Researchers Find Increasingly Sexualized Images of Women in Media

Aug 12, 2011
Bob Yirka

Women shown more as sex objects on magazines - RDSDESIGN

Sociologists studying images over time presented on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine find women have become hypersexualized.

University of Buffalo sociologists Erin Hatton, PhD, and Mary Nell Trautner, PhD, assistant professors in the Department of Sociology, have undertaken a study of the images used to sell magazines over the past several decades. They found that while such images for men increased in sexualized messages only slightly, such images for women increased dramatically. The two will have their paper Equal Opportunity Objectification? The Sexualization of Men and Women on the Cover of Rolling Stone published in the September issue of Sexuality and Culture, which is currently available here.

The Rolling Stone Study

The two chose just one magazine for their study, Rolling Stone, because they felt it best summed up what other magazines are doing. In addition to providing stories on music, it's original charter, it also does pieces on virtually every aspect of modern society. In addition, the two believe that the cover of Rolling Stone magazine is iconic, having been cited by other outlets more than any other magazine of its time.

To assess trends of sexualization of images over time, the two gathered 1000 images from the covers of the magazine spanning the forty-two year period that the magazine has been in existence, then sifted through them. As they went, they assigned a value to each image: (0-4) not sexualized, (5-10) sexualized and (11-23) for those they considered hypersexualized.

Results of the Rolling Stone Sexualized Image Study

In general, the researchers found that as time went on, images of men became somewhat more sexualized, while images for women became hypersexualized to the point that some might be considered pornographic.

For example, in the 1960's they found that just 11 percent of the pictures of men and 44 percent of women were sexualized. By the 2000's those numbers had grown to 17 and 83 percent. Scattered among those that were considered sexualized, 2 percent of the ones depicting men were considered hypersexualised, while 61 percent of those for women were categorized as such.

What the Researchers Concluded From the Sexualization of Mass Media Images

The author's write that they don't believe sexy images of women are inherently damaging to anyone, but suggest that when such images portray women as merely objects to be desired it can become troublesome. They point out that other studies have been done that show that portraying women in such ways causes women at large to become the targets of violence and and/or harassment. They also note that other studies have shown such images to be a cause of women feeling negatively about their own bodies and may contribute to eating disorders.