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Revisiting the Jezebel stereotype: The impact of target race on sexual objectification
Anderson, Joel Holland, Elise Heldreth, Courtney Johnson, Scott P.
Anderson, Joel
Holland, Elise
Heldreth, Courtney
Johnson, Scott P.
Abstract
The overt objectification and dehumanization of Black people has a long history throughout the Western world. However, few researchers have explored whether such perceptions still persist implicitly and whether Black women are sexually objectified at an interpersonal level. We sought to address this gap by exploring whether Black women are sexually objectified to a greater extent than White women and whether target sexualization exacerbates this effect. In Study 1, using eye-tracking technology (N = 38), we provide evidence that individuals attend more often, and for longer durations, to the sexual body parts of Black women compared to White women, particularly when presented in a sexualized manner. In Studies 2a (N = 120) and 2b (N = 131), we demonstrated that Black women are implicitly associated with both animals and objects to a greater degree than White women with a Go/No-Go Association Task. We discuss the implications of such dehumanizing treatment of Black people and Black women in U.S. society. We hope that this evidence will increase awareness that objectification can happen outside the realm of conscious thought and that related interventions ought to include an ethnicity-specific component. Additional online materials for this article, including online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching, are available on PWQ's website at [http://journals.sagepub.com/page/pwq/suppl/index] http://journals.sagepub.com/page/pwq/suppl/index
Keywords
objectification, dehumanization, sexualization, race, visual attention, implicit cognition
Date
2018
Type
Journal article
Journal
Psychology of Women Quarterly
Book
Volume
42
Issue
4
Page Range
461-476
Article Number
ACU Department
School of Behavioural and Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as green open access
License
File Access
Controlled
Open
Open