Commentary on "Media and Sexualization: State of Empirical Research, 1995–2015"

Our group will be examining how subconscious gendered attitudes are expressed through content consumption. We will be conducting research on what types of media are most prevalent surrounding male versus female personalities, and also examining the content consumption of our peers to analyze these trends. The research question we are attempting to answer is: To what extent does social media reinforce gender stereotypes already attributed to various professions and/or interests? As of now, my working hypothesis is that social media does reinforce gender stereotypes to the extent that users, and especially male users, will choose to engage more with content that aligns with traditional gender roles, emphasizing traits such as athleticism in men and sexuality in women. Our methodology will utilize both netnography and real world investigation of the content with which our classmates choose to interact on social media.

Editor illustration L Monique Ward, faculty at the University of Michigan and author of Media and Sexualization: State of Empirical Research, 1995–2015

This commentary analyzes a research article titled “Media and Sexualization: State of Empirical Research, 1995–2015.” It was published through The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality by L. Monique Ward, a professor in the psychology department at the University of Michigan. The review takes a data-driven approach to tackle the topic of media sexualization and its effects on participant perceptions of women in a variety of societal contexts and roles (including how women perceive themselves). Ward analyzes a set of 135 empirical studies conducted over a twenty year period, it examines how participants in a variety of experimental studies responded to media depicting sexualized images in which participants were exposed to various types of media content involving the sexualization of women and then observed for their responses in a wide range of scenarios ranging from the evaluation of female professional candidates to their responses to jokes involving sexual and gender based violence. The studies address topics such as body dissatisfaction, interactions with partners in relationships, assumptions about the attributes of women (eg. intelligence, athleticism, kindness, workplace competence, morality), and tolerance to the consumption of more sexualized media. Ward then draws measured evaluations about patterns of behavior compared to control groups that were not exposed to this explicit content. The article does not seem to have a clear angle or preliminary bias, and is honest about limitations of the studies upon which it relies to form its conclusions, such as the need for a more diverse pool of participants.

The piece concludes that there is a direct link between exposure to sexualized media content and the development of negative attitudes toward women, especially with regard to their worth in non-sexual contexts. For example, participants who were consistently exposed to this sexualized media were less likely to acknowledge the athletic attributes of women (including themselves) and more likely to comment on physical appearance. Men who watched television commercials containing conventionally attractive women were more likely to seek out those same conventionally attractive women in real life and objectify more outwardly potential partners. Participants exposed to sexualized models were more likely to exhibit sexist behavior such as: considering conventionally attractive female athletes to be less capable competitors; asking sexist questions of women applying for jobs and evaluate them as less competent; and evaluating the women as “being less intelligent, competent, capable, determined, moral, and self-respecting,” to pick out a few conclusions (Ward). Interestingly, in terms of voluntary continued consumption of this sexual content, the article also identifies that women who were exposed to violently sexualized imagery of women were often less likely to seek out more of the same content because they found it off-putting and insulting. On the other hand, men were more likely to continue the pattern of this sexual content consumption.

Editor illustration Range of studies included in Ward's analysis

There is wide debate over whether graphic media consumption actually makes people more predisposed to replicate the behavior depicted in said media, not just in terms of the sexualization of women but more generally as well. For example, in the United States, there is frequent debate over whether violent video games contribute to the gun violence epidemic, especially when discussing teenaged murderers. It is important to acknowledge in any discussion of these types of topics that this media does not exist in a vacuum; people are exposed to a barrage of external influences that perpetuate or dissuade this behavior, including their own gender identities and the behavior of people to whom they are exposed frequently. As an example, my town in the United States is very close to an infamous school shooting, and even though many residents surely consume violent media, the community tends to be quite gun-averse. Similarly, as Ward describes, women and men who were exposed to the same content did not always have the same reactions or likelihoods of continuing those behaviors of content consumption, perhaps due to the differing experiences that they had with sexualized rhetoric in their own lives. I would argue that graphic media consumption does not create new, previously unheard of dispositions, but rather amplifies pre-existing trends, with the objectification of women being a clear example.

This article provides insight into our exploration in two ways. Firstly, it provides insight into how men and women respond to sexualized content, and specifically their likelihood of continuing to consume that media once they have been exposed to it. It also examines the potential impact of these trends outside of the digital sphere, noting that this phenomenon does not just impact how people view women online, but also how they internalize these narratives and reproduce them on their own after the initial exposure. It sets an interesting standard of comparison for us to see if male students are engaging online with more sexualized content of women compared to female students. Overall, it seems to support our initial hypothesis by demonstrating that media can in fact reinforce gender stereotypes.

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