Women’s revealing Halloween costumes: other-objectification and sexualization

Lennon et al. Fash Text (2016) 3:21 DOI 10.1186/s40691-016-0073-x Open Access RESEARCH Women’s revealing Halloween costumes: other‑objectification and sexualization Sharron J. Lennon*, Zhiying Zheng and Aziz Fatnassi *Correspondence: Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA Abstract Women are depicted in revealing dress in the media and the depictions have costs such as objectification. Objectification theory explains that women in Westernized cultures are looked at, evaluated, and potentially objectified by others. Accordingly, objectifying gaze (by others) evokes self-objectification which has effects such as habitual body and appearance monitoring. According to the theory being objectified by others precedes self-objectification, which suggests that objectification by others could be more prevalent than self-objectification and potentially just as harmful. Researchers have found that self-objectification and other-objectification can be induced by revealing dress manipulations that vary in tightness or body coverage. We studied Halloween costumes as a site for objectification of others. In Study 1, 124 pairs of men’s and women’s Halloween costumes were content analyzed. Women’s costumes were significantly more revealing than men’s in tightness and body coverage. Since sexual objectification in the media is assessed by the presence of revealing dress in media depictions, we reasoned that women’s revealing Halloween costumes could be sexually objectifying. In Study 2, 295 participants rated women wearing revealing or non-revealing costumes in an online experiment. Women wearing revealing costumes were sexually objectified by participants. Although men rated costumed women higher on the sexually objectifying traits than women, both men and women objectified the costumed women in the revealing dress condition. Dress researchers may wish to apply objectification theory to re-interpret and explain early research on revealing dress. Introduction Women and girls are depicted in revealing dress in the media and the depictions and their consequences have been studied by researchers from a variety of disciplines (Aubrey, Hopper, & Mbure, 2011; Goodin, Van Denburg, Murnen, & Smolak, 2011; Graff, Murnen, & Krause, 2013). According to the report from the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls (APA 2007) one such consequence is sexualization. The report holds that sexualization occurs (a) if someone’s value is based on her sexual appeal, to the exclusion of other aspects; (b) if someone is considered sexy only if she achieves a narrowly defined rigid standard of physical attractiveness; (c) if someone is sexually objectified (by others), a thing for the sexual use of others rather than being an independent decision-maker; or (d) if sexuality is forced on a person (by another person). In the report evidence is provided of cultural contributions to sexualization, which includes © 2016 The Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Lennon et al. Fash Text (2016) 3:21 research that has focused on a variety of media including movies, magazines, consumer products, cosmetics, and clothing. In fact, research demonstrates that in US culture it is common for women to be sexually objectified by others or valued as a function of their sexual appeal and this is evident in various types of media (Aubrey, 2006; Graff et al., 2013; Vandenbosch, Vervloessen, & Eggermont, 2013). Objectification is harmful to the objectifying person (Aubrey et al., 2011; Johnson, McCreary, & Mills, 2007; Zurbriggen, Ramsey, & Jaworski, 2011), as well as to the individual being objectified (Frederickson, Roberts, Noll, Quinn, & Twenge, 1998; Hebl, King, & Lin, 2004). Many researchers have studied objectification of others as a function of those others’ revealing dress (Graff, Murnen, & Smolak, 2012; Gurung & Chrouser, 2007; Loughnan et al., 2010; Loughnan, Pina, Vasquez, & Puvia, 2013; Nezlek, Krohn, Wilson, & Marusken, 2015). These researchers found that perceivers objectify others who are wearing revealing clothing. Hence, revealing clothing is implicated in objectification of others. There are many occasions in contemporary life where women and sometimes men wear revealing clothing in public venues, such as at swimming pools or beaches, at health clubs and gyms, on New Year’s Eve, and on Halloween. Although published academic research has not investigated the revealing nature of women’s Halloween costumes, the topic has received notice in the popular press (LaBarre, n.d.; Mayer, 2014; Rosenbloom, 2006; Sharry, 2012). Mayer reports that the only choice women have when purchasing commercial Halloween costumes is sexy, which is code for short, tight, and skimpy and hence revealing. In the current research we studied Halloween costumes as a context for sexualization. The purpose of this research was (a) to investigate the extent to which Halloween costumes are gendered in terms of their revealing nature and (b) to investigate the extent to which women wearing revealing Halloween costumes are sexually objectified by others, both men and women. Literature review Objectification theory Objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) offers a framework for understanding the relationship between revealing dress and sexual objectification or SO. The theory was developed to outline the consequences of being female in cultures that sexually objectify women and girls. The authors explain that women in sexually saturated cultures are gazed at, evaluated, and potentially objectified by others. According to the theory, women are objectified by others (i.e., experience objectifying gaze) in three ways: in social interactions (e.g., visual inspection, experiencing catcalls), in media depictions of social interactions, and in media depictions of bodies and body parts. Furthermore, being objectified by another person (other-objectification) is thought to lead to an objectified state of consciousness (i.e., self-objectification) which influences self-perceptions and perceptions of others. In other words, objectification by others (other-objectification) is thought to lead to self-objectification. According to the theory, women and girls are socialized to internalize an outsider’s perspective on their bodies (self-objectify) partly because they are targets of others’ objectification (i.e., the objectifying gaze). Self-objectification has consequences such as continual body and appearance monitoring and requires cognitive attention that can Page 2 of 19 Lennon et al. Fash Text (2016) 3:21 interfere with task performance. According to the theory (...truncated)