The Drawback of Sexual Empowerment: Perceiving Women as Emancipated but Still as Sexual Objects

The belief that sexualization might be used as a source of power for women in Western societies is spreading (Anderson 2014 ; Erchull and Liss 2013 ). The present research aims at evaluating the interpersonal consequences for women endorsing this belief. In three experimental studies with Belgian and French participants (100 college men in Study 1; 135 men in Study 2; 203 women in Study 3), we examine how women who intentionally self-sexualize (i.e., endorse a sex-is-power belief; SIPB) are perceived on four facets of social judgment (i.e., agency, morality, competence, warmth). Furthermore, we compare the perception of women endorsing SIPB to the perception of those who enact body surveillance (BSV), a behavior commonly associated with passive self-objectification, and we explore the expected and actual objectifying behaviors these targets elicit. Results indicate that women engaged in BSV were negatively evaluated on the four facets of social judgment, were perceived as more likely to experience daily objectification, and were more objectified by men than women who do not. The same pattern of results emerges for women endorsing (vs. not) SIPB, except that their agency is acknowledged. We discuss the societal consequences of intentional self-sexualization, whether empowering or not.