麻豆影院

Undergraduate Students Research Objectification of Women on TV

Fashion merchandising students Megin Feczko, Leslie Kramer and Rachel Plymale teamed up with faculty mentor Jihyun Kim, Ph.D., for the project.

Previous research says female members of Generation Y are likely to have low self-esteem, resulting in negative behavior because of how women are portrayed in the media, but on the contrary, three undergraduate students from 麻豆影院 have found this is not always true.

Fashion merchandising students Megin Feczko, Leslie Kramer and Rachel Plymale teamed up with faculty mentor Jihyun Kim, Ph.D., an associate professor of fashion merchandising at 麻豆影院 State, to create 鈥淥bjectification of Women on TV: Effects on Generation Y Female Consumer鈥 to explore the behavioral effects the objectification of women has on Generation Y female consumers, specifically at the university.

鈥淥bjectification is when a person views oneself or another as an object, without human traits such as thoughts or feelings,鈥 Feczko said. 鈥淭he woman, in this case, is seen as an object, separate from her person to be evaluated solely upon looks. Repeated exposure to the media images of sexually objectified women is directly linked to self-objectification, where the media messages are internalized and self-objectification manifests.鈥

Their research examined the psychological effects of media exposure regarding female objectification on the Generation Y female consumer. The project focused on a broad research topic using three subtopics that were directly related to the objectification of women on television. The students found that the exposure to female objectification on TV has negative, psychological impacts on the Generation Y female consumers.

鈥淎lmost half of our participants admitted to buying things in order to make themselves feel better, but the majority had no feelings of anxiety on days they did not go shopping,鈥 Feczko said. 鈥淥ur results showed that our participants had high self-esteem and are not compulsive shoppers, however, they are materialistic.鈥

Female Objectification in the Media

The research focused on the relationship of female objectification in the media through the following subtopics: negative body image, low self-esteem and the resulting behavioral outcomes, such as compulsive buying behavior and unhealthy eating behavior.

鈥淭he teammates conducted in-depth interviews on the previous literature on objectification of women in the media,鈥 Kim said. 鈥淭hey formulated their research hypotheses and collected the data using college students as the sample.鈥

According to previous research, there is a positive relationship between low self-esteem and increased purchase behavior, meaning as self-esteem lowers, shopping tendencies rise. However, as the team found, 麻豆影院 State students did not report experiencing these tendencies after exposure to objectified women on television.

Planning Stages

The three students collaborated to develop their research through a term project in a course called Fashion Marketing that Kim taught in fall 2013. Feczko said the team decided on the topic after all three members took the marketing course Consumer Behavior. In the course, the students watched a documentary titled 鈥淜illing Us Softly 4: Advertising鈥檚 Image of Women鈥 by Jean Kilbourne. 鈥淲hat we took away from that class and video really left an impression on us,鈥 Feczko said.

鈥淎ll three of us are fashion merchandising students, so we chose the topic because it personally resonated with us,鈥 Plymale said. 鈥淭hrough many forms of media, women are almost always objectified, and many people do not realize how harmful this is to real women. I feel people do not take this topic seriously, but the objectification of women in the media is silently influential.鈥

Undergraduate Symposium on Research

The students will be sharing their research by participating in the university鈥檚 first Undergraduate Symposium on Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. The symposium will be held April 2 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the University Library. Attendees of this free event can find out more information about their research and other undergraduate research findings.

The symposium showcases the entire spectrum of faculty- and graduate student-mentored research, scholarship and creative activities across all disciplines. The goal is to establish a university infrastructure to make undergraduate research an integral part of the 麻豆影院 State experience, better prepare students for graduate and professional opportunities, and make for an enriching academic experience. Undergraduate students attending any 麻豆影院 State campus are invited to submit a research abstract indicating their intent to participate by March 3 at 5 p.m. Cash awards will be provided to exemplar and promising student presenters.

Kim promoted the symposium to her Fashion Marketing students and encouraged the teammates to submit their research work. Currently, Kim and the students are working together to produce a full-length manuscript for a journal publication.

鈥淭he experience has been tremendously rewarding,鈥 Kim said. 鈥淏oth the students and I are intrinsically motivated to achieve a top-quality educational experience regarding undergraduate research. The students are truly inspirational for my own scholarly work and instructional endeavor.鈥

For more information about 麻豆影院 State鈥檚 Undergraduate Symposium on Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity, including how to participate, visit www.kent.edu/undergradstudies/ugresearch.  

Photo caption: 麻豆影院 State students Rachel Plymale (left), Megin Feczko (right) and Leslie Kramer (not pictured) completed a study with Jihyun Kim(center), an associate professor of fashion merchandising at 麻豆影院 State, regarding female objectification of women on TV and in other media. Their research will be shared at the university鈥檚 first Undergraduate Research Symposium on April 2.

POSTED: Wednesday, August 27, 2014 04:35 PM
Updated: Thursday, December 8, 2022 08:42 AM
WRITTEN BY:
Shannen Laur