Mikorski, R., & Szymanski, D. M. (2017). Masculine norms, peer group, pornography, Facebook, and men’s sexual objectification of women. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 18(4), 257-267. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/men0000058.
In the article, “Masculine norms, peer group, pornography, Facebook, and men’s sexual objectification of women,” Mikorski and Szymanski evaluated the relations between three dimensions of traditional masculinity and the likelihood of sexual objectification of women. The authors used playboy, power over women, and violence as the three traditional masculine gender role adherence and used pornography, Facebook, and peer groups to understand these concepts. The objectification of women was based on the men’s behavior to evaluate the female body, making unwanted sexual advances to women, and discussing the different abuse or violence towards women in peer groups.
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The authors used a survey that involved 329 college heterosexual undergraduate males. The surveys demonstrated that endorsement of the playboy, pornography and the violent peer groups increased the objectification of women but it did not offer a solution to end the high rate of men objectifying women. The abstract of the article provided a detailed analysis and summary of the entire article. Therefore, this critical review intends to determine the efficiency of the authors in proving the different arguments by using different journals to prove the results or assumptions made in the article. The first section summarizes the article’s purpose, methodology, and findings. The critical analysis follows the summary and uses journals on the topic. Lastly, the paper offers a personal reflection on the unanswered questions and directions for future research as recommended by the Mikorski and Szymanski.
Summary
Mikorski and Szymanski begin with the explanation of the sexual objectification borrowing from the gaze theory whereby men view women as sex objects and the women conform to the male gaze by changing their image, being shy and feminine to feed the male eyes. However, the authors fail to define or consider expounding on the male gaze thus limiting the ability of the audience to understand the sexual objectification from the simplified but quite short wording. The article discusses the psychological outcomes of female objectification by using different studies to support their authors. The authors’ review different articles on the topic, noting that most scholars tend to focus on the outcomes and the men’s behaviors rather than trying to determine the factors that influence men to establish these behaviors and the interventions needed to eliminate women objectification. The article demonstrates the nature of previous studies on the subject of female objectification and the consequences. Before introducing the objective of the study.
The article explores the women objectification based on its relationship with masculine gender role adherence. Mikorski & Szymanski (2017), claim that the purpose of examining the subject based on the three dimensions is to determine the potential ways that can help moderate or exacerbate the likelihood to objectify females. The authors use qualitative analysis of each of the three categories of traditional masculine norms. The first subsection explores the masculinity and objectification of women. It is evident that the issue of masculinity and need to feel powerful over women is a broad topic that feminists try to eliminate by using theories to change the traditional norms of male superiority and gender roles. The study demonstrates that boys learn from the men on matters of socialization to determine their place in the society. These factors and processes make result in conformity to masculine norms inventory (CMNI) that focuses on aggressive and use of physicality among the boys (Mikorski and Szymanski, 2017). The male peer group association discussed the negative influence of peer groups that violate or tend to diminish the role of women. The authors demonstrated that these groups create a belief and habit that women are only valuable to satisfy the sexual desires of the men.
Pornography and Facebook use demonstrated that adolescents and young men use these platforms to fulfill their sexual desires of evaluating or feasting on the female bodies (Manago, Ward, Lemm, Reed & Seabrook, 2014). The former platform influences the aggressive nature of men towards women through sexual intimidation and rapes hence, the increased videos of gang rapes, women begging or crying and the continued use of nude bodies of women to serve the men. Peter and Valkenburg (2016) concurs with the article arguments but it is evident that the authors’ focused on the domination and violent themes of pornography. However, the latter platform demonstrates the increment of females to reveal their bodies and their reactions towards the positive or sexual comments by their male social media friends.
The study used 329 psychology heterosexual males through an online survey. The survey took 45 to 60 minutes but only 75% of the sample results were used due to the failure of the participants to complete the survey or being non-heterosexual. The participants were 75%, 11%, 8%, 1%, 2% and 3% white, black, Asian, Latino, and multiracial males between the age of 18 and 31 years old (Mikorski and Szymanski, 2017). However, the age mean was 18.93 years because 69% of the participants were first-year undergraduates. The results confirmed the literature review of the use of social media platforms by the undergraduates to evaluate female bodies and making sexual approach after reading the profiles of women with sexualized profiles or profile pictures. It was also evident that the women also exposed their bodies leading to the continued objectification of the women. Lastly, peer groups had a person or the members had past experiences of abused women positively influenced peers towards violence or abuse towards women and sexual objectification of women.
Critical Analysis
Mikorski and Szymanski’s article, “Masculine norms, peer group, pornography, Facebook, and men’s sexual objectification of women,” is approved and published in a trusted journal and is available in the PsycINFO database under APA journals. The authors also provide their details and expertise in the field of psychology. Although the article does not include a list of the peer-reviewed articles or scholarly journals that use it as a major or minor citation, it is among the most recent articles published on the topic thus showing it is a credible article. The paper introduced the topic in a satisfactory manner and used adequate citations on the issues it borrows from past studies.
The introduction offered a single sentence in defining the sexual objectification of women rather than offer a detailed definition. It seems that the authors were focused to establish and build on the topic of the negative psychological effects of the predatory aspects of the male gaze. Vandenbosch & Eggermont (2012) offers a detailed but summarized definition of the theory and the influence of media and pop culture on sexually objectifying women. The article demonstrates the different ways and changes over the years in gaze and sexual objectification, which would have been useful for the Mikorski and Szymanski to help the audience understand the subject before moving to negative influences. For instance, demonstrating the emphasis of mass media to demonstrate women as thin and photoshopped sexualized images resulted in the women undergoing extreme body modification to conform to the media depiction of beauty (Vandenbosch & Eggermont, 2012). The failure by Mikorski & Szymanski to include such vital information makes the claim that women conform to the objectification as vague. The authors may have used citations on the gaze theory, but failure to expound further limit the ability of the readers to understand their generalized ideas. However, it is possible that the Mikorski and Szymanski intended their audience to be conversant with the theory.
The authors’ failed to explore the issue of sexual objectification thus resulting in their failure venture on the changing aspects of gaze in the current era whereby the field of female gaze or gays. According to Loughnan and Pacilli (2014), the trend is changing whereby women stare and visualize on masculine men to fulfill their sexual desires. The study demonstrated that sexualized men are growing rapidly but it is still a new topic. The failure to include such vital information makes the title of Mikorski and Szymanski article to limiting or the authors focusing their efforts to concentrate on the topic and ignore the dynamics of the topic.
The exclusion of non-heterosexual males supports the latter argument, as including these participants would result in different answers and tamper with the expected outcome of the survey. It is only in the methodology that the audience learns that the study focuses on heterosexual men thus demonstrating a discriminative nature of research towards considering the different aspects of the topic. The questions on pornography did not include the genre of videos the participants watched thus depicting that the continued watching of porn had the same effects. Mikorski and Szymanski (2017) demonstrated that men who regularly watched pornography were more likely to objectify women. These findings are generalized assumptions that these participants viewed porn to objectify the women or gain masculine ego. According to Peter and Valkenburg (2016), adolescent males view different genre of porn and gays are more likely to view porn compared to heterosexual male. The study demonstrated that pornography ranges from affection to violence themes and the person dominating can be either male or female, which result in different impacts on the viewers. Mikorski and Szymanski basing their study on traditional masculinity ignored the aspects of modern changes and robust nature of sexuality. The title of the study limited the ability of the authors to explore the situation thus making their study limited in scope. However, interviewing the participants on the frequency of porn viewing rather than the genre portray a lack of novice and creativity.
According to Neville (2015), studies on sexual objectification tend to limit their scope by ignoring the aspect of genre and women porn viewing. The study demonstrates that data from PornHub demonstrated that male porn viewers tend to prefer lesbian pornography than rape or dominating videos (Neville, 2015). This claim can support the sexual objectification but it distorts the traditional expectation of the male gaze hence the choice of the authors to ignore such surveys. The study seems too focused to demonstrate that traditional masculinity dominates in sexual objectification that it eliminates other issues that may support the sexual objectification of women but limit the power factor in masculinity.
The above assumptions demonstrated that the article title limited the scope of the study and the authors focused too hard to eliminate any information that would change the intended results. The gender, racial, and sexuality discrimination allowed the authors to prove the influence of traditional male influences in male gaze but it also resulted in increased credibility issues of the study. However, the article is correct in most of its assumptions but its descriptive nature and it generalization limit its value. The willingness of the writers to detail these limitations is admirable and eliminates the notion that they influenced the results and proving that the title limited their study.
Reflection on the Unanswered Questions and Future Research Directions
The study failed to answer the ways traditional masculinity can reduce the objectification of women and proposed a quantitative and broader scope for future studies. This move is important because it will help future studies address the limited sampling and include women to demonstrate their thought rather than relying on claims made by students intending to achieve credits in psychology. It is important to note that the determining the differences in modern and traditional masculinity is vital due to the evolution of social norms and different aspects of gender and racial equality.
Conclusion
The article, “Masculine norms, peer group, pornography, Facebook, and men’s sexual objectification of women,” (Mikorski & Szymanski, 2017), demonstrated that adolescent males are influenced by traditional masculinity norms to engage and enhance female objectification. However, the title limited the authors’ ability to determine the changes in cultural norms that would have resulted in different findings. Therefore, the authors failed to convince the users on the aspects of male gaze and violence towards women.
References
Loughnan, S., & Pacilli, M. (2014). Seeing (And Treating) Others As Sexual Objects: Toward A More Complete Mapping Of Sexual Objectification. TPM , 21 (3), 309-325.
Manago, A., Ward, L., Lemm, K., Reed, L., & Seabrook, R. (2014). Facebook Involvement, Objectified Body Consciousness, Body Shame, and Sexual Assertiveness in College Women and Men. Sex Roles , 72 (1-2), 1-14.
Mikorski, R., & Szymanski, D. M. (2017). Masculine norms, peer group, pornography, Facebook, and men’s sexual objectification of women. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 18(4), 257-267.
Neville, L. (2015). Male gays in the female gaze: women who watch m/m pornography. Porn Studies , 2 (2-3), 192-207.
Peter, J., & Valkenburg, P. (2016). Adolescents and Pornography: A Review of 20 Years of Research. The Journal Of Sex Research , 53 (4-5), 509-531.
Vandenbosch, L., & Eggermont, S. (2012). Understanding Sexual Objectification: A Comprehensive Approach Toward Media Exposure and Girls' Internalization of Beauty Ideals, Self-Objectification, and Body Surveillance. Journal Of Communication , 62 (5), 869-887.
