The Science Of Feminism: 9 Studies Of Gender (In)Equality

Women are objectified and sexualised as a matter of course in advertising and the media, and as we get more jaded to it and it becomes the norm, advertisers are forced to do it more aggressively than ever in order to command our attention.

You would think that the more women are subjected to an objectifying gaze, the more likely they would be to want to fight against it, but a recent study has found that this is not the case. In fact, it could actually be something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

In a study by the University of Kent, it was found objectification and subsequent self-objectification of women made them less likely to engage in social activism and more likely to accept the status quo.

In one experiment, women were asked to identify whether they more valued an appearance based attribute of "physical attractiveness" or a competence based attribute of "physical fitness" and then assessed on their willingness to sign a petition or offer support to a feminist cause.

The study found that women who were primed to value themselves on their sexual desirability were less likely to perceive gender inequality or think that it was unfair if they did perceive it. 

Another part of the study found that when women were objectified by others, it made them more likely to objectify themselves. One group was asked to think about a time they were objectified and the other were asked to think about a neutral control subject. Converse to what you might expect, in a follow up questionnaire, the women who thought about their objectification were found to be less likely to support a feminist cause and more likely to justify the current system.

So, the internalising of objectification could itself be leading to the objectification and greater apathy towards gender inequality.