SexualizationofWomen.. - Department of Psychology - York University

of university faculty, staff, and students, O’Hare and
O’Donohue (1998) found that respondents who reported
that their male coworkers held sexist attitudes reported
more experiences of gender harassment, sexual harassment,
and sexual coercion. Quinn’s (2002) qualitative study of
adult men’s accounts of “girl-watching” in the workplace
highlighted the role that objectification and (low) empathy
with the targeted women played in this type of sexual
harassment. Angelone, Hirschman, Suniga, Armey, and
Armelie (2005) found that college men who were exposed
to a sexist confederate (one who made objectifying com-
ments about a female actress and denigrating comments
about women on campus) told more sexual jokes to a
female confederate than did men exposed to a nonsexist
confederate.Taken together, these studies suggest that boys
exposed to sexualization portrayals of girls may be more
likely to commit sexual harassment.
Some studies of the effects of school uniforms on
students’ perceptions also lend indirect support for the
notion that sexualizing clothing may be a factor in
harassment of girls.When students dress in uniforms, fellow
students as well as teachers rate them as higher in academic
ability and positive school-related behavior than students in
standard dress (Behling, 1994). Furthermore, one study
showed that girls who wear uniforms report more positive
perceptions of safety and peer relationships in school than
girls in regular clothes (Fosseen, 2002). It is important to
underscore that girls do not “cause” harassment or abusive
behavior by wearing sexy clothes; no matter what girls
wear, they have the right to be free of sexual harassment,
and boys and men can and should control their behavior.
But when sexualized clothing is part of a larger cultural
context in which girls are sexually objectified, standardized
uniforms may help to change those cultural messages and
understandings of who girls are and what they are capable
of, thereby reducing the incidence of sexual harassment
in general.
Violence and Exploitation
Violence against girls. Numerous studies have shown a
connection between stereotypical attitudes about women’s
sexuality and aggressive sexual behavior. For example,
34
adversarial sexual beliefs, rape myth acceptance, and
sexist beliefs about women are related to aggressive sexual
behaviors (Dean & Malamuth, 1997; Murnen,Wright, &
Kaluzny, 2002; Osland, Fitch, & Willis, 1996; Spence,
Losoff, & Robbins, 1991;Truman,Tokar, & Fischer, 1996;
Vogel, 2000).
Other studies have connected media exposure to sexist
beliefs and acceptance of violence against women. Several
studies have shown that women and men exposed to
sexually objectifying images of women from mainstream
media (e.g., R-rated films, magazine advertisements, music
videos) were found to be significantly more accepting of
rape myths, sexual harassment, sex role stereotypes, inter-
personal violence, and adversarial sexual beliefs about
relationships than were those in control conditions (Kalof,
1999; Lanis & Covell, 1995; MacKay & Covell, 1997;
Milburn et al., 2000; L. M.Ward, 2002; L. M.Ward et al.,
2005). In one of the few studies using children rather than
college-aged men and women as participants, Strouse et al.
(1994) found that for boys and girls who were 11–16 years
of age, frequent TV viewing and greater exposure to R-
and X-rated films were each related to stronger acceptance
of sexual harassment. Given that viewing sexualized and
objectifying portrayals of women is associated with many
of these attitudes, viewing sexualized portrayals of girls may
also lead to these same effects and to a greater acceptance
of child sexual abuse myths, child sexual abuse, and viewing
younger and younger girls as acceptable sexual partners.
Sexual exploitation. There is little or no research on the
effects on adults of viewing sexualized images of girls or
even sexualized images of adult women made up to look
like girls (a common practice in magazine advertisements).
Several scholars (e.g., Merskin, 2004; O’Donohue et al.,
1997) have noted the urgent need for such research. But
there may be negative effects at a societal level in addition
to possible negative effects to individual viewers; these
include providing justification and a market for child
Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls
pornography and the prostitution and sexual trafficking of
children. Because the consequences of child sexual abuse
and child prostitution are so great, it is important to con-
sider the possible connections carefully. Although there is