From passive to active self-objectification
(2020)
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- Abstract
- Based on the influential Objectification Theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997), a large body of research has documented the negative impact of the sexual self-objectification phenomenon for women. In the present dissertation, we argue that the conception and operationalization of sexual self-objectification that has been used by social psychologists so far has limited the understanding of this phenomenon. Indeed, scholars have generally considered women as naïve and passive victims of an insidious objectifying system. Furthermore, they scarcely considered women’s subjective experience and the potential agency associated with self-objectification, and focused instead on women’s behaviors (e.g., self-surveillance). By doing so, they overlooked a significant part of the phenomenon. In an attempt to consider women’s subjectivity and agency in self-objectification, we propose the concept of instrumental self-objectification that we operationalize using the sex is power belief construct. Furthermore, we examine its consequences adopting an individual, interpersonal, and collective perspective. As a whole, the present work aims at highlighting the importance to further investigate women’s subjectivity and agency when they sexually self-objectify.
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De Wilde, M. (2020). From passive to active self-objectification. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/99079