Female “Empowerment” Through Clothing and Media and its Correlation with Body Image

Abstract

Research has indicated that the over-sexualization of women through advertisements, TV programs, and other forms of media has skewed the true meaning of female strength and empowerment. This experiment explored the perceptions of empowerment of female music industry artists related to their sexualized presentation in a sample of college students 18-25 years of age, also known as “millennials.” I also assessed the relationships between these perceptions, self-evaluation of body image, and self-reported objectification of women. Celebrities who presented in modest, less sexualized ways were perceived as more empowering compared to those who presented in more revealing dress and behaving in a more sexualized manner during performances. No significant relationship between body consciousness and perceptions of any of the celebrities was found. Objectification of Women was higher for males than females. Implications of these findings are discussed.