The Effects of Sexualized versus Performance Images of Female Athletes on Self-objectification

Self-objectification theory (SO) suggests that through the internalization of societal standards of beauty, women begin to view themselves as objects for the purpose of others’ gratification rather than a person with physical capabilities. The present study focused on addressing methodological issues of previous research exploring SO and reproducing findings that suggest sexualized images of female athletes led to higher levels of state SO in college women than performance images. It was also intended to determine whether levels of state SO in college women mediated the relationship between type of female-athlete image exposure and exercise behaviors, specifically, preference of exercise locale. Results did not support previous findings, as women exposed to performance and sexualized images focused on physical competence equally, and women exposed to sexualized images self-objectified marginally more than women exposed to performance images of athletes. The inclusion of an exploratory measure of state SO (the amount of self-reflection on appearance relative to physical competencies) demonstrated that women exposed to sexualized images self-reflected on appearance relative to physicality in greater proportions than women exposed to performance images. Implications of these contradictory findings and limitations of this study are also discussed.