Women's bodies affect Men's self-esteem too

 WARNING

 

While going through my typical and redundant social media participation this week, I discovered a Russian freelance photographer by the name of Fedor Shmidt. His photography could be considered promiscuous, even pornographic, since the images he produces depict women scarcely dressed or nude. Though the majority of the images themselves do not portray explicitly sexual acts they do exude sexuality and insinuate that sexual activities occur within the frame. Although sexual depictions of women are rampant in society I am not convinced that the female subjects’ biological sex neglects to negatively impact the male population. 

After reading Jennifer Stevens Aubrey and Laramie D. Taylor’s article on the role that Lad magazine plays in effecting men’s body image, I was interested in investigating further the effects that objectifying images of women have on men. Similar to Aubrey and Taylor’s results, Johnson and colleagues found that men who were exposed to female objectified images possessed greater levels of anxiety than those exposed to objectified male or neutral media images (Johnson et al., 2007). These findings lead me to believe that Shmidt’s photographs may not only sexually arouse male onlookers, but may also instigate anxieties and dissatisfaction regarding their own bodies. 

                                                    

I find it interesting that the objectification of the opposite sex can influence the self-perception of men but that the objectification of men does not seem to greatly influence their body image perceptions. Though my thoughts are not conclusive, it is possible that men feel they need to adhere to a certain appearance standard that will yield positive evaluations by others; that other, being an attractive and sexual female. In other words, maybe a objectifying image of a female primes men to think about what the ideal women desires in an ideal man. Because we live in a heterosexually normative society it is possible that men do not feel pressured to look like the men they see in the media when they consume objectified male images because images of men do not prime sexually primitive thoughts of intercourse. On the contrary, sexual images of women may activate thoughts of desired intimacy which may consequently influence men's self-esteem by causing them to self-scrutinize. Shmidt’s photography is particularly interesting in this way because often he incorporates himself into the images by sexually interacting with the females. Though Shmidt may not independently affect men’s self-esteem he may trigger anxiety because he is shown in relation to sexual females.

 

These studies reveal the negative impacts that the objectification of women has on society as a whole. Sexual images of females are rampant in society, as seen in Fedor Shmidt’s photos, but it seems that men and women have not been completely desensitized by them; though their presence may seem normal they continue to impact emotional wellbeing of society. The practice of objectifying women in the media is therefore not only a women’s issue but a human issue because it negatively influences both males and females. As these emotional implications show, we are not all that different from one another and I therefore conclude that it is time that men and women stop promoting this objectification by consuming media that contains it and that they unitedly acknowledge and treat this issue as social problem instead of simply a gender related one.

Resources

Aubrey, J. S., & Taylor, L. D. (2009). The Role of Lad Magazines in Priming Men’s Chronic and Temporary Appearance‐Related Schemata: An Investigation of Longitudinal and Experimental Findings. Human Communication Research, 35(1), 28-58.

Johnson, P. J., McCreary, D. R., & Mills, J. S. (2007). Effects of exposure to objectified male and female media images on men's psychological well-being. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 8(2), 95.