Self Objectification Essay

Mortality salience, an awareness of one’s impending doom, and a tendency to literally objectify the human form suggests humanities’ innate, animalistic will to survive. Hence, when presented with death-related stimulus, individuals distance themselves from the perceived image of mortality (Goldenberg & Morris, 2015). According to Goldenberg and Morris (2015), “women’s bodies possess certain reproductive responsibilities that underscore the corporeality of human existence,” suggesting their physicality serves as a poignant reminder of human mortality and thus is strongly connected with saliency. DEFINE WORDS HERE EXPLAIN WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT. When individuals are faced with reminders of their vulnerability, they An analysis by Goldenberg,
Morris et al. (2014) conducted a series of studies on such. The first involved participants viewing images of pregnant women after priming with death-related essay questions. Participants then answered a questionnaire serving as the operational definition of “literal self-objectification.” The results of the study depicted an increased tendency for women to dehumanize themselves after viewing images associated with feminine reproduction. The second study focused on menstruation and involved a participant first answering the same essay questions as Study 1. The experimenter asked the participant if they could borrow a tampon to introduce menstruation saliency. Participants were again given a questionnaire meant to measure self-objectification. Like the first study, women primed with reproductive reminders rated themselves with a higher denial of human nature. The findings support how the phenomena of literal self-objectification refers back to terror management theory, where the existential threat of mortality diminishes by objectifying one’s self and thus diffusing the