Objectification theory provides an important framework for understanding,researching, and intervening to improve women’s lives in a sociocultural contextthat sexually objectifies the female body and equates a woman’s worth with herbody’s appearance and sexual functions. The purpose of this Major Contributionis to advance theory, research, practice, and training related to the sexualobjectification of women. The purpose of this article is to introduce readers toobjectification theory and related research, extend objectification theory to ourunderstanding of women’s substance use and/or abuse and immersed forms ofsexual objectification via sexually objectifying environments, and provide anoverview of this Major Contribution on Sexual Objectification of Women.
It is also important to note that individual variables serve as mediators of mens misperceptions, such as hostile masculinity, interpersonal sex, and drinking in dating and sexual situations (Jacques-Tiura, Abbey, Parkhill, & Zawacki, 2007; Malamuth, Sockloskie, Koss, & Tanaka, 1991).
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Male-dominated environments have also been shown to be more sexualized than female-dominated environments (Gutek, 1985). Taking an organizational perspective, Gutek et al. (1990) proposed the contact hypothesis, which states that women who have a lot of contact with men at work will report more nonharassing sexual behavior, more sexual harassment, and a more sexualized work environment than women who have little interaction with men at their job. Supporting this hypothesis, Gruber (1998) found that the extent of contact with men was a key predictor of incidence of harassment, number of different types of harassment, sexual comments, sexual categorical remarks, and sexual materials for women. Thus, contact with men Szymanski et al. may serve as a mediator between women and SO: Frequent contact with men may create a more sexualized environment, which in turn allows for more SO experiences.
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A pervasive lack of power among women is a third criterion to be met by SOEs. Power at the environmental or organizational level has been conceptualized as an extension of societal power into the workplace (Ragins & Sundstrom, 1989). At the societal level, U.S. mainstream culture is patriarchal, which means that it is male-dominated, male-identified, and male-centered (Johnson, 2005). As a system, patriarchy is pervasive, ingrained, invisible, and all-encompassing, making it powerful in structuring our experiences. As a woman attempts to effect some sort of change (e.g., by feminist action), others may react negatively, which serves to maintain the status quo (a phenomenon termed backlash; for an extensive review, see Faludi, 1991). Due to patriarchy, women clearly are in positions of less power. Extending into the workplace, patriarchy influences the structure of occupations within an organization (from high status to low status), the relationships of influence between individua
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Thus, an SOE is an environment where women occupy low-status positions, have a relatively small amount of influence (in any number of spheres), and do not have access to certain organizational or environmental resources.
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