Objectification, exercise, feminism, and health-related quality of life among women

The unique experiences and gender socialization of women and girls has been extensively researched. Objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) proposes that women’s body evaluation and norms stem from the Westernized culture milieu of sexually objectifying women’s bodies. Self-objectification occurs when women internalize society's standards that their bodies are sexual objects, and in turn they treat their body as an object to be scrutinized and evaluated. When women internalize the outsider’s perspective (e.g. self-objectify) and increase surveillance over their body and appearance, some experience greater appearance anxiety and lower body-esteem and self-esteem. Previous research has focused on how self-objectification hinders women’s experiences and performance, and there is a need for research on what may protect women from the negative psychological effects of society’s sexual objectification. In this study, reasons for exercise and feminist identity are two areas that are explored as mechanisms of protection from the negative psychological health that often results from self-objectification. This study used a diverse nationwide sample of women, as current literature on objectification is largely composed of White, college-educated, women. Major findings indicate that women of diverse backgrounds experience self-objectification and this is associated with their health-related quality of life (QOL). Reasons for exercise and feminist identity were not found to moderate the relationship between self-objectification and health-related QOL, but adherence to feminine norms was associated with health-related QOL. This study offers new findings for how self-objectification affects women of diverse groups, as well as implications for what may counteract and protect women of diverse backgrounds from the psychological harm of objectification.