Study says that women in the media are often portrayed in overtly sexual – even "pornified" ways, and its getting worse -

Study says that women in the media are often portrayed in overtly sexual – even "pornified" ways, and its getting worse - 

A study from the University of Buffalo has suggested that women in the media are often portrayed in overtly sexual – even "pornified" ways – and it's gotten more obvious over the past few decades. Men, on the other hand, are not as intensely, or as often, portrayed as sex objects.

Though this may not come as a surprise to most readers, it is problematic. Study authors Erin Hatton, PhD, and Mary Nell Trautner, PhD, assert that exposure to such images can be cause for concern.

"We don't necessarily think it's problematic for women to be portrayed as 'sexy,'" Hatton stated in a news release about the study findings. "But we do think it is problematic when nearly all images of women depict them not simply as 'sexy women'; but as passive objects for someone else's sexual pleasure."

Hatton and Trautner came to these conclusions after analyzing 43 years of Rolling Stone covers, totaling more than 1,000 images. They gave each image "points" on a "scale of sexualization." For example, points would be allotted if "the subject's lips were parted or his/her tongue was showing, the subject was only partially clad or naked, or the text describing the subject used explicitly sexual language," according to reports.

They found that in the 1960s, 44 percent of women and 11 percent of men were sexualized on the magazine covers. Flash forward 40 years and the figures are even more startling: In the 2000s, 83 percent of women and 17 percent of men were depicted in a hyper sexualized way.

What makes these figures so scary is that the study authors have correlated the sexy images with violence.

"Sexualized portrayals of women have been found to legitimize or exacerbate violence against women and girls, as well as sexual harassment and anti-women attitudes among men and boys," Hatton said in a news release. "Such images also have been shown to increase rates of body dissatisfaction and/or eating disorders among men, women and girls; and they have even been shown to decrease sexual satisfaction among both men and women."

Body image and style blogger Sally McGraw contends that the damage these images can do also extends beyond one's physical self.

"As this study points out, portraying women as sexy or sexual isn't inherently problematic. But creating a visual environment in which images of women's bodies are, essentially, meant to represent the sex act itself is both problematic and alarming. Women are human beings, and to transform them into passive symbols for sex is dehumanizing, objectifying and insulting," McGraw said in an email. 

"This trend directly impacts how women feel about, treat, and dress their bodies. Most images representing socially-sanctioned female beauty already show bodies and faces so retouched as to be virtually impossible in nature. When those retouched images are then hypersexualized, observing women feel tremendous pressure to look, behave, and feel like what they're seeing in the photos. And when they can't live up to those standards, a cycle of self-loathing begins."

Read more: http://www.myfoxla.com/dpps/news/study-sexualized-images-of-women-more-common-dpgoha-20110816-fc_14583419#ixzz1VCqkPSdQ