Objectification Theory Predicts College Women’s Attitudes Toward Cosmetic Surgery

To Cut or Not to Cut: Cosmetic Surgery Usage and Women's Age-Related Experiences

Part of the developmental trajectory of middle and late life presumes the adjustment to physical aging, an adjustment that is complicated for women for whom the prioritization of beauty is central to their social value in Western societies. A 60-item written questionnaire was distributed to a volunteer community sample of 202 women ages 19–86. From these data, this study tested whether women's cosmetic surgery usage would act as a protective factor in age-related experiences related to body image, self-esteem, and aging attitudes. Cosmetic surgery recipients evidenced less body satisfaction, and more appearance investment with age increases while only non-recipients showed improvements in self-esteem ratings with advancing age. Both recipients and non-recipients showed declines in body care with age, a greater felt discrepancy between actual and perceived age, and less aging anxiety—but non-recipients more so than recipients. Thus, despite having undertaken action to improve their appearance through surgical means at some point in their adult lives, cosmetic surgery recipients did not inevitably feel younger than their years, or better about themselves, compared to those who have not pursued surgery. Study limitations and implications are outlined, and given that cosmetic surgery may become normative practice in future cohorts of aging adults, it concludes with a call for nationally-representative studies using matched-control group research designs typical of public health inquiry more generally.

Body Guilt

Two studies investigated body guilt (i.e., feeling regret and remorse over how the body looks and a desire for reparative action to “fix” the body) within the framework of objectification theory among predominantly White British undergraduate women. In Study 1 ( N = 225), participants completed self-report measures of interpersonal sexual objectification, self-surveillance, body shame, body guilt, and eating restraint. Path analyses indicated support for the inclusion of body guilt in the objectification model, with body shame and body guilt fully mediating the relationship between self-surveillance and eating restraint. In Study 2 ( N = 85), participants reported higher body guilt, self-surveillance, body shame, and eating restraint when self-objectification was situationally activated, compared to the activation of body empowerment or a neutral condition. Path analyses in the second study replicated the objectification model from Study 1 with a state measure of self-objectification. These findings suggest that women also feel guilt (in addition to shame) about their bodies when attention is directed toward their physical appearance and wish to “correct” their body via disordered eating. Acknowledging women’s feelings of guilt in relation to not meeting restrictive beauty standards furthers our understanding of women’s experience of objectification and provides an additional target for reducing women’s mental health risks.

Predicting consideration of cosmetic surgery in a college population: a continuum of body image disturbance and the importance of coping strategies

Elective cosmetic surgeries are increasing in the American population with reasons linked to body image disturbance and body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). Little research exists documenting the continuum of body image disturbance and its relationship to seeking surgery. The present research examined data from 544 participants, 55 of whom were diagnosable with BDD. Using assessments for body image disturbance, problematic coping strategies, and BDD symptomatology, results provided evidence for a continuum of body image distress. Logistic regression analysis supported the hypothesis that increased levels of body image disturbance and one type of problematic coping strategy (Appearance Fixing) predicted consideration of cosmetic surgery. Of participants diagnosable with BDD, those who considered cosmetic surgery showed more severe body image disturbance and problematic coping than those who did not consider surgery. These results have implications for pre-surgical assessment as well as psychological interventions rather than invasive medical interventions.

Leaks, Lumps, and Lines

Women’s bodies have often been positioned in art and popular culture as monstrous or defiled and women’s bodily products (e.g., menstrual fluid, breast milk) as disgusting. This framing has led to the stigmatization of aspects of women’s bodies (e.g., leaking fluids, lumps of fat, and lines in the skin that indicate aging), especially those aspects that are perceived as threats to culture and society. In this article, the author draws on feminist theory, stigma theory, and terror management theory to explain the positioning of menstruating, fat, and old women as threatening and stigmatized. Evidence for the stigma is discussed, as are the effects of stigma on the stigmatized and the stigmatizers. Ways of resisting, reframing, and coping with stigma are suggested.

Objectification Theory: Areas of Promise and Refinement

This article elaborates on three themes related to Szymanski, Moffitt, and Carr’s major contribution aims. First, the article describes the promise of objectification theory as a grounding framework in research and practice, outlining how this theory integrates key aspects of several other important theoretical models. Second, this article suggests areas for theoretical refinement and clarification related to the conceptualization and operationalization of self-objectification, sexually objectifying environments, and the mechanisms linking sexual objectification with substance use. Third, this article offers considerations regarding the state of objectification theory—based intervention recommendations. The article concludes with a discussion of potential roles of counseling psychologists in advancing research, practice, and advocacy informed by objectification theory.