A study by State\u00a0University of New York\u00a0at Buffalo sociologists has found a rise in \u201cpornified\u201d images of women in popular media. The researchers\u00a0 called the findings a concern\u00a0 since research shows such images of women have negative consequences for both men and women.<\/p>\n
The university’s Department of Sociology assistant professors Erin Hatton and Mary Nell Trautner are the authors of “Equal Opportunity Objectification? The Sexualization of Men and Women on the Cover of Rolling Stone,” which will be published in the September issue of the journal Sexuality & Culture.<\/em><\/p>\n The authors studied Rolling Stone<\/em> magazines from 1967 to 2009 —\u00a0more than 1,000 images of men and women because Rolling Stone<\/em> \u201cis a well-established, pop-culture media outlet. It is not explicitly about sex or relationships \u2026 and so offers a useful window into how women and men are portrayed generally in popular culture.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Jeremy Kryn, writing\u00a0for the website\u00a0LifeSiteNews:<\/p>\n The authors measured the intensity of sexualized representations by developing a \u201cscale of sexualization.\u201d The scale gave an image \u201cpoints\u201d for being sexualized if the subject\u2019s lips were parted or tongue was showing, if the subject was only partially clad or naked, or if the text describing the subject used explicitly sexual language.<\/p>\n Hatton and Trautner found that in the 1960s, 11% of men and 44% of women on the covers of \u201cRolling Stone\u201d were sexualized. In the 2000s, the percentage of men who were sexualized had increased 55% to 17% and the percentage of women 89% to 83%.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the 2000s, there were 10 times more hypersexualized images of women than men, and 11 times more non-sexualized images of men than of women,\u201d said Hatton.<\/p>\n \u201cSexualized portrayals of women have been found to legitimize or exacerbate violence against women and girls, as well as sexual harassment and anti-women attitudes among men and boys,\u201d Hatton says. \u201cSuch images also have been shown to increase rates of body dissatisfaction and\/or eating disorders among men, women and girls; and they have even been shown to decrease sexual satisfaction among both men and women.\u201d<\/p>\n