What Are the Consequences of Gender Stereotypes in the Media?
The American Psychological Association recently released a report about the effects of chronic exposure to images of women and girls in the mass media as objectified. They report on the large body of research that illustrates that, for women and young girls, exposure to objectified females was associated with lower self esteem, depression, shame, eating disorders, and to sexuality and body image issues. So, what are the consequences on males of seeing women in the media as sex objects? Generally, this type of exposure is associated with a wide range of frightening effects: Studies show that men find their own partners less physically attractive and endorse more stereotyped sex roles. In a recent study, young men who saw these stereotypical videogame women were found to be more accepting of sexual harassment than men who had seen professional women. In contrast, women were less accepting of sexual harassment towards women. If anything, they were slightly less tolerant after seeing stere
