Women as Sex Objects and Victims in Print Advertisements

Abstract

This content analysis examined the depiction of women in 1,988 advertisements from 58 popular U.S. magazines. Advertisements
were coded with respect to whether women were presented as sex objects and/or as victims using a scheme developed by the researchers.
On average across magazines, one of two advertisements that featured women portrayed them as sex objects. Women appeared as
victims in just under ten percent of the advertisements. Men’s, women’s fashion, and female adolescent magazines were more
likely to portray women as sex objects and as victims than news and business, special interest, or women’s non-fashion magazines.
The implications of viewing advertisements depicting women as sex objects and as victims, especially sexualized victims, are
discussed.

Full text

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Women as Sex Objects and Victims in Print Advertisements
Julie M. Stankiewicz & Francine Rosselli
Published online: 15 January 2008
#
Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2007
Abstract This content analysis examined the depiction of
women in 1,988 advertisements from 58 popular U.S.
magazines. Advertisements were coded with respect to
whether women were presented as sex objects and/or as
victims using a scheme developed by the researchers. On
average across magazines, one of two advertisements that
featured women portrayed them as sex objects. Women
appeared as victims in just under ten percent of the
advertisements. Men’s, women’s fashion , and female
adolescent magazines were more likely to portray women
as sex objects and as victims than news and business,
special interest, or women’s non-fashion magazines. The
implications of viewing advert isements depicting women as
sex objects and as victims, especially sexualized victims,
are discussed.
Keywords Print advertising
.
Content analysis
.
Sexual objectification
.
Victimization
Introduction
A woman stares straight ahead, expressionless, as a man
holds her body against him and moves his hand up her
uncovered leg. Her eyes are engulfed by thick black circles,
which gives her a deadly appearance. Yellow and red light
reflecting off the man and woman’s faces suggest an eerie
scene. The man in the picture is clearly sexually aroused;
the woman seems to be feeling either fear, or nothing at all.
This is the description of an advertisement for Custo clothes
that appeared in the October 2002 issue of Harper’s Bazaar
magazine. In the November 2002 issue of Elle, a cologne
advertisement, which used the slogan “Dior Addict,”
pictured a woman in her bra and underwear apparently
enduring withdrawal symptoms. She is thrashing her body,
and is literally covered in beads of sweat. Her bra is coming
off on one side, exposing nearly all of her breast. She is a
sex object, who is completely powe rless and out of control.
Both of these images reflect a recent trend in advertising to
simultaneously sexualize and victimize women.
The primary goal of this research was to determine the
extent to which women are presented as sex objects and as
victims in print advertisements. Although the sexual
objectification of women in advertisements has been widely
researched, no empirical investigations have yet been
conducted to document the pervasiveness of the victimiza-
tion of women in advertisements. To explore this, a content
analysis of how frequently women are presented as sex
objects and as victims, or potential victims, in magazine
advertisements was conducted. In addition, the presentation
of women as perpetrators of aggression was explored.
Advertising is a pervasive form of media to which
people do not often give conscious attention and, therefore,
its social messages are likely to remain unquestioned.
Researchers estimate that the average American s ees
approximately 37,000 television commercials every year
(Bretl and Cantor 1988). Of course , people are also exposed
to advertisements every time they open a magazine or
newspaper, or drive down a highway where billboards are
present. According to Kilbourne (1999),
Advertisers like to tell parents that they can always
turn off the TV to protect their kids from any of the
negative impact of advertising. This is like telling us
that we can protect our children from air pollution by
Sex Roles (2008) 58:579–589
DOI 10.1007/s11199-007-9359-1
J. M. Stankiewicz
:
F. Rosselli (*)
Department of Psychology, Wesleyan University,
Middletown, CT 06459-0408, USA
e-mail: frosselli@wesleyan.edu

making sure they never breathe. Advertising is our
environment. We swi m in it as fish swim in water. We
cannot escape it...advertising’s messages are inside our
intimate relatio nships, our homes, our hearts, our
heads (pp. 57–58).
Advertisements provide a gauge for what is desirable
and what is normal. In Goffman’s(1974, 1979) terms,
advertising serves to define, or frame, reality. For these
reasons, the social impact of advertising cannot be
overstated.
Research has shown that violence against women is a
serious public health and human rights concern (World
Health Organization 2000) and that the simultaneous
presentation of women as sex objects and victims in
various forms of media increases acceptance of violence
against women (Malamuth et al. 2000). The American
Psychological Association Task Force on the Sexualization
of Girls (2007) reported that the sexualization of women
and girls is related to numerous societal problems, and that
increased awareness of sexual imagery and its consequen-
ces is important for improving the physical and emotional
welfare of women and girls. In light of this, it seems
imperative that portrayals of women in advertisin g receive
further empirical study.
Violence Against Women
According to the WHO (2000), large-scale studies con-
ducted worldwide show that between 10 and 50% of
women attest to having been physically assaulted by an
intimate partner. In 1998, inte rpersonal violence was among
the top 10 causes of death for women between the ages of
15 and 44. Nationally representative studies confirm that
reducing violence against women, and reducing sexual
violence in particular, should be regarded as one of the
nation’s foremost social priorities. Eighteen percent of the
8,000 women who participated in the National Violence
Against Women Survey between November of 1995 and
May of 1996 reported having experienced a completed or
attempted rape during their lifetime (Tjaden and Thoennes
1998). These researchers estimat ed that 876,000 rapes and
5.9 million physical assaults are committed against women
in the U.S. each year, and concluded that, “Given the
pervasiveness of rape and physical assault among American
women, it is imperative that violence against women be
treated as a major criminal justice and public health
concern” (p. 11).
Fisher et al. (2000) echoed similar statements. In a
telephone survey conducted with a nationally representative
sample of nearly 4,500 female college students, they found
that 2.8% of the participants had been the victim of a
completed or attempted rape within the 7 months prior to
the study. If the results are projected over a 5 year college
career, the data indicate that 20 to 25% of women may
experience a completed or attempted rape while in college.
The researchers emphasized the alarming frequency of rape
and sexual coercion, especially considering that the data
describe only a 7 month period. In addition, more minor
forms of sexual victimization, such as sexist remarks and
catcalls, were reported by approximately 50% of the
respondents, suggesting that these are rather usual experi-
ences among college women.
Research conducted with men similarly shows that rape
and sexual coercion against women are widespread prob-
lems. Malamuth (1981) reviewed numerous studies in
which men (mostly college students) have been asked to
rate the likelihood that they would rape a woman if they
could be assured of not being caught and punished, and
found that across various conditions (e.g., after reading a
pornographic depiction of rape, after viewing an interview
with a rape victim, or after having no prior “exposure
treatment”) an average of approximately 35% of the men
reported some likelihood of raping a woman. Consistent
with Malamuth’s review are the results of a more recent
study. Osland et al. (1996) surveyed a group of 159 college
men with the Likelihood to Rape Index, and found that
34% reported some likelihood to rape or force sex on a
woman.
The Trivialization of Violence Against Women
Considering the percentage of men who admit willingness
to rape, the number of rapes reported by women may at first
seem relatively low. Fisher et al. (2000) found that less than
five percent of completed and attempted rapes experienced
by the college women they surveyed had been reported to
authorities. Women’s reasons for not reporting rape and
sexual assault reflect their perception that such crimes are
trivialized in American culture. The most common reason
cited by rape victims for not informing law enforcement
officials that they had been raped was the fear that the
occurrence was not serious or harmful enough. Other
reasons victims gave for not disclosing rape to authorities
included uncertainty that a crime was committed, fear that
the police would not treat the incident as a serious offense,
and fear that the police woul d treat them with hostility.
These fears do not seem ungrounded in light of Burt’s
(1980) landmark study, in which she showed that there is a
prevailing tendency to excuse male perpetrators of sexual
violence, thus trivializing their crimes, and to shift
responsibility to the victims. Burt’s interviews, conduct ed
with a random sample of 598 men and women, revealed
that rape myths, which she defined as “prejudicial,
stereotyped, or false beliefs about rape, rape victims, and
rapists—in creating a climate hostile to rape victims,” are
580 Sex Roles (2008) 58:579–589

widely held by Americans (p. 217). More than 50% of
Burt’s participants agreed that “In the majority of rapes, the
victim was promiscuous or had a bad reputation” (p. 229).
Approximately one-half of her participants also agreed that
a woman who goes home with a man on a first date is
indicating her willingness to have sex with him, and that
one-half of the time when a woman reports that she has
been raped, she is simply lying in order to avoid blame for
an illegitimate pregnancy or to seek revenge on a man.
The tendency to trivialize sexual violence within our
culture is also evident in the responses of the legal system
toward rape. In 1993, the United States Senate Judiciary
Committee issued a report that concluded that the national
justice system had not been fulfilling its obligation to
defend rape victims and prosecute rapists. In that report,
Senator Joseph Biden, Jr. wrote, “The disparity in how our
system prosecutes rape, in contrast to other violent crime,
mirrors the disparity in our society’s attitudes toward these
acts” (Cordes 199 3, p. 86). The study showed that
approximately 25% of convicted rapists never go to prison
and that rape prosecutions are significantly more likely to
be dismissed than are murder and robbery prosecutions. In
response to this report, the Violence Against Women Act
(VAWA) was passed by Congress in 1994 to ensure that
perpetrators of violence against women are held account-
able for their crimes (National Organization for Women
2004). The VAWA was reauthorized in 2005 with additional
programs intended to reduce sexual violence against young
women and girls, who are at greatest risk of experiencing
sexual victimization (Young Women’s Christian Associa-
tion 2006).
The Sexual Objectification and Victimization of Women
in Media
Many factors may be invoked to explain aggression against
women and the trivialization of sexual violence in
American culture. One factor that may contribute to the
trivialization of sexual violence that has received much
empirical support is media imagery that presents women as
both sex objects and as victims. The sexual victimization of
women in pornography, non-pornographic films, and in
music videos has been shown to increase attitudes
supportive of sexual violence (e.g., Kalof 1999; Malamuth
and Check 1981; Ohbuchi et al. 1994). Although the effects
of sexual violence in advert ising have not yet been studied,
there is evidence that exposure to sexually objectifying
advertisements produces anti-woman attitudes (Lanis and
Covell 1995; MacKay and Covell 1997). “At the very least,
[such imagery in] advertising helps to create a climate in
which certain attitudes and values flourish, such as the
attitude that women are valuable only as objects of men ’s
desire, that real men are always sexually aggressive, that
violence is erotic, and that women who are the victims of
sexual assault ‘asked for it’” (Kilbourne 1999, pp. 290–91).
The depiction of women as sex objects who are also
victims of aggression inculcates the idea that submission is
a desirable trait in a woman. Such images speak directly to
the hostility toward women that exists within American
culture. The United Nations Comm ission on the Status of
Women (1996) reported a tremen dous increase in the
representation of violence against women, particularly
sexual violence, in the media. For example, televise d
pornography increased 10-fold in Europe between the mid
1980s and 1996 and the pornography market in Europe has
“established links to forced prostitution and traffic in
women, which is also increasing at an alarming rate ”
(p. 9). Wolf (1991
) argued that since the 1970s, beauty
images have increasingly incorporated violence against
women as explicit examples of female subordination.
During the mid 1970s, “the punk rock scene began to
glorify S and M....Fashion models adopted from violent
pornogr aphy the furious pouting glare of the violated
woman” (p. 136). Such imagery “played out anxieties from
the sex war, reproducing the power inequality that recent
social changes had questioned: male dominance, female
submission” (p. 137).
The Sexual Objectification and Victimization of Women
in Print Advertising
According to Kilbourne (1999), the sexual victimization of
women that was once limited to pornography, has found
expression not only in films and television shows, but in
advertising as well. The body positions, facial expressions,
and sexual power relations hips betw een men and women
that occur in advertising have often been adopted from
violent pornography. To support her contention that men’s
dominance and women’s subordination are eroticized in
popular culture, Kilbourne provides examples of specific
advertisements in which women are portrayed as physically
and emotionally vulnerable, and in which men are
unambiguously portrayed as overpowering women.
Given the documented rise of violent sexual imagery in
pornography during recent years (Wolf 1991), as well as the
link between such imagery and the trivialization of violence
against women, sexual violence in advertising is a topic
worthy of investigation. Although Kilbourne (1999) pro-
posed that the sexual victimization of women is glamorized
in advertisements, there is an absence of empirical research
that tests this claim. In contrast, interest in women’s sexual
objectification in advertising has received ample attention.
Since the late 1970’s, numerous researchers have
concluded that advertisements portray women as having
less social power than men (e.g., Goffman 1979; Kang
1997; Umiker-Sebeok 1996). However, the specific ways in
Sex Roles (2008) 58:579–589 581581

which women are presented as less powerful than men have
changed over time (Lindne r 2004). In recent decades,
advertisements have reflected women’s expanding roles in
the professional world and have more frequently portrayed
women as influential in business settings. However, as this
shift occurred, there has been a significant increase in the
percentage of images that present women as less sexually
powerful than men and as objects of men’s desire. For
example, in their comparison of magazine advertisements
from 1983 to those from 1958 and 1970, Sullivan and
O’Connor (1988) found a 60% increase in images that
portrayed women in decorative and sexualized roles. Kang
also found a significant increase in the percentage of
magazine advertisements between 1979 and 1991 that
displayed wom en’s bodies through nudity and body-
revealing clothes. Plous and Neptune (1997) directly
compared the body exposure of the men and women
featured in print advertisements and found that exposure
of women’s bodies occurred approximately four times as
often as exposure of men’s bodies. More recently, Millard
and Grant (2006) reported that approximately 30% of
advertis ements in three popular U.S. women’s fashion
magazines featured nude or scantily-clad women, and
Lindner reported that more than half of advertisements in
a popular U.S. women’s magazine portrayed women as
objects.
Summary and Hypotheses
The primary objective of the present study was to examine
the depiction of women in print advertising along three
dimensions: (1) the extent to which women are portrayed as
sex objects, (2) the extent to which women are portrayed as
victims, and (3) the simultaneous presentation of women
as sex objects and victims. As a secondary aim, we also
examined the extent to which women were portrayed as
aggressors, either sexualized or not sexualized. Finally, this
research investigated whether the presentation of women as
sex objects, victims, or aggressors, varied by magazine
type.
It was hypothesized that women would be depicted as
sex objects in approximately one-half of the advertisements
that featured women. The particular way in whi ch objec-
tification is defined, and thus the resulting rates at which
women are portrayed as objects, varies by study. The
objectification of women in advertisements also varies by
magazine type. For example, Lindner (2004) found that
59.2% of the advertisements from a women’s fashion
magazine presented wom en as sex objects, but only 8.2%
of the advertisements from a general interest magazine did
so. Krassas et al. (2001) reported that 48.8% of the pictures
in a women’s magazine, and 70.9% of the pictures in a
men’s magazine, presented women as sex objects. Baker
(2005) also reported that sexualized women were more
likely to appear as purely decorative objects in men’s
magazines compared to women’s magazines. Because our
sample comprised a wide range of magazine types,
including men’s and women’s magazines as well as special
interest and news magazines, it was expected that the
average rate of objectification in this study would be
approximately 50%—less than the high rates found in
men’s magazines, but higher than the low rates reported for
general interest magazines. Looking only at the average rate
of objectification across magazines can be misleading,
however, as previous research clearly demonstrates that
the extent to which women are portrayed as sex objects
varies by magazine type. Such differences were expected to
be replicated in the present study.
Because much of the editorial content within men’s
magazines is explicitly sexual (Krassas et al. 2003; Taylor
2005), it was expected that women would be portrayed
more often as sex objects in men’s magazines than in other
magazine types. Such differences have been demonstrated
by Baker (2005) and Krassas et al. (2001) as noted above.
Because much of the content of women’s and adolescent
girls’ magazines is related to fashion, beauty, and the
development of sexual skills intended to please men (Farvid
and Braun 2006), it was also expected that women ’s and
adolescent girls’ magazines would present women as sex
objects more frequently than magazines that concentrate on
broader social issues (e.g., Newsweek), entertainment (e.g.,
Entertainment Weekly) or special interests (e.g., Parents).
Such a finding would be consistent with, and also extend,
Lindner’s(2004) comparison of images of objectification in
a women’s fashion magazine with those found in a general
interest magazine.
Kilbourne (1999) provided several examples of maga-
zine advertisements in which women are victimized, thus it
is clear that such images do exist. Unfortunately, no prior
empirical studies have attempted to document the extent to
which women are presented as victims, either sexualized or
non-sexualized, in print advertising. Therefore, it would
have been pr esumptuo us to make spec ific predictions
concerning the prevalence of such images. However, it
was hypothe sized that women would appear as victims less
often than as sex objects. Because many other types of
media that portray women as victims, such as pornographic
films, are clearly marketed to men more than women, we
also expected that images of victimized women, particularly
sexually victimized women, would be most likely to appear
in men’s magazines.
With respect to the presentation of women as perpe-
trators of aggression, a lack of prior empirical research also
precludes any specific predictions concerning the preva-
lence of these images. Previous research does clearly
demonstrate a tendency for women to be portrayed as less
582 Sex Roles (2008) 58:579–589

powerful than men (Goffman 1979; Kang 1997; Lindner
2004; Umiker-Sebeok 1996). Therefore, it was predi cted
that although women might occasionally be presented as
aggressors, they would more frequently be presented as
victims, rather than perpetrators, of aggression. It was not
clear whether the depiction of women as aggressors would
vary by magazine type.
Method
Advertisements from 58 magazines were examined for the
study. These included men’s, women’s, news and business,
entertainment, teen, and special interest magazines. Mag-
azines were selected on the basis of their circulation rates
and gross revenue . Twenty of the periodicals chosen had
been rated by the International Fede ration of the Periodical
Press (2001/2002a, b, c) as among the top 10 men’s,
women’s, or general interest magazines by circulation
worldwide. Forty of the periodicals used had been listed by
the Ad Age Group (2001) as among the top 100 magazines
by gross revenue.
Among the top 100 magazines by gross revenue was
only one magaz ine targeted toward an African American
audience and only three directed at adolescent girls. In
order to ensure that the sample of magazines selected for
this study targeted a diverse readership, additional mag-
azines aimed at each of these demographic groups were
selected, despite the fact that they were neither among the
top periodicals by gross revenue nor circulation. These
magazines were selected on the basis of their availability.
All of the magazines used were summer 2002 issues, with
the exception of Teen Vogue. The spring 2002 issue of this
periodical was used because it was the latest available at the
time of the study.
The women’s magazines that were used included
Cosmopolitan, Elle, Essence, Glamour, Good Housekeep-
ing, Harper ’s Bazaar, Honey, InStyle, Ladies’ Home
Journal, Marie Claire , Redbook, Self, Vogue, and Woman’s
Day. Men’s magazines included Black Men, Details, ESPN,
Esquire, GQ,
Maxim, Men’s Fitness, Men’s Health, Men’s
Journal, Playboy, Penthouse, Sports Illustrated, Stuff, and
Vanity Fair. News and business magazines included Black
Enterprise, Forbes, Fortune, Newsweek, Time, and US
News and World Report. Entertainment magazines included
Ebony, Entertainment Weekly, National Enquirer, People
Weekly, Rolling Stone, The Source, Star, TV Guide, Us
Weekly,andXXL. Special interest magazines included
Martha Stewart Living, National Geographic, Parents,
Reader’s Digest, and Smithsonian. Adolescent girls’ mag-
azines included Cosmo Girl, Elle Girl, Girl’s Life, J-14,
Seventeen, Teen People, Teen Vogue, Twist, and YM.
A total of 4,136 full-page advertisements were exam-
ined. Full-page advertisements were defined as pages in
which one, and only one, single advertisement dominated at
least one entire page, and in which there was minimal or no
magazine c ontent. Therefore, classified advertisements,
fashion spreads that had more than one salient picture on
the page, and pages that consisted of a variety of products
placed together (e.g., Cosmo’s best bathing suits), were not
considered full-page advertisements in this study. Pages
that advertised more than one product were coded if it was
clear that all of the products on the page were promoted by
a single company. Promotional pages (e.g., Ford’s fight
against breast cancer) were coded as well.
Of these advertisements, 1,988 featured women and
were coded by the first author. All images of women and
women’s body parts in these advertisements, whether or not
they were pictures of real human beings, were coded. The
few advertisements that contained female cartoon charac-
ters were, therefore, included. The only exceptions, in
which full-page advertisements featuring images of women
were not coded, were those in which women appeared on
the covers of books, movies, or boxes of a product that took
up a miniscule portion of the page. This was done so that
pictures of women that were not salient would not skew the
results of the study. Advertisements were coded, using a
schema developed by the first author, as to whether or not
they presented women as sex objects, as victims, and/or as
aggressors.
A woman was defined as a sex object if her sexuality
was being used to sell a product. Whether or not a woman
or a woman’s body parts were coded as “sex object” was
determined by facial expression (e.g., a woman’s looks
suggested sexual desire), posture (e.g., a woman was
positioned with her legs spread open), activity (e.g., a
woman caressed another person in a sexually suggestive
manner), make-up (e.g., a women wore bright red lipstick),
camera angle (e.g., the camera angle emphasized a
woman’s breasts, hips, buttocks, lower abdomen, or inner
thighs), and the amount of skin shown. It was not necessary
for the woman in the advertisement to meet any particular
number of the stated criteria to be defined as a sex object.
Instead, it was the overall impression of the coder assisted
by the listed criteria that determined whether the woman
was coded as a sex object. It was important to allow
subjectivity into the ratings because a scant ily-clad woman
is not always sexualized, and often fully-clothed women are
sex objects. Therefore, it was possible that a woman
wearing a bikini might not be coded as a sex object,
whereas a fully-dressed woman with a sexually suggestive
posture might be defined as a sex object. Previous conten t
analyses have similarly used subjective criteria to determine
whether women were portrayed as sex objects. For
example, Lindner (2004) defined objectification as being
Sex Roles (2008) 58:579–589 583583

“portrayed in such a way as to suggest that being looked at
is [a woman’s] major purpose or function in the advertise-
ment” (p. 414).
A woman was considered a victim if any of the
following criteria were met: (1) A person is invol ved in
an unambiguous act of violence (e.g., shooting a gun,
hitting, yelling) against a woman or against a woman’s
wishes, (2) a man is dominant and overpowering a woman
in a sexual act, or is watching a woman in a sexually
aggressive manner, (3) a woman appears lifeless, zombi-
like, or unconscious (with the exception of a woman who
appears to be peacefully sleeping in an appropriate place),
(4) a woman is lied to, tricked, or watched without her
awareness in an inappropriate setting, (5) a woman is in
bondage (e.g., wearing a leash, tied to a bed) or is wearing
heavy makeup that makes her appear injured or sick, or (6)
a woman is distressed. Women were considered distressed
if they were visibly afraid, angry, depressed, disgusted, or
vulnerable. Vulnerability was determined by facial expres-
sion, body position, relat ion to other characters in the
advertisement, and setting. Any of the above was sufficient
for coding a woman as victimized. The perpetrator of the
violent act did not necessarily need to be visible in the
advertisement.
A woman was considered an aggressor if she was
committing an act of violence or appeared ready to commit
an act of violence (e.g., was holding a gun), was dominant
over a man in a sexual act, or was watching a man in a
sexually aggressive manner.
A subset of ten magazines was randomly selected, with
the constraint that at least one magazine from each category
be represented, for coding by a second independent rater
unfamiliar with the hypotheses of the study. All advertise-
ments featuring women (N=270) from these ten magazines
were coded by the second rater with respect to whether or
not women were presented as sex objects, as victims, and/
or as aggressors using the criteria described above. Inter-
rater reliability was 92.22%.
Results
The percentage of full-page advertisements that featured
women in which women were presented as sex objects,
victims, or aggressors was computed for each magaz ine.
The percentage of advertisements within each magazine
that presented women simultaneously as sex objects and
victims, or simultaneously as sex objects and aggressors,
was computed as well. In addition, the percentage of
advertising pages that portrayed women as victims who
were not sex objects, or as aggressors who were not sex
objects, was computed. Table 1 summarizes the mean
percentage for each of these seven judg ments for all
magazines in a given category. Independent samples
ANOVAs, with follow-up Tukey tests if warranted, were
used to assess differences between magazine types. In most
cases, the distribution of values was non-normal and the
variances between magazine types unequal. To correct for
this, square root transformations were performed prior to
analyzing differences between magazine types. The
descriptions that follow identify those instances in which
transformed values were analyzed.
Women as Sex Objects
It was predicted that approximately one-half of the
advertisements featu ring women would present them as
sex objects. It was also expected that the average rate of
sexual objectification would vary greatly by magazine type,
with men’s magazines having the highest rates and special
interest, entertainment, and news and business magazines
having the lowest rates of objectification. Consistent with
our prediction, on average, across magazine categories,
51.80% of advertisements that featured women portrayed
them as sex objects (see Table 1). Also, as predicted,
differences between magazine categories were observed , F
(5,52)=22.64, p<.005. The percentage of advertisements
that portrayed women as sex objects was significantly
Table 1 Mean percentage of coded advertisements within magazine category presenting women as sex objects, victims, and aggressors.
Magazine Categories Sex Objects Victims Aggressors
Total
a
Sexualized Non-sexualized Total Sexualized Non-sexualized
Men’s 75.98 15.36 12.95 2.72 6.95 6.23 0.71
Women’s 55.71 12.62 8.96 3.76 0.71 0.51 0.20
Adolescent Girls 64.15 8.84 6.43 3.83 3.01 0.18 2.83
Entertainment 44.43 6.83 2.88 3.95 5.32 4.46 0.86
News and Business 8.09 0.64 0.64 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Special Interest 18.16 1.66 0.61 1.66 0.00 0.00 0.00
Mean 51.80 9.51 6.90 2.98 3.23 2.43 0.81
a
Because some advertisements presented both sexualized and non-sexualized women as victims, the total victim percentage does not necessarily
reflect the sum of the percentage of sexualized victims and non-sexualized victims.
584 Sex Roles (2008) 58:579–589

higher in men’s m agaz ines than in any of the other
magazine categories, p’s<.05, except adolescent girls’
magazines. On average, only 32.36% of advertisements in
men’s magazines included images of women. However,
when women did appear in advertisements in men’s
magazines, they were portrayed as sex objects 75.98% of
the time. In addition, the percentage of advertisements that
presented women as sex objects was significantly lower in
news and business and in special interest magazines, than in
any of the other categories, p’s<.005, though these two
categories did not differ from one another. Contrary to
predictions, the percentage of advertisements that presented
women as sex objects in entertainment magazines was not
reliably different than the percentage of such advertise-
ments in women’s or adolescent girls’ magazines.
The majority of advertisements featuring women in
adolescent girls’ magazines and women’s magazines pre-
sented women as sex objects. Initially, all women’s
magazines were grouped together. However, an examina-
tion of the means within this category revealed a distinct
pattern. In women’s fashion magazines (i.e., Cosmopolitan,
Elle, Essence, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, Honey, InStyle,
Marie Claire, Self, and Vogue), 63.39% of advertisements
portrayed women as sex objects. However, in women’s
non-fashion magazines (i.e., Good Housekeeping, Ladies’
Home Journal, Redbook, and Woman’s Day), only 36.53%
of ad vertisements portrayed women as sex objects, a
statistically reliable difference, t(12)=4.39, p<.002.
Women as Victims
It was predicted that women would be depicted as victims
less frequently than as se x obje cts and that the depiction
of women as victims would vary by magazine type, with
men’s magazines containing the greatest percentage of
such images. As can be seen in Table 1, the percentage of
advertisemen ts dep icting women as victims rang ed fr om
under 1% to just over 15%. Across magazine categories,
an average of 9.51% of advertisements that featured
women portrayed them as victims, far less than the
51.80% of advertisements t hat po rtray ed wo men as sex
objects, t(57)=14.57, p<.001. Analysis of the trans-
formed scores revealed difference s b etween magazine
categories, F(5,52)=4.9 9, p<.002. Women were more
likely to appear as victim s in men’s m agazines than in
news and business or special interest magazines, p’s<.05.
Men’s, women’s, and adolescent girls’ magazines did not
significantly differ in the percentage of advertisements
depicting women as victims. A separate examination of
women’s fashion magazines revealed that 16.57% of
advertisements in this subset presented women as victims,
compared to 2.74 % in wo men’s non- fashi on maga zines,
t (12)=2.30, p<.05.
The percentage of advertisements in which sexualized
and non-sexualized women were presented as victims were
examined separately. Approxi mately 73% of the time,
women portrayed as victims were also portrayed as sex
objects. As shown in the table, an average of 6.90% of
advertisements that featured women portrayed them simul-
taneously as sex objects and victims in accordance with our
definitions. Analysis of the transformed values revealed
differences between magazine types, F(5,52)=4.77,
p<.002. Men’s magazines contained a higher percentage
of images of sexualized women as victims than did news
and business, entertainment, or special interest magazines,
p’s<.05. Men’s, women’s, and adolescent girls ’ magazines
were not reliably different in the percentage of advertise-
ments that presented sexualized women as victims. In
women’s magazines, 12.54% of advertisements in fashion
magazines, but none of those in non-fashion magaz ines,
met the stated criteria for portraying sexualized women as
victims.
The simultaneous presentation of women as sexualized
and distressed reinforces the association between women’s
sexuality and the experience of physical and emotional
pain. Therefore, such images may function to normalize
violence against women. However, presenting a woman as
distressed is qualitatively different from presenting her as
lifeless, in bondage, or as a target of violence, manipu-
lation, or sexual aggression. Because of this, additional
descriptive analyses examined the percentage of coded
advertisements that simultaneously sexualize women and
present them in accorda nce with a more restrictive
definition of victim that excludes “distressed.”
Even with this narrower criterion to define victimization,
advertisements that portrayed women simultaneously as sex
objects and victims were sti ll observed. In men’s mag-
azines, 8.78% of ad vertise men ts that featured women
portrayed them as both sex objects and as victims in
accordance with the stricter definitio n. In women’s(M=
2.78%), adolescent girls’ (M=1.91%), and entertainment
magazines (M=2.45%) such images exist, but at relatively
low frequencies. In women’s fashion magazines, 3.89% of
advertisements portrayed women as both sex objects and
victims according to the stricter criteria. In news and
business, special interest, and women’s non-fashion mag-
azines, there were no images of women (sexualized or not)
that met the narrower definition of victim.
Overall, on average, only 2.98% of advertisements that
featured women portrayed them as victims who were not
sex objects. As can be seen in Table 1, the percentage of
advertisements depicting non-sexualized women as victims
ranged from zero to just under 4%. Analysis of the
transformed scores, excluding the magazine category with
a mean of zero, yielded no significant differences between
magazine types, F<1. Again, because the depiction of a
Sex Roles (2008) 58:579–589 585585

woman as distressed is qualitatively different from the other
criteria we used to define victimization, additional d escrip-
tive analyses examined how frequently non-sexualized
women were presented as victims in accordance with the
stricter definition. Overall, across magazine categories, less
than 1% of advertisements that featured women portrayed
non-sexualized women as victims in accordance with the
narrower criteria. Men’s(M=1.85%) and entertainment
(M=1.55%) magazines were the only categories in which
women were presented as victims in accordance with the
stricter criteria, but not as sex objects, in more than 1% of
advertisements.
Women as Aggressors
It was predicted that women would be depicted as
perpetrators of aggression less frequently than as victims.
On average, across magazine categories, 3.23% of adver-
tisements that featured women portrayed them as aggres-
sors (see Table 1), a signifi cantly lower rate than that found
for the portrayal of women as victims, t(57)=4.54, p<.001.
Because women were never presented as aggressors in
news and business or special interest magazines, these two
magazine categories were exclud ed from analyses examin-
ing differences by magazine type. Analysis of the trans-
formed sco res revealed differences between magazine
categories, F(3,43)=4.71, p<.007. Women’s magazines
contained significantly fewer a dvertisements depicting
women as aggressors than did men’s magazines, p<.005,
and somewhat fewer of these images than did entertainment
magazines, p<.09.
When women were presented as aggressors, 75% of the
time they were also portrayed as sex objects. Overall,
2.43% of advertisements across all magazine categories met
the criteria for presenting women simultaneously as sex
objects and aggressors. Analysis of the transformed scores
revealed differences by magazine type, F(3,43)=6.36,
p<.002. Men’s magazines were more likely to portray
sexualized women as aggressors than women’s and adoles-
cent girls’ magazines, p’s<.007. Non-sexualized women
were almost never presented as aggressors. Overall, less
than 1% of coded advertisements portrayed women as
aggressors who were not sex objects. In adolescent girls’
magazines, 2.83% of coded advertisements featured non-
sexualized women who were aggressors. None of the other
magazine categories depicted non-sexualized women as
aggressors in more than 1% of coded advertisements.
Discussion
The purpose of this study was to document the extent to
which women are presented as sex objects and as victims in
magazine advertisements. Four of the periodicals originally
characterized as women’s magazines (i.e., Good House-
keeping, Ladies ’ Home Journal, Redbook, and Woman’s
Day) differed qualitatively from the other 10, which were
termed “
women’s fashion magazines.” Magazines from
these two subcategories often differed in the ways they
portrayed women.
In accordance with our hypothesis, we found that, on
average, across magazine categories, one in two advertise-
ments that featured women portrayed them as sex objects. This
is consistent with Sullivan and O’Connor’s(1988) finding that
47% of women in their sample of magazine advertisements
were depicted in “purely decorative roles.” Thepercentageof
advertisements in the current sample of general interest
magazines that portrayed women as sex objects (8.09%) was
nearly identical to the percentage of advertisements that
Lindner (2004) reported objectified women in Time magazine
(8.2%). Also, the percentage of advertisements in the current
sample of fashion magazines that presented women as sex
objects (63.39%) was only slightly higher than the percent-
age of advertisements that Linder reported objectified women
in Vogue magazine (59.2%).
Women were most likely to be depicted as sex objects in
men’s, women’s fashion, and adolescent girls’ magazines.
Three of four advertisements that featured women in men’s
magazines portrayed women as sex objects. Approximately
two of three advertisements that featured women in
women’s fashion magazines and adolescent girls’ maga-
zines presented women as sex objects.
Consistent with predictions, the victimization of women
in advertisements was not as prevalent as women’s sexual
objectification. Nevertheless, the percentage of advertise-
ments that presented women as victims was disconcerting.
Overall, 9.51% of advertisements that featured women
portrayed the m as victims. How eve r, thi s number is
somewhat misleading; images of female victimization were
virtually absent from news and business magazines,
whereas they comprised a substantial percentage of coded
advertisements in men’s, women’s, and adolescent girls’
magazines. In men’s magazines and w om en’sfashion
magazines, women were presented as victims in just over
15% of coded advertisements.
The findings of the current study support Kilbourne’s
(1999) claim that pornographic imagery (i.e., imagery that
combines women ’s sexuality and victimization) appears in
mainstream advertisements. More than 70 percent of the
time women were portrayed as victims, they were simul-
taneously portrayed as sex objects. In men’s magazines and
women’s fashion magazines, women were presented as
both sex objects and victims in roughly 13% of advertise-
ments that featured women.
As described in the results section, the prevalence of
images of female victimization was also examined after
586 Sex Roles (2008) 58:579–589

narrowing the victim criteria by eliminating the subcategory
“woman as distressed.” There were images in men’s,
women’s, adolescent girls’, and entertainment magazines
that portrayed women as victims in accordance with this
stricter criteria . In fact, 9% of advertisements that featured
women in men’s magazines portrayed women simulta-
neously as se x objects and as targets of vi olence,
manipulation, or se xual aggression, as lifeless, or in
bondage. On the basis of this data, it seems that women’s
submission is eroticized in a subset of advertisements that
present women as sex objects.
To determine if women are ever portrayed as perpetra-
tors, as opposed to victims, of violence, the extent to which
women were presented as aggressors was assessed. Con-
sistent with expectations, women were three times more
likely to be portrayed as victims than as aggressors. Women
were portrayed as aggressors primarily in a subset of
advertisements that presented them as sex objects. Women
presented as aggressors were sexualized 75% of the time.
Men’s magazines depicted women as aggressors (who were
almost always sexual ized) in approximately 7% of coded
advertisements. However, even in men ’s magazines, women
were twice as likely to be presented as victims than as
aggressors.
Backlash against women’s increasing power in socie ty
may serve as on e explanation for the pervasiveness of
sexually objectifying imagery and the exist ence of sexually
violent imagery in advertisements. Feminist writers Faludi
(1991) and Wolf (1991 ) have argued that there is a consid-
erable amount of hostility toward women in American
culture and that the fundamental cause of this hostility is
that women have elevated their position within society’s
power hierarchy. For example, during the past four decades,
women have achieved dramatic educational and economic
gains.AccordingtoHermanandCastro(1998), the
percentage of bachelor’s and professional degrees awarded
to women in 1970 were 43.1 and 5.3%, respectively. By
1990, 55.4% of bachelor’s degrees and 38.1% of profes-
sional degrees were earned by women. Between 1973 and
1990, the wage gap between men and women’s earnings
narrowed from 56.6 to 72%.
Increasing prospects of equality for women have been
met with oppositional reactions intended to maintain
men’s dominance (Faludi 1991;Wolf1991). Empi rical
research supports the contention that increasing equality
for women has been countered by hostility and resistance.
For example, Dall’Ara and Maass (1999) found that men
were significantly more willing to sexuall y harass women
believed to have egalitarian gender role beliefs than
women believed to have t raditional gender role beliefs.
The authors concluded that women with egalitarian gender
role beliefs may be at greater risk for sexual harassment
than women with traditional gender role beliefs “because
they are considered a threat to the males’ dominant posi-
tion” (p. 700).
The pervasiveness of media images of highly sexual-
ized women, but not men, is hypothesized to maintain
men’s dominance by designating women ’s bodies as
property that can be evaluated, ogled, and touched at the
whim of men’s desire (Kilbourne 1999). In a cultural
climate defined by increasing possibilities, in which
women ha ve earned advanced degrees and have i nfil trat ed
careers traditionally dominated by men, society has
demanded that women become servants to popular images
of beauty and sexuality. The sexual objectification of
women has become ubiquitous in media images because,
during a time in w hic h “many women have guil t fe elings
and uncertainties a bout their entry into public life, and
many men hav e f ear s about wom en’s empowerment, those
images or articles that show women being put, or putting
themselves, back under control are most l ikely to get a
strong audience reaction” (Wolf 1991,p.4).Theextentof
sexually objectifying imagery found in the current s tu dy,
therefore, may function to compensate for images of
women’s increased independence.
Implications, Future Directions, and Limitations
The fact that it is women who are sexualized in magazines
geared toward both men and women indicates that women’s
bodies are constantly on display to be judged. When
women are portrayed as sex objects in two of three images,
the mess age to both men and women is clear: A woman’s
value lies largely in terms of her appearance and sexuality.
In addition, women are things to be looked at, rather than
actors with their own sexual desire. Viewing women
primarily as objects, useful only for the gratification of
men, may in turn make sexual violence against women
appear justifiable (Kilbourne 1999).
Research has consistently shown that exposur e to both
violent and nonviolent pornography results in attitudes
supportive of sexual aggression among men (Malamuth
et al. 2000). In addition, viewing image s of sexually
objectified women has been shown to increase men’s
acceptance of rape myths, interpersonal violence, and
gender role stereotyping (Lanis and Covell 1995; MacKay
and Covell 1997). Finally, the American Psychological
Association Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls (2007)
recently reported numerou s negative conseque nces of
presenting young women and girls as sex objects in media
images. For example, sexualization is associated with the
development of eating disorders, low self-esteem, depres-
sion, and negative feelings regarding sexuality.
The fusion of women’s sexuality a nd victimization
within print advertisements also suggests that men and
women may be socialized to associate sex with violence
Sex Roles (2008) 58:579–589 587587

against women. If men and women do link sexuality with
women’s distress, sexual violence seems both normal and
justifiable. Considering t hat women are portrayed as
sexualized victims in a subst antial portion of advertise-
ments, future research should examine the social effects of
such images.
There were several limitations of this study that future
research may address. The sample of magazines did not
include magazines targeted specifically toward adolescent
boys. Future research may clarify what magazines and other
media are most popular among adolescent boys and how
the presentation of women in these media affects boys’
sexual attitudes and behaviors. Thus far, resear ch has
shown that exposure to lad magazines, a popular genre of
lifestyle magazines targeted toward young me n (e.g.,
Maxim), correlates with permissive sexual attitudes, expect-
ations of sexual variety, and aggressive sexual schemas
(Taylor 2006 ).
In addition, images of men were not examined. The
presentation of masculine ideals in advertisements may
impact the ways in which men interact with women as well
as men’s self-esteem. For example, evidence shows that
exposure to unrealistic images of male models increases
body dissatisfaction among men and may lead to drug
abuse and eating disorders (Baird and Grieve 2006).
Reading men’s magazines may also exacerbate unrealistic
beauty standards for women (Hatoum and Belle 2004).
Future research may also examine the presentation of
women and men of different races. Baker (2005) found that
white women are objectified more often in magazine
advertisements than black women and that magazines
targeted toward white audiences are more likely to portray
women as submissive than magazines targeted toward black
women; however, more research on this topic is needed.
Finally, it is important to distinguish sexualization from
healthy sexuality (American Psychological Association
Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls 2007). In the
current study, no attempt was made to identify positive
models of sexuality. Future research might improve upon
this study by differentiating between healthy and unhealthy
models of sexuality in media images.
The current study provides an indication of the extent to
which women are portrayed as victims in magazine
advertisements at a single point in time. Future research
should examine whether images of women’s victimization
in advertisements are more prevalent now than they were in
past decades. Considering that violence in pornography has
increased during recent years (Wolf 1991), it seems logical
that sexual violence in other media forms may have risen as
well. A documented rise in sexually violent imagery would
provide support for the argument that images of women’s
submission have coincided with women’s increasing power
in society.
Finally, the current study was limited to magazine
advertis ements. Television commercials, billboards, and
advertisements on the internet surely influence sexual
attitudes. The impact of imagery in these advertisements
demands further study.
Despite the limitations of the current study, it is evident
that women are frequently portrayed as sex objects and
sometimes portrayed as victims in media images. Consid-
ering the poten tial negative impact of suc h imagery,
heightened awareness of media stereotype s of women is
imperative (American Psychological Association Task
Force on the Sexualization of Girls 2007). Research in the
field of eating disorders has shown that media literacy is
effective in counteracting the effects of media imagery by
decreasing the body dissatisfaction and the internalization
of unrealistic ideals that often accompany eating disorders
(e.g., Coughlin and Kalodner 2006; Watson and Vaughn
2006; Wilksch et al. 2006). Future research should explore
the potential effectiveness of media literacy education to
reduce the negative effects of unhealthy and unrealistic
sexual, and sexually violent, images of women in the
media.
Acknowledgement This research was funded by a Christian A.
Johnson Fell owship awarded to the first author from Wesleyan
University. In addition, the authors would like to thank Sharron Riley
for her assistance in coding advertisements.
References
Ad Age Group. (2001). Top 300 magazines by gross revenue.
Retrieved May 29 , 2002, from http://www.adage.com/page.
cms?pageld=522.
American Psychological Association, Task Force on the Sexualization
of Girls. (2007). Report of the APA Task Force on the
Sexualization of Girls: Executive Summary. Washington, DC:
American Psychological Association. Retrieved from http://www.
apa.org/pi/wpo/sexualization.html.
Baird, A. L., & Grieve, F. G. (2006). Exposure to male models in
advertisements leads to a decrease in men’s body satisfaction.
North American Journal of Psychology, 8,115–121.
Baker, C. N. (2005). Images of women’s sexuality in advertisements:
A content analysis of Black- and White-oriented women’s and
men’s magazines. Sex Roles, 52,13–27.
Bretl, D. J., & Cantor, J. (1988). The portrayal of men and women in
U.S. television commercials: A recent content analysis and trends
over 15 years. Sex Roles, 18, 595–609.
Burt, M. R. (1980). Cultural myths and supports for rape. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 38, 217–230.
Cordes, R. (1993). Rape not treated as a serious crime, Senate report
says. Trial, 29, 86.
Coughlin, J. W., & Kalodner, C. (2006). Media literacy as a
prevention intervention for college women at low- or high-risk
for eating disorders. Body Image, 3,35–43.
Dall’Ara, E., & Maass, A. (1999). Studying sexual harassment in the
laboratory: Are egalitarian women at higher risk? Sex Roles, 41,
681–704.
588 Sex Roles (2008) 58:579–589

Faludi, S. (1991). Backlash: The undeclared war against American
women. New York: Anchor Books.
Farvid, P., & Braun, V. (2006). ‘Most of us guys are raring to go
anytime, anyplace, anywhere’: Male and female sexuality in Cleo
and Cosmo. Sex Roles, 55, 295–310.
Fisher, B. S., Cullen, F. T., & Turner, M. G. (2000, December). The
sexual victimization of college women. U.S. Department of
Justice. Retrieved from http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/
182369.htm.
Goffman, E. (1974). Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of
experience. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Goffman, E. (1979). Gender advertisements. New York: Harper and
Row.
Hatoum, I. J., & Belle, D. (2004). Mags and abs: Media consumption
and bodily concerns in men. Sex Roles, 51, 397–407.
Herman, A. M., & Castro, I. L. (1998, June 10). Equal pay: A thirty-
five year perspective. U.S Department of Labor. Retri eved
March, 2003 from http://familyleavesurvey.homestead.com/files/
EqualPay35yearperspective.pdf.
International Federation of the Periodical Press. (2001/2002a). Top 50
general interest magazines worldwide (by circulation). Retrieved
May 29, 2002, from http://www.fipp.com/Data/top50general.pdf.
International Federation of the Periodical Press. (2001/2002b). Top 50
men’s magazines worldwide (by circulation). Retrieved May 29,
2002, from http://www.fipp.com/Data/top50mens.pdf.
International Federation of the Periodical Press. (2001/2002c). Top 50
women’s magazines worldwide (by circ ulation). Retrieved May 29,
2002 from http://www.fipp.com/Data/Top%2050%20Womens.pdf.
Kalof, L. (1999). The effects of gender and music video imagery on
sexual attitudes. Journal of Social Psychology, 139, 378–385.
Kang, M. (1997). The portrayal of women’s images in magazine
advertisements: Goffman’s gender analysis revisited. Sex Roles,
37, 979–996.
Kilbourne, J. (1999). Can’t buy my love: How advertising changes the
way we think and feel. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Krassas, N. R., Blauwkamp, J. M., & Wesselink, P. (2001). Boxing
Helena and corseting Eunice: Sexual rhetoric in Cosmopolitan
and Playboy magazines. Sex Roles, 44, 751–771.
Krassas, N. R., Blauwkamp, J. M., & Wesselink, P. (2003). “Master
your johnson” : Sexual rhetoric in Maxim and Stuff magazines.
Sexuality & Culture: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, 7,98–119.
Lanis, K., & Covell, K. (1995). Images of women in advertisements:
Effects on attitudes related to sexual aggression. Sex Roles, 32,
639–649.
Lindner , K. (2004). Images of women in general interest and fashion
magazine advertisements from 1955 to 2002. Sex Roles, 51,409–421.
MacKay, N. J., & Covell, K. (1997). The impact of women in advertise-
ments on attitudes toward women. Sex Roles, 36, 573–583.
Malamuth, N. M. (1981). Rape proclivity among males. Journal of
Social Issues, 37, 138–157.
Malamuth, N. M., Addison, T., & Koss, M. (2000). Pornography and
sexual aggression: Are there reliable effects and can we
understand them? Annual Review of Sex Research, 11,26–91.
Malamuth, N. M., & Check, J. V. P. (1981). The effects of mass media
exposure on acceptance of violence against women: A field
experiment. Journal of Research in Personality, 15, 436–446.
Millard, J. E., & Grant, P. R. (2006). The stereotypes of Black and
White women in fashion magazine photographs: The pose of the
model and the impression she creates. Sex Roles, 54, 659–673.
National Organization for Women. (2004). The violence against
women act: Celebrating 10 years of prevention. Retrieved
January 17, 2005 from http://www.now.org/nnt/fall-2004/vawa.
html?printable.
Ohbuchi, K., Ikeda, T., & Takeuchi, G. (1994). Effects of violent
pornog raphy upon viewers’ rape myth beliefs: A study of
Japanese males. Psychology, Crime, and the Law, 1,71–81.
Osland, J. A., Fitch, M., & Willis, E. E. (1996). Likelihood to rape in
college males. Sex Roles, 35, 171–183.
Plous, S., & Neptune, D. (1997 ). Ra cial and gender biases in
magaz ine advertising. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21,
627–644.
Sullivan, G. L., & O’Connor, P. J. (1988). Women’
s role portrayals in
magazine advertising: 1958–1983. Sex Roles, 18, 181–188.
Taylor, L. D. (2005). All for him: Articles about sex in American lad
magazines. Sex Roles, 52, 153–163.
Taylor, L. D. (2006). College men, their magazines, and sex. Sex
Roles, 55, 693–702.
Tjaden, P., & Thoennes, N. (1998, November). Prevalence, incidence,
and consequences of violence against women: Findings from the
National Violence Against Women Survey. U.S Department of
Justice. Retrieved June, 2002 from http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles/
172837.pdf.
Umiker-Sebeok, J. (1996). Power and construction of g endered
spaces. International Review of Sociology, 6, 389–404.
United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. (1996, January
23). Elimination of stereotyping in the mass media: Report of the
Secretary General. (E/CN.6/1996/4). Retrieved December 30,
2002, from http://www.un.org/documents/ecosoc/cn6/1996/
ecn61996-4.htm.
Watson, R., & Vaughn, L. M. (2006). Limiting the effects of the media
on body image: Does the length of a media literacy intervention
make a difference? Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment
& Prevention, 14, 385–400.
Wilksch, S. M, Tiggemann, M., & Wade, T. D. (2006). Impact of
interactive school-based media literacy lessons for reducing
internalization of media ideals in young adolescent girls and
boys. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 39, 385–393.
Wolf, N. (1991). The beauty myth: How images of beauty are used
against women. New York: Anchor Books.
World Health Organization. (2000, June). Violence against women.
(Fact Sheet No. 239). Retrieved December 30, 2002, from http://
www.who.int/inf-fs/en/fact239.html.
Young Women’s Christian Association. (2006, April). Violence
Against Women Fact Sheet. Retrieved May 8, 2007, from http://
www.ywca.org/atf/cf/%7B3B450FA5-108B-4D2E-B3D0-
C31487243E6A%7D/ViolenceWomen3fs_06.pdf.
Sex Roles (2008) 58:579–589 589589