Thu, 11/16: 3:30 PM - 4:45 PM EST
Gaylord National
Room: National Harbor 13 - Convention Center, 2nd Floor
Sexual objectification is an important area of study for numerous disciplines, including media studies, communication, psychology, and gender studies. Unfortunately, loose and conflicting conceptualizations have arisen. This article explores these differing conceptualizations and resulting operationalizations, while emphasizing the theoretically incorrect melding of sexual objectification and sexualization into a single concept. This conceptual misstep has hampered research concerning sexual objectification. The offered reconceptualization is meant to refocus sexual objectification research on sexual use rather than solely sexual viewing, but steadfastly maintains space for sexualization as an indicator of sexual objectification. Finally, the author provides a new scale, called the Sexual Objectification as Sexual Use Scale (SOSUS), as a foundation for future study specifically within mainstream video research. This scale is meant to serve as a gap filler. Whereas numerous scales have been created that emphasize sexual viewing, this scale is meant to provide a starting scale for sexual use, especially within sexual encounter depictions found in mainstream film and television. Thus, the author hopes to help refocus the field of sexual objectification research, while maintaining room for the indicator of sexualization.