Abstract
Using Sarah Palin’s candidacy for the vice-presidency, Heflick and Goldenberg (2011) empirically link female sexual objectification with the negative perceptions and poor performances of female candidates. We argue that the authors undersell the importance of their findings, especially considering shifts in the content and ubiquitousness of mass media. Advances in communication technologies have enabled a new era of objectification, marked by an increasing presence and acceptance of sexual objectification in media, greater pornographic content in mainstream media, and greater acceptance of pornography in U.S. society more broadly. In the years since U.S. scholars began critiquing sexual objectification, its normalization and degree of penetration into our daily lives have increased, largely due to a proliferation of marketing and entertainment media images enabled by the Internet and other communication technology. Given this new era of objectification, we conclude that the phenomenon identified by Heflick and Goldenberg is more likely to influence the success of female politicians now than it was in the 1970s (when the sexual objectification of women was first problematized) and that it may also help explain the recent stagnation in U.S. progress towards gender equity in political representation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abrams, D. (2007, September 25). Congress examines hip-hop language. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-09-25-hip-hopcongress_n.htm?loc=interstitialskip.
Adler, A. M. (2008). All porn all the time. New York University Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers (Paper 67). Retrieved from http://ecmappdlv03.law.nyu.edu/ecm_dlv3/groups/public/@nyu_law_website__journals__review_of_law_and_social_change/documents/documents/ecm_pro_063989.pdf
Alfonso, R., & Trigilio, J. (1997). Surfing the third-wave: A dialogue between two third-wave feminists. Hypatia, 12, 7–16.
American Psychological Association, Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls (2010). Report of the APA task force on the sexualization of girls. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/girls/report-full.pdf.
American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (2009). Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.surgery.org/media/statistics.
Barron, M., & Kimmel, M. S. (2000). Sexual violence in three pornographic media: Toward a sociological explanation. Journal of Sex Research, 37, 161–169.
Behm-Morawitz, E., & Mastro, D. (2009). The effects of the sexualization of female video game characters on gender stereotyping and female self-concept. Sex Roles, 61, 808–823.
Bennett, L., & Entman, R. (2001). Mediated politics: Communication in the future of democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Blackman, C. (2010, February 25). Can avatars change the way we think and act? Retrieved from http://vhil.stanford.edu/news/2010/stanford-avatars-think.pdf.
Bucholtz, M. (2008, Winter). Gender, consumption, and interaction among American youth. Revista de Sociolingüística, 1–8. Retrieved from http://www6.gencat.net/llengcat/noves/hm08hivern/docs/bucholtz.pdf.
Burrell, B. (1994). A woman’s place is in the house. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Burrell, B. (1998). Campaign finance: Women’s experience in the modern era. In S. Thomas & C. Wilcox (Eds.), Women and elective office: Past, present, and future (pp. 26–37). New York: Oxford University Press.
Bystrom, D. G., Banwart, M. C., Kaid, L. K., & Robertson, T. A. (2004). Gender and candidate communication: Videostyle, webstyle, newstyle. New York: Routledge.
Carroll, S. J., & Jenkins, K. (2001, August–September). Increasing diversity or more of the same? Term limits and the representation of women, minorities, and minority women in the state legislatures. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, San Francisco.
Carroll, J. S., Padilla-Walker, L. M., Nelson, L. J., Oldon, C. D., McNamara Barry, C., & Madsen, S. D. (2008). Generation XXX: Pornography acceptance and use among emerging adults. Journal of Adolescent Research, 23, 6–30.
Castells, M. (2001). The internet galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, business, and society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Center for American Women and Politics (2010a). Women in the U.S. congress 2010. Retrieved from http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/fast_facts/levels_of_office/documents/cong.pdf.
Center for American Women and Politics (2010b). Women serving in the 111th congress: 2009–11. Retrieved from http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/fast_facts/levels_of_office/Congress-Current.php.
Center for American Women and Politics (2010c). Statewide elective executive women: 1969–2007. Retrieved from http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/research/information_by_level_of_office/documents/stwide07.pdf.
Centre for International Communications Research (2008). Socialisation of global sexually explicit imagery: Challenges to regulation and research. Retrieved from http://sgsei.wordpress.com/.
Coffman, K. G., & Odlyzko, A. M. (1998). Growth of the internet. In I. P. Kaminow & T. Li (Eds.), Optical fiber telecommunications IV: B systems and impairments (Vol. 2, pp. 17–56). New York: Elsevier.
Cosper, D. (1997). Shock value. Print, 51, 38–40.
Crerand, C., & Sarwer, D. B. (2010). Cosmetic treatment and body dysmorphic disorder. Psychiatric Annals, 40, 344–348.
Cross, G. (2000). An all-consuming century: Why commercialism won in modern America. New York: Columbia University Press.
Dahl, D. W., Frankenberger, K. D., & Manchanda, R. V. (2003). Does it pay to shock? Reactions to shocking and nonshocking advertising content among university students. Journal of Advertising Research, 43, 268–280.
Deutsch, N. L. & Theodorou, E. (2009). Aspiring, consuming, becoming: Youth identity in a culture of consumption. Youth and society. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/0044118X09351279
Devitt, J. (1999). Framing gender on the campaign trail: Women’s executive leadership and the press. Retrieved from http://198.65.255.167/v2/researchandreports/framinggender/Framing_Gender_Report.pdf.
Duerst-Lahti, G. (1998). The bottleneck, women as candidates. In S. Thomas & C. Wilcox (Eds.), Women and elective office (pp. 15–25). New York: Oxford University Press.
Dworkin, A. (1981). Pornography: Men possessing women. New York: Dutton.
Eagly, A. H., & Carli, L. L. (2007). Women and the labyrinth of leadership. Harvard Business Review, 85, 63.
Esch, K., & Mayer, V. (2007). How unprofessional: The profitable partnership of amateur porn and celebrity culture. In K. Nikunen, S. Paasonen, & L. Saarenmaa (Eds.), Pornification: Sex and sexuality in media culture (pp. 99–111). New York: Berg.
Faludi, S. (1991). Backlash: The undeclared war against American women. New York: Random House.
Farrar-Myers, V. (2007). Money and the art and science of candidate viability. In L. Han & C. Heldman (Eds.), Rethinking madame president: Are we ready for a woman in the white house? (pp. 113–132). Boulder: Lynne Rienner.
Ferriss, S., & Young, M. (2010). Marie Antoinette: Fashion, third-wave feminism, and chick culture. Literature Film Quarterly, 38, 98–116.
Fisher, D., Hill, D. L., Grube, J. W., & Gruber, E. L. (2004, December). Sex on American television: An analysis across program genres and network types. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 48, 529–553.
Ford, J. B., Latour, M. S., & Lundstrom, W. J. (1991). Contemporary women’s evaluation of female role portrayals in advertising. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 8, 15–27.
Fox, R. L., Lawless, J. L., & Feeley, C. (2001). Gender and the decision to run for office. Legislative Studies Quarterly, 26, 411–435.
Fredrickson, B. L., & Roberts, T. A. (1997). Objectification theory: Toward understanding women’s lived experiences and mental health risks. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 173–206.
Gilmartin, P. (2001). Still the angel in the household: Political cartoons of Elizabeth Dole’s presidential campaign. Women and Politics, 22, 51–68.
Goldberg, M. (2001, January 8). Feminism for sale. Alternet. Retrieved from http://www.alternet.org/story/10306/.
Greenberg, B. S., & Busselle, R. W. (1994). Soap operas and sexual activity. Menlo Park: Kaiser Family Foundation.
Hallerman, D. (2007). U.S. advertising spending. Retrieved from http://www.emarketer.com/Report.aspx?code=emarketer_2000442.
Hamilton, L. (2007). Trading on heterosexuality: College women’s gender strategies and homophobia. Gender & Society, 21, 145–172.
Heflick, N. A., & Goldenberg, J. L. (2010). Sarah Palin, a nation object(ifie)s: The role of appearance focus in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Sex Roles, this issue. doi:10.1007/s11199-010-9901-4
Heldman, C. (2008). Cultural barriers to a female presidency in the U.S. In L. Han & C. Heldman (Eds.), Rethinking madame president: Are we ready for a woman in the white house? (pp. 17–42). Boulder: Lynne Rienner.
Heldman, C., & Cahill, M. (2007, March). The beast of beauty culture: The political effects of self-objectification. Annual Meeting of the Western Political Science Association, Las Vegas, Nevada.
Heldman, C., Carroll, S. J., & Olson, S. (2005). She brought only a skirt: Print media coverage of Elizabeth Dole’s bid for the republican nomination. Political Communication, 22, 315–335.
Heldman, C., Oliver, S., & Conroy, M. (2009, September). From Ferraro to Palin: Sexism in media coverage of vice presidential candidates. Paper presented at the American Political Science Association conference, Ontario, Canada.
Hogeland, L. M. (2001). Against generational thinking, or, some things that ‘third wave’ feminism isn’t. Women’s Studies in Communication, 24, 107–121.
Internet World Stats (2011). Usage and population statistics. Retrieved from http://www.internetworldstats.com/.
Ivory, J. D. (2006). Still a man’s game: Gender representation in online review of video games. Mass Community & Society, 9, 103–114.
Jhally, S. (2000). Advertising at the edge of the apocalypse. In R. Anderson & L. Strate (Eds.), Critical studies in media commercialism (pp. 27–39). New York: Oxford University Press.
Kahn, K. F. (1996). The political consequences of being a woman: How stereotypes influence the conduct and consequences of political campaigns. New York: Columbia University Press.
Kaiser Family Foundation (2002). Teens say sex on TV influences behavior of peers [press release], Retrieved from http://www.kff.org/entmedia/loader.cfm?url=/commonspot/security/getfile.cfm&PageID=14062.
Karp, M., & Stoller, D. (1999). The bust guide to the new girl order. New York: Penguin.
Kennedy, P. (2008, June 8). Craft addicts: Do online games trigger a new psychiatric disorder? Retrieved from http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/06/08/craft_addicts/?page=1.
Keveney, B. (2001, February 7). There’s more sex on TV, but little about risks. USA Today, p. 6D.
Kilbourne, J. (2010). Bitch podcast. Retrieved from http://bitchmagazine.org/post/mad-world-the-podcast.
Kistler, M. E., & Lee, M. J. (2009). Does exposure to sexual hip-hop music videos influence the sexual attitudes of college students? Mass Communication & Society, 13, 67–86.
Kunkel, D., Cope, K. M., & Colvin, C. (1996). Sexual messages on family hour television: Content and context. Oakland: Children Now and Kaiser Family Foundation.
Lawless, J., & Fox, R. (2006). It takes a candidate: Why women don’t run for office. Oxford: Cambridge University Press.
Lawless, J. (2010, November 3). NOT the “year of the woman.” Retrieved from http://www.doublex.com/blog/xxfactor/not-year-woman.
Levy, A. (2005). Female chauvinist pigs: Women and the rise of raunch culture. Melbourne: Schwartz.
MacKinnon, C. (1979). Sexual harassment of working women: A case of sex discrimination. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Media Awareness Network (2005). Young Canadians in a wired world—Phase II overview. Retrieved from http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/research/YCWW/phaseII/.
Media Matters (2007, October 3). From cleavage to “cackle”? Media find new focus in coverage of Hillary Clinton. Retrieved from http://mediamatters.org/research/200710040003.
Miller, M. K., & Summers, A. (2007). Gender differences in video game characters’ roles, appearances, and attire as portrayed in video game magazines. Sex Roles, 57, 733–742.
Montgomery, K. (2007). Generation digital: Politics, commerce, and childhood in the age of the Internet. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Mosher, W., Chandra, A., & Jones, J. (2005). Sexual behavior and selected health measures: Men and women 15–44 years of age, United States. Advance Data, 362, 1–55.
Munford, R. (2007). “Wake up and smell the lipgloss”: Gender, generation and the (a)politics of girl power. In S. Gillis, G. Howie, & R. Munford (Eds.), Third wave feminism: A critical exploration (pp. 266–279). New York: Macmillan.
Neilsenwire (2009, July 6). Video game engagement at an all-time high during recession. Retrieved from http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/media_entertainment/video-game-engagement-at-all-time-high-during-recession/.
Nielsen (2010a). Mobile snapshot: Smartphones now 28% of U.S. cellphone market. Retrieved from http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/mobile-snapshot-smartphones-now-28-of-u-s-cellphone-market/.
Nielsen (2010b). Smartphones to overtake feature phones in U.S. by 2011. Retrieved from http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/smartphones-to-overtake-feature-phones-in-u-s-by-2011/.
Nikunen, K., Paasonen, S., & Saarenmaa, L. (2007). Pornification: Sex and sexuality in media culture. New York: Berg.
Pardun, C. J., L’Engle, K. L., & Brown, J. D. (2005). Linking exposures to outcomes: Early adolescents’ consumption of sexual content in six media. Mass Communication & Society, 8, 75–91.
Parents Television Council (2010, December). Sexualized teen girls: Tinseltown’s new target. Parents Television Council Special Report, Retrieved from http://www.parentstv.org/FemaleSexualization/Study/Sexualized_Teen_Girls.pdf.
Paul, P. (2005). Pornified: How pornography is transforming our lives, our relationships, and our families. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
Pew Internet and American Life Project (2009). Wireless Internet use. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/∼/media//Files/Reports/2009/Wireless-Internet-Use-With-Topline.pdf.
Pew Internet and American Life Project (2010). Teens and mobile phones. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/∼/media//Files/Reports/2010/PIP-Teens-and-Mobile-2010-with-topline.pdf.
Potter, J. W. (2004). Theory of media literacy: A cognitive approach (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Reichert, T., & Carpenter, C. (2004). An update on sex in magazine advertising: 1983 To 2003. Journalism &Mass Communication Quarterly, 81, 823–837.
Rideout, V. (2010). Generation M2: Media in the lives of 8- to 18-year olds. Retrieved from http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/8010.pdf.
Ropelato, J. (2005). Internet pornography statistics. Retrieved from http://internet-filter-review.toptenreviews.com/internet-pornography-statistics-pg9.html.
Sanbonmatsu, K. (2002). Political parties and the recruitment of women to state legislatures. The Journal of Politics, 64, 791–809.
Sarracino, C., & Scott, K. M. (2008). The porning of America: The rise of porn culture, what it means, and where we go from here. Boston: Beacon.
Scanlon, J. (2009). Sexy from the start: Anticipatory elements of second wave feminism. Women’s Studies, 38, 127–150.
Showden, C. (2009). What’s political about the new feminisms? Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies, 30, 166–198.
Silverblatt, A., Ferry, J., & Finan, B. (2009). Approaches to media literacy: A handbook. New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.
Snyder, C. (2008). What is third-wave feminism? A new directions essay. Signs: A Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 34, 175–196.
Story, L. (2007, January 15). Anywhere the eye can see, it’s likely to see an ad. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/business/media/15everywhere.html.
Strauss, G. (2010, January 20). Sex on TV: It’s increasingly uncut—and unavoidable. USA Today. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2010-01-20-sexcov20_CV_N.htm.
The Project for Excellence in Journalism (2009). The state of the news media: An annual report on American journalism. Retrieved from http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2010/overview_key_findings.php.
U.S. Census (1999). Computer use in the United States: Population characteristics. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/prod/99pubs/p20-522.pdf.
U.S. Census (2009a). Households with a computer and Internet use: 1984 to 2009. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/computer.html.
U.S. Census (2009b). Homes with cell phones nearly double in first half of decade. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/income_wealth/cb09-174.html.
U.S. Department of Commerce (2010). Exploring the digital nation: Home broadband Internet adoption in the United States. Retrieved from http://www.ntia.doc.gov/reports/2010/ESA_NTIA_US_Broadband_Adoption_Report_11082010.pdf.
U.S. Department of Labor (1999, Summer). Computer ownership up sharply in 1990s. Issues in Labor Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/opub/ils/pdf/opbils31.pdf.
Vagnoni, A. (1999, February 8). Something about this advertising. Advertising Age, 30.
Wald, M. L. (1999, January 27). Shock to replace dummies in TV ads on seat belt use. New York Times, p. 12.
Walker, R. (1995). To be real: Telling the truth and changing the face of feminism. New York: Anchor Books.
Weaving, C. (2002). Like beauty, exploitation is in the eye of the beholder: An examination of women Olympic athletes posing nude. Sixth international symposium for Olympic research, 209–216. Retrieved from http://www.aafla.org/SportsLibrary/ISOR/ISOR2002za.pdf.
Yao, M. Z., Mahood, C., & Linz, D. (2010). Sexual priming, gender stereotyping, and likelihood to sexually harass: Examining the cognitive effects of playing a sexually-explicit video game. Sex Roles, 61, 77–88.
Yu, S. L. (2009). Third-wave feminism: A transnational perspective. Asian Journal of Women’s Studies, 15, 7–25.
Zimmerman, A., & Dahlberg, J. (2008). The sexual objectification of women in advertising: A contemporary cultural perspective. Journal of Advertising Research, 48, 71–79.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Heldman, C., Wade, L. Sexualizing Sarah Palin. Sex Roles 65, 156–164 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-011-9984-6
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-011-9984-6