Self-Objectificationas Representation of Postfeminist Women Empowerment in Fifth Harmony’s Music Videos.

<p> This research attempts to describe the portrayal of postfeminism empowerment that is represented by Fifth Harmony’s self-objectification image in their four music videos; <em>Work from Home, Boss, Worth It </em>and <em>That’s My Girl. </em>This research is descriptive qualitative. The method is employed by watching, classifying and analyzing the data that are collected by selecting the scenes, lyrics and other elements of music video representing the image of self-objectification and postfeminism. The supporting data consist of reviews, interviews and information taken from books, journals, articles, online sources and researches. Since the research is in the scope of American Studies which is an interdisciplinary study, it involves some disciplines that are applied in the form of theory including objectification theory, postfeminism theory, semiotic theory and theory of music video. From the analysis, Fifth Harmony in their music videos use their self-objectification image to portray the values of women empowerment in post-feminism era. The music videos are portraying the issues of domesticity (femininity and sexuality) as women’s choice and source of power, confident and successful independent women as a symbol of Girl Power and sisterhood as source ofwomen’s power in the era of post-feminism.</p><p><strong> </strong></p>

Women Objectification in Context of Pakistani Advertisements: Role of Personal Variables

The present study was conducted to investigate the role of personal factors on self-objectification that is encouraged by Pakistani advertisements. The objective of the study was to find out the differences in perception of women on Pakistani advertisement based on personal variables i.e. age, family structure, education and employment status. Convenience sampling technique and a sample of 430 unmarried women with the age bracket of 18 to 25 years were included in the study. The self-objectification was measured through the Self-Objectification-Trait Scale (Dahl, 2014). ANOVA analysis and t test were used through the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) v 21 for analysis. The findings indicated that there was no significant difference in self-objectification of women, under the influence of Pakistani advertisements, based on their ages and education levels. However, there was a significant difference in self-objectification of women, under the influence of Pakistani advertisements, based on their family structures and employment statuses. The study would contribute to further research to reduce the negative impact of self-objectification on young women.

The Portrayal of Women: Feminist Analysis of A Hologram for The King

This research paper attempts to investigate the representation of women, their character and their rights in Dave Eggers’ novel A Hologram for the King (2012), according to the feministic approach to literary works. Gender bias has been reflected in many literary works from classical canonical works to contemporary literary ones and has been dealt with in many critical pieces. The theme of self-objectification, which is closely tied to gender bias to some extent, has not been analyzed, independently and fully, especially in the literature of the post-colonial era. The current study scrutinizes the writer’s portrayal of women characters in order to uncover the replication of the same stereotypes and gender bias categories against women, dominant in the literary works before the post-colonial era. Based on the feminist approach, A Hologram for the King is identified as a misogynist work although it is written in postmodern era. The author of the novel, is inspired by men’s superiority, creates a completely distorted image of women by introducing them as people who turn themselves into objects of pleasure for men. The novelist further deprives women of their rights and misrepresents them as unprincipled humans, disparaging them as naïve and sexually licentious creatures. After all, this study becomes a means of writing back against marginalization of women, in their picturization and their subordination to men.

Correlational and Experimental Effects of Online Apparel Shopping Behavior on Gaze Behavior, Appearance Attitudes, and Self-Worth in Women

Online apparel shopping is popular among women, with possible negative body image consequences, particularly when the website imagery is body-focused. We investigated both correlational and experimental effects of online apparel shopping on women’s (N = 113) explicitly and implicitly measured self-worth, appearance attitudes, and body gaze behavior. Correlational results showed that online apparel shopping correlates negatively with self-esteem, and positively with appearance attitudes and self-objectification. During a simulated online shopping activity, women who were exposed to a body-focused activewear website felt worse than usual about their looks, when compared to women who were exposed to a non-body focused casualwear website. Unexpectedly, exposure to the activewear website primed lower body gaze towards subsequent images of partially and fully clothed women. Furthermore, gaze behavior did not significantly correlate with any of the other measures. Given that women have a natural tendency to gaze at faces, the deprivation of facial stimuli in the activewear condition presumably led to a compensatory gaze effect, whereby subsequent attention toward bodies was comparably low, possibly as a protective mechanism. These results suggest potential implications of short- and long-term exposure to online apparel imagery, as well as highlighting the complexity of interpreting female gaze behavior.

Cohort Differences and Similarities in Women's Attitudes About Self and Aging

This panel focuses on four complementing and international views of women’s aging, with a special emphasis on cohort comparisons and using three different studies of women, with contrasting methodological frameworks. In so doing, we present evidence related to trends in social percepetions of aging, attitudes about aging and identity, and ideas about control and objectification. Dr. Newton presents data on older Canadian women showing the connection between physical aging and identity maintenance, using both qualitative and quantitative data and using the lifecourse perspective. Dr. Ryan, using data from the Health and Retirement Study to compare cohorts of women from the 2008 and 2018 HRS waves, reports cohort differences in negative self-perceptions of aging, and that both cohort and negative self-perfections are associated with life satisfaction, using the life course developmental framework. Ms. Tran compares younger and older cohorts of women on a measure of self-objectification, finding that the older cohort reported lower objectification, consistent with a selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC) model. Finally, Dr. Sherman, using the same data set as Ms. Tran, shows that control beliefs are associated with objectification, regardless of cohort, consistent with objectification theory predictions of consistency over time regarding the impact of objectification experiences. Dr. Jamila Bookwala will provide discussion of this group of papers.

Control Beliefs, Age, and Objectification Experiences in Younger and Older Women

Control beliefs show age-related patterns; mastery decreases in adulthood, while constraints beliefs often increase. However, there is a great deal of individual variation. This paper addresses antecedents of control beliefs, with attention to experiences and beliefs related to sexual objectification, which have particular impact for women. In this study, younger women (N = 132, M = 20.93) and older women (N = 86, M = 67.83) were surveyed regarding their experiences with sexual objectification and constraints beliefs. Multiple regression analyses revealed higher self-objectification was associated with higher constraints (R2 = .09**) and lower mastery (R2 = .11**) but reports of body evaluation and sexual advances were not associated with control beliefs. Further, there were no interactions of either objectification scale with age. These results suggest that objectification may be an important part of the aging experience across the life course, not just in young adulthood.

Cohort Differences in Self-Objectification

Sexual objectification socializes women to engage in self-objectification—the tendency to view one’s body as an object to be used by others and evaluating one’s value in terms of attractiveness to others (Noll & Fredrickson, 1998)—and leads to negative psychological consequences. As women age, their bodies move further away from the thin ideal (Guo, Zeller, Chumlea, & Siervogel; 1999) potentially making them more susceptible to body i concerns and dissatisfaction. However, may also begin using selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC) strategies, countering the impacts of sexual objectification, and promoting successful aging. We compared self-objectification between women in early adulthood (N = 132, M = 20.93) and women in late middle age or late adulthood (N = 86, M = 67.83). Results showed that older women had significantly lower levels of self-objectification than younger women. Our findings support the idea the SOC strategies protect against the consequences of sexual objectification.