This study examined the relationship between objectified body consciousness and the utilization of fashion magazines for information about fashion and beauty, comparison to models, and weight satisfaction. Participants were 180 female undergraduate students. We hypothesized that highly body-conscious individuals would read more fashion magazines than low body-conscious women and also rate magazine advertisements and articles as important for influencing fashion and beauty ideals. We also hypothesized that highly body-conscious women would compare themselves to models and be less satisfied with their weight as compared to low body-conscious women. A multivariate analysis of variance indicated that significant differences between the groups existed, but that group differences were opposite to hypotheses. Possible explanations for findings are discussed.

Introduction

     The cultural preoccupation with physical beauty has generated much research regarding how a woman’s perception of her body contributes to negative body esteem. Feminist theorists argue that the female body is often treated as an object to be looked at. This objectification causes women to perceive their bodies as detached observers, which means they are attempting to see themselves as others see them. An internalization of the cultural body standards results in women believing that they created these standards and can achieve them. Therefore, objectified body consciousness (OBC) refers to perceiving the body as an object and the beliefs that sustain this perception (McKinley, 1995). McKinley and Hyde (1996) developed the 24-item instrument to assess OBC, and the three scale facets are body surveillance, control beliefs, and body shame. In order to conform to cultural body standards, women engage in self-surveillance to avoid negative evaluations (McKinley & Hyde, 1996). Thus, women are constantly seeing themselves as others see them, and this act of mental disassociation can have negative consequences for women.
     The next aspect of OBC is that internalizing cultural body standards can cause women to experience intense shame (McKinley & Hyde, 1996). Because the cultural ideal of a “perfect” body is excessively thin, most women are unable to achieve that standard. Consequently, many women experience a discrepancy between their actual bodies and their ideal bodies (Noll & Fredrickson, 1998). Any comparisons that women make between the ultra-thin standard and their bodies will produce body shame. The final component of OBC are control beliefs, which assert that women are responsible for their physical characteristics and can alter their appearance to conform to cultural standards (McKinley & Hyde, 1996). However, women must first be convinced that they are responsible for how they look in order to accept attractiveness as a reasonable standard by which to judge themselves. When women perceive the attainment of the cultural body standards as a choice, they are more likely to believe that appearance can be controlled (McKinley & Hyde, 1996).
     Related to the concept of self-objectification is exposure to appearance-related information via fashion and beauty magazines. Levine, Smolak, & Hayden (1994), for example, found that fashion magazines were instrumental in providing motivation and guidance for women striving to mirror the thin-ideal. Further, nearly half of the respondents in a sample of middle school girls indicated that they read fashion magazines frequently, and that the magazines were moderately important sources of information about beauty (Levine et al., 1994).
     Given that fashion magazines are seen as sources of information about beauty ideals, it seems likely that women scoring high on objectified body consciousness would be more likely to utilize fashion magazines for these purposes. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between objectified body consciousness and attitudes and behaviors regarding fashion magazines. Specifically, we hypothesized that women scoring high on the OBC scale were more likely to read fashion magazines and to rate both magazine articles and advertisements as important in influencing their fashion and beauty ideas. Further, we hypothesized that highly body-conscious individuals would compare themselves to fashion models and be less satisfied with their bodies in comparison to women who were low on body consciousness.

Methods

Participants
     Participants were 180 Caucasian females from undergraduate psychology classes. However, only the data from participants scoring above the median on all three OBC scales or below the median on all OBC scales were analyzed. Thus, data from only 56 participants were analyzed. The mean age of the participants was 19.0 (SD = 1.33). Participants were recruited through general psychology classes and received partial course credit for participation.
Instruments
     Instruments were administered to measure (1) the extent to which an individual reads or is exposed to fashion magazines, (2) the importance of magazine advertisements in influencing fashion and beauty ideals, (3) the importance of magazine articles in influencing fashion and beauty ideals, (4) the extent to which an individual compares herself to fashion magazines on a variety of domains such as happiness and physical appearance, and (5) weight satisfaction.
     To measure the magazine-related factors, a media questionnaire was created through a synthesis and modification of Levine et al.’s (1994) Media Questionnaire and Strowman’s (1996) Media Exposure and Comparison to Models survey. The first 15 items of the instrument comprised the Exposure subscale. Participants were asked to rate how often they view a variety of listed magazines. Although the focus of the study explored exposure to fashion magazines, nonfashion magazines were also included in the list to make the focus of the study less apparent. A subscale score indicating exposure to fashion magazines was obtained by summing responses to each fashion magazine item, with a high score indicating higher exposure to fashion magazines.
     The next 16 items of the instrument comprised the magazine information subscales. The first six of these items assessed the importance of magazine advertisements for providing information about beauty and fashion, and the remaining 10 items assessed the importance of magazine articles for the same purpose. Eight additional items comprised the Comparison to Models subscale, which assessed the extent to which participants compare themselves to models. To assess weigh satisfaction, we employed the Weight Satisfaction subscale of the Body Esteem Scale (Franzoi & Shields, 1984). The entire instrument was administered, but only scores for weight satisfaction were included in the analysis. Subscale scores were obtained by summing items for the weight satisfaction scale.
     A demographics survey was included at the end of the questionnaire. This survey contained items assessing such characteristics as age, race, height, weight, and exercise habits. Based on self-reported height and weight, the body mass of each participant was calculated using the following formula: Weight (kg)/Height2 (m2).
Procedure
     Participants were solicited from general psychology courses and were tested in small groups ranging in size from one to ten. The participants were provided with a packet marked only with an identification number. They were instructed to remove the informed consent form from the packet and read along with the experimenter as she read the informed consent aloud. The participants were told that the project was examining the effects of marketing on college students. Participants agreeing to participate then removed the scantrons and seven-page questionnaire from the packets and began working. Without a time limit being imposed, participants completed the questionnaire and were then presented with a debriefing form describing the true nature of the experiment. Participants were encouraged to contact the researcher if they had any additional questions about the research project.
     To identify participants who were either high or low scorers on objectified body consciousness, a median split was conducted for all OBC scales. Participants scoring above the median on all three scales were identified as high on objectified body consciousness, and those scoring below the median on all three OBC scales were identified as low on objectified body consciousness. We then conducted both multivariate and univariate analyses of variance.

Results

     Table 1 presents the mean exposure score for each fashion magazine, and Table 2 presents the means, standard deviations, and F-values of the dependent variables for the high and low objectified body consciousness groups.
Table 1
Means and Standard Deviations for Magazines Included in the Media Exposure Scale

Note. 5-point scale: 1 = never look at it; 2 = look through it rarely; 3 = glance through it sometimes; 4 = look through it often; 5 = look through every new issue
Table 2
Means and Standard Deviations for the Objectified Body Consciousness Groups

Discussion

     In contrast to our hypotheses, low objectifiers (1) were more influenced by magazine advertisements and articles than were high objectifiers, (2) were more likely to compare themselves to models, and (3) were less satisfied with their weight. Because our findings counter certain aspects of what the objectification theory predicts, there may be several reasons why this theory was not supported. First, it is assumed that women compare themselves to a cultural beauty ideal when they engage in self-objectification. The question then becomes: how are women exposed to the cultural ideal? In our study, we assumed that women obtain information about the cultural ideal from fashion magazines. The difficulty with this proposition is that the women in our study were not frequently exposed to fashion magazines. Table 1 shows that the highest mean frequency of exposure to any magazine was 2.93, for both Seventeen and Cosmopolitan. This frequency approached the level of women “glancing through it sometimes.” Because of a lack of exposure to fashion magazines, women may not be influenced by the cultural ideals of beauty presented within their pages. Consequently, women may be procuring information regarding cultural standards from alternative media sources, such as television, films, and the Internet. Future research may address the influence of these media sources in regard to their impact on women’s self-perception.
     Another possibility is that women may be making lateral comparisons to members of their peer group as opposed to making upward comparisons to models. According to the social comparison theory, individuals can make upward, lateral, or downward comparisons. It may be that women may accept the fact that they can never achieve the standard of beauty portrayed by the media. Hence, they may decide that the only salient standard for them to achieve is to look as good as their peers. In addition, women may experience intense stress by believing they must conform to a certain standard of appearance; thus, they may make downward social comparisons to regain self-esteem. These women may compare themselves to others whom they consider to be unattractive in order to feel better about themselves.
     Although some women may make downward social comparisons, other women who rate highly on body consciousness may decide to invest more resources in their appearance. Because they are concerned with and aware of their appearance, these women may actively engage in activities that help to improve their appearance. According to the preceding logic, high objectifiers would then be more satisfied with their weight than low objectifiers. In support of this idea, Smith, Thompson, Raczynski, and Hilner (1999) found that physical appearance is more important to African-American women and men than to Caucasian women and men, but also that African Americans are more satisfied with their appearance compared to their Caucasian counterparts. Thus, these results support the idea that the more individuals value and invest in their physical characteristics, the more satisfied they will be with their appearance.
     The generality of our study is limited by the use of a Caucasian, female, college-age sample. However, this sample is appropriate to study because research examining the influence of ethnicity on body satisfaction has found that Caucasian women tend to be less satisfied with their appearance compared to African-American and Asian-American women (Akan & Grilo, 1995; Altabe, 1998; Cash & Henry, 1995). In addition to ethnicity, men and women also tend to differ in body image, with women being less satisfied with their appearance than men (Mintz & Betz, 1986; Serdula, Collins, Williamson, Anda, Pamuk, & Byers, 1993). Thus, both sex and race differences exist in regard to body image, and these factors should therefore be considered when conducting body-image studies. For this reason, the findings of the present study should be generalized only to Caucasian females. Future studies may explore whether the findings from this study are replicated in samples of individuals of different ethnicity and sex. However, the questions in the instruments may need to be slightly modified to be appropriate with a male sample. For example, the fashion magazines included in the exposure subscale may not be the same magazines that would be appropriate for males. In particular, magazines such as Seventeen and Glamour may need to be replaced by magazines marketed to men and focusing on the male physique, such as weight-lifting or fitness magazines.

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