2015 Association for Women in Psychology Conference

Objectification theory posits the objectification of women by their culture leads to a mental separation of the woman from her body, creating self-valuation tied closely to societal ideals (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997; Stratemeyer, 2012). A variety of mental health issues have arisen from women's experience of objectification (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). Objectification also negatively impacts women's interpersonal relationships (Daniels & Zurbriggen, 2014) and leads to increased violence against women (Stratemeyer, 2014). This symposium presents three perspectives on the application of restorative justice to women’s objectification. A restorative justice approach is more humanistic in nature focusing on victim-centered reparations and often includes community involvement (van Wormer, 2009). Several considerations will be reviewed regarding the way objectification of women has been perpetuated through US culture. These considerations may provide a pathway to social justice by deconstructing women's objectification experiences and initiating opportunities for community healing. The current considerations include objectification of women in Christian purity culture, social media as perpetuating objectification and sister relationships as a potential mitigating factor for adolescent girls’ experience of objectification. We intend to focus on the way women are impacted by objectification as it intersects with religiosity, social media, and sibling relationships separately. Our presentation will focus on literature surrounding these topics and the ways current research can be applied to working with women dealing with intrapersonal and interpersonal consequences of objectification. The purpose of this symposium is to initiate a conversation regarding contemporary factors related to objectification of women with a focus on restorative justice. References Daniels, E.A., & Zurbriggen, E.L. (2014). The price of sexy: Viewers' perceptions of a sexualized versus nonsexualized Facebook profile photograph. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, advanced online publication. doi: 10.1037/ppmm0000048 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. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-6402.1997.tb00108.x Stratemeyer, M. (2014). "Here's looking at you": Psychological perspectives on sexual objectification. Issues, 107, 24-26. van Wormer, K. (2009). Restorative justice as social justice for victims of gendered violence: A standpoint feminist perspective. Social Work, 54(2), 107-116.

As evidenced by recent attention from the press, questions around institutional policy, and public outcry, politics regarding sexual violence have become particularly pertinent within Western culture. These articulations play out across an array of discourses, including media landscapes. Drawing from popular culture and contemporary literature, television, and film, the papers in this symposium will utilize feminist frameworks to delineate how our society understands and reacts to sexual violence. This symposium serves to ask: Where and how do we learn about sexual violence? Why do media outlets so often romanticize and glorify abusive relationships? What are the implications of consuming these problematic media images? Both presenters will extrapolate from their continued research on rape culture to analyze the real-world impact of these media depictions. The specific and insidious abusive links within several popular television series and novels, among them Scandal, Game of Thrones, Twilight, and 50 Shades of Grey, are analyzed. The presenters assert that the marketing and development of these media series suggest that abuse is acceptable and favorable, and that rape serves to function primarily as a plot device. Norms of masculinity, femininity, and heterosexuality all play a role in constructing images of victims and abusers, “good girls” and “bad girls”, and notions of true love. Furthermore, these portrayals contribute to the existence and proliferation of rape culture. The presenters find that these media examples actively harm individual consumers and inspire the creation of similarly problematic media-- an effect which is exacerbated when that content is disseminated across the globe. Additionally, the presenters bring an activist dimension to their work by including victims’ words and experiences, and by confronting the culture of silence that surrounds sexualized harm. This symposium strives to cultivate new directions for feminist social justice efforts, particularly in approaches to rape, resistance, prevention, violence, and victimhood.

The sexual domain is an essential space for justice researchers to consider – not only to understand how sexual relationships serve as sites of violence and conflict, but additionally, how sexual relationships reflect adaptions to and normalizations of inequality. This symposium offers three perspectives on working with justice theories to “enliven” key concepts in sexuality research. The three papers each take up a key concept – choice, empowerment, and satisfaction – and use a range of theoretical and empirical work to assess how previous conceptualizations have overlooked how entitlement and deservingness shape individuals’ sexual lives. The three papers each address how gender shapes sexual entitlement as well as how feminist psychological research plays an essential role in understanding experiences of normalized injustices in intimate relationships. The first paper examines the concept of “choice” in sexuality research and analyzes interviews with a sample of racially and ethnically diverse girls about their experiences with providing oral sex in heterosexual sexual encounters. The second paper takes us to the concept of “empowerment” and argues that an intervention into discussions of female empowerment must more carefully consider the role of sexual embodiment in order to more fully articulate what exactly one is empowered to do, be, or feel. Lastly, the third paper makes a theoretical and empirical argument that studies of “sexual satisfaction” do not sufficiently consider the ways in which individuals are socialized to feel entitled (or un-entitled) to feel sexually satisfied. Drawing on a mixed methods study of individuals’ definitions of satisfaction, this paper argues that feminist psychology must more systematically link examinations of satisfaction with deservingness.