Actually guys, you don’t even have to say anything in order to put the “psychological muzzle” on women. As Ed Yong states in ‘How objectification silences women – the male glance as a psychological muzzle’, all it takes is a look. It may seem surprising that in Tamar Saguy’s study of 207 students (including 114 females), men, on average, talked longer about themselves than women did. Using a video camera either pointed from the neck down, from the neck up, or simply an audio recording, Saguy wanted to see how people interacted through expressions. Men used the full two minutes talking, regardless of camera or audio and regardless of gender. Women used the full two minutes if they were talking to another female or a male that only had audio, spoke 20 seconds less when the guy could see their face, and 15 seconds less than that if the camera was focused on their bodies. (A chart is provided in the article to help all you visual learners).
What does this have to do with anything? So women didn’t talk as much. Sure, that may be surprising, but why am I making such a big deal over it? Sexual objectification. Sexual objectification is “the act of treating people as de-personalised objects of desire instead of as individuals with complex personalities”. Yong says, “Treat someone like an object, and they’ll behave like one”. Although both men and women expressed this view of feeling more like an object than as a person, women outscored men about 2:1 when the camera was focused on their bodies. Why? Well, when society has put so much more pressure on women than men to have a fit, slim figure, it’s not surprising the discomfort of being aware that one’s figure is being examined and the center of attention during a conversation.
Society plays off of the reflection hypothesis. The reflection hypothesis is the portrayal of the dominant societal values. In other words, what are the approved, accepted, and valued ideas that the media is sending out to readers everywhere? Women are put more in the spotlight about their appearances: the smaller the better, yet still have curves. Men? Just don’t be a size 24 and you should be pretty well accepted.
Your turn. Do you think people like Tamar Saguy and Ed Yong are overplaying the severity of sexual objectification? Or do you see some validity in what they are saying? Are women expected more to fulfill this perfect Barbie figure more so than men being physically fit and attractive? So I leave you with this final quote by Yong, “[Sexual] objectification happens without us thinking about it or becoming aware of it. It’s time, perhaps, that more of us did.”
Feel free to take a look at Ed Yong's article at:
http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2010/01/how_sexual_objectification_silences_women_-_the_male_glance.php
~Kimberly
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