College of Humanities
45 Implementing Education on Objectification Theory and Why it is More Beneficial for Women’s Issues than the Body Positivity Movement
Lauren Lloyd (University of Utah)
Faculty Mentor: Kimberley Mangun (Communications, University of Utah)
ABSTRACT
The Sexual Objectification Theory proposed by Barbara Fredrickson and Tomi-Ann Roberts postulates that the sexual objectification of women can lead to depression, eating disorders, and sexual dysfunction. Further research on this theory has shown that objectification is widespread and has several consequences such as diminished mental health in women and increased rates of violence against women. This phenomenon and its effects have worsened with the advent of social media. On social media platforms, women are frequently exposed to sexually objectifying content and unattainable beauty standards. The body positivity movement combats the destructive messages in the media by empowering women through realistic representations of women’s bodies. While the body positivity movement has made great progress in the realm of objectification, the movement is divisive and limited in its capabilities. To reduce the rampant objectification in society, we must formally educate future generations on objectification and its ramifications. Therefore, I propose a lesson plan for the Utah Core Standards of three, 45-minute class periods. The curriculum contains two PowerPoint presentations, two videos, two images, one article, one activity, one handout, and one Socratic seminar.
Introduction
I was objectified for the first time when I was 12 years old. The boys in my grade decided to craft the “perfect girl’s body” using different physical features from the girls in our grade. Word got around about whose body parts they selected. When I found out which part of my body was chosen for this “perfect girl,” I was mortified. I look back on this experience and pity that poor 12-year-old girl, who had just realized for the first time in her short life that she had no control over her own body. Instead, her body was now controlled by the boys who viewed her as an object first, and a person second. This experience opened the floodgates for a torrent of sexually objectifying experiences that I would face during my adolescence.
After I hit puberty, my mother would become enraged when we walked in public together and she saw the way adult men ogled me. School administrators reprimanded me for wearing clothing permitted by the dress code because my chest developed earlier than the other girls in my grade. College-aged men catcalled at me anytime I walked by the local university. I was given the nickname “thick thighs” in high school. Unfortunately, my experience is not unique. Sexually objectifying experiences function as a disgusting and upsetting rite of passage for young girls into womanhood.
Sexually objectifying experiences occur when women are reduced to their bodies, or a collection of their body parts, for