themselves as objects (McKinley, 2000; Spitzack, 1990). That is, a crucial repercussion of being viewed by others in objectifying ways is that it places women in the position to perceive their own bodies as objects. Over time, women internalize and adopt an observer's perspective on their body. This unusual sense of self, where a woman's attention is regularly disrupted by images of how she appears, can lead to a form of self-consciousness characterized by habitual monitoring of the body's outward appearance. A consequence of this habitual body monitoring, or self-objectification, is that many women develop identities or self-worth that are strongly rooted in and defined by their physical appearance (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997; McKinley & Hyde, 1996).
Thus, the experience of the body as an object, and the beliefs that support this experience, is called OBC. This construct is comprised of three dimensions: (a) constant monitoring...
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