How female objectification in ads creates low self-esteem for guys

Home Top

The unwilling suicide bomber: Teenager weeps as he is ordered to drive armoured vehicle filled with explosives - moments before he is obliterated in mushroom cloud in attack on Syrian village
NFL legend Frank Gifford leaves majority of his $10M estate to widow Kathie Lee and their two children and NOT his family from first marriage
How to block emails and unsubscribe from spam with a single click: Gmail rolls out simple tools to help you take control of your inbox
California police find two bodies in burned out cabin while searching for missing couple and their seven-year-old son
Mother-of-two, 19, hailed a hero for pulling pensioner out of path of oncoming train after his wheelchair became stuck on tracks
Father and brother of Hollywood film director Alejandro Gomez Monteverde have been found murdered after being kidnapped from their Mexican home
Pennsylvania priest is convicted of 'sex tourism' after he traveled to Honduras several times to molest poor street children during missionary trips
'I look forward to these days in your country. God Bless America!': Pope Francis speaks about climate change, world peace and religious tolerance in front of crowd of 20,000 on the White House lawn
Obama lavishes praise on the Pope (for the policies they share) as he thanks Catholic leader for support on Cuba, climate change and immigration
Is the Pope a Catholic? Reporter actually asks Francis the famous question while interviewing him about his economic views
'#BrianWilliamsPopeStories': Disgraced NBC journalist mocked on social media during his debut as MSNBC breaking news anchor covering the arrival of Pope Francis
What would Jesus have been driven in? Dwarfed by massive secret service SUVs, Pope Francis is a big man in a little car as he's driven away in a tiny Fiat 500 after arriving in the U.S.
Pope spent awkward minutes waiting at open door of his plane as Obama crossed the tarmac - but it was all because of protocol, White House says
From Stalin's 'my son can't even shoot straight' putdown for his suicidal boy to Gaddafi's heir hiring Beyonce for a night: New book reveals what happened to the children of the world's cruelest dictators
German government 'KNEW Volkswagen was rigging emissions tests but did nothing': Shocking claim by nation's Green Party as testing scandal 'spreads to petrol cars as well as diesels'
Revealed, the vital foods to eat at every stage of life: Drink gallons of milk in your teens, eat eggs and nuts in your 30s and switch to margarine in your 60s
'It ain't over until it's over': Legendary New York Yankees player Yogi Berra dies aged 90 after fighting in D-Day, winning ten World Series and coining countless phrases
Bug in Google Chrome causes it to CRASH when your mouse hovers over a simple link - so developers turn it into a game
Unlocking the origins of global warming: Scientists pinpoint signs of climate change as early as 1940...and it began in Africa
Revealed, the rise and downfall of Mexico's most powerful female Cartel boss: How 'La China's' hitman boyfriend became so horrified by the 'maniacal' murdering monster she'd become - he shopped her to the cops
Hunting for stars at the heart of the Milky Way: 'Cosmic sonic booms' hidden by dust could be spotted using radio telescopes
Hawaii Five NOOO! Wife of Maui cop accused of flashing women and children blames his behavior on PTSD after he witnessed horror plane crash
'She caused pain I never knew existed': Mother writes heartbreaking open letter a year after drunk-driver killed husband and baby son in car crash
EXCLUSIVE: How Whitey Bulger's politician brother still lives beside house where mobster buried three of his victims - and gets $200,000-a-year pension despite taking Fifth Amendment on gangster

Past research has suggested that women exposed to sexualized advertising may suffer from negative consequences including lower self-esteem and depression
Researchers from the College of Saint Rose and the University of South Florida studied 437 men and women between the ages of 18 and 25, and found that sexual objectification may have a negative effect on men as well

Published: 16:05 EST, 21 September 2015 | Updated: 18:51 EST, 21 September 2015

161

View
comments

From bikini-clad models of Carl's Jr. suggestively eating burgers to the American Apparel ads that show a female model stripping down and showing much more skin than her male counterpart to shift the same unisex shirt, it’s clear that when it comes to advertising, sex sells.

Past studies have suggested that women who are exposed to these types of messages may internalize value placed on their appearance, which can then lead to negative consequences including low self-esteem, eating disorders and depression.

Now a new study has revealed that the hyper-sexualized ads may have a negative effect on men as well,The Huffington Post reports.

Feeling low: A new study has found that sexualized advertisements could have a negative effect on men as well as women

Researchers from the College of Saint Rose and the University of South Florida examined 437 men and women between the ages of 18 and 25 in order to examine the complicated relationship between ads that sexually objectify women's bodies and the effect they have on both genders.

Study participants were quizzed on how many hours a week they spent watching television, surfing the Internet, social networking, reading magazines or newspapers, viewing pornography and playing video games.

They were then asked to rate how much they agreed with statements like 'I would like my body to look like the models who appear in magazines’ in order to gauge how much they internalize cultural appearance ideals.

Everyone was then split into two groups, with one group watching six ads that sexually objectified women, and the other viewing more neutral content.

Sex sells: Past research has found that for women, being exposed to hyper-sexual commercials such as the one that Emily Ratajowski (left) and Sara Underwood (right) did for Carl's Jr. can have negative consequences

Different standards: This American Apparel ad showed a unisex shirt on a male model (left) and his much racier female counterpart int eh same outfit (right)

Afterward, when both groups were asked to rate body satisfaction again, researchers found that men and women who internalized cultural appearance ideals had higher levels of body dissatisfaction after viewing ads that sexually objectified women.

Though the effect was greater in women, both genders were unhappier with their bodies afterwards – and no such trend was found for the group who viewed the neutral ads.

The researchers did warn that the findings 'may be difficult to generalize beyond the young adult population,' since they only included participants between the ages of 18 and 25 - and it is so far unclear if the short-term drop in self-esteem reported would be replicated over time.

Still, experts hope that learning why both sexes could be harmed by this type of objectification is an important step in learning more about the long-term consequences of being bombarded with these types of messages every day – for both men and women.