Abstract
Benevolent sexism has been shown to have negative consequences for women. In the present study, we investigated whether there were differences in reports of body self-perceptions between 93 college women in the southeastern United States who either witnessed or did not witness a staged act of benevolent sexism. Because we believed that benevolent sexism could make beauty norms more salient, we hypothesized that women who witnessed benevolent sexism would report higher levels of self-objectification, body surveillance, and body shame. Women who witnessed benevolent sexism did report higher levels of surveillance and shame, constructs associated with self-objectification, but not higher general levels of self-objectification. This research provides more evidence of the negative effects benevolent sexism has on women.
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Shepherd, M., Erchull, M.J., Rosner, A. et al. “I’ll Get That for You”: The Relationship Between Benevolent Sexism and Body Self-Perceptions. Sex Roles 64, 1–8 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-010-9859-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-010-9859-2