The effect of anticipating an objectifying gaze on body shame, appearance anxiety, and muscular dissatisfaction in men and women

The study aims to add to the current literature about sexual objectification, exploring the effects of the objectifying gaze on both genders. As found in present studies, women are most valued for their bodies than men, largely in part of perceived cultural standards. Women are found to be more prone to self-objectification when anticipating an objectifying gaze, resulting in body shame and appearance anxiety, which lead to severe psychological consequences. This phenomenon is said to be inapplicable to men however, recent studies suggest that men are also affected by self-objectification, in the form of muscular dissatisfaction. There is a lack of study on how men react to an anticipated gaze and how this potentially affects the male psyche. An experiment was conducted on 156 undergraduates, 78 males and 78 females, from De La Salle University-Manila. Following a 2x3 factorial design, a two-way MANCOVA was utilized in testing the effects of gender and anticipated gaze (given three conditions: a male gaze, a female gaze, or no gaze at all) on body shame, muscular dissatisfaction, and appearance anxiety in males and in females, holding BMI and self-objectification as covariates. The results showed that objectifying gaze did not have a significant effect on the dependent measures. The presence of a type of gaze did not increase the body shame, muscular dissatisfaction, or appearance anxiety of the participants. Discussion centers on how cultural differences and familiarity affect the participants\u27 reception of objectifying gaze and what the implications of the study are on future research