Treating women as mere body parts harm them the most

New York, Jan 29: A new study of same and mixed-gender gaze patterns has found that women are viewed more frequently and for longer periods of time - even when their photos were blended in groups of both genders. “What we found was that women overall were looked at more frequently. They were looked at first, they were looked at last and they were looked at for longer durations. This was the case for both male and female viewers,” said Mary Jean Amon, doctoral student in University of Cincinnati's psychology programme. Amon says the findings reflect objectification theory that suggests that women are frequently evaluated by their physical appearance. “This often relates to sexualisation or even treating women as mere body parts, and that obviously can hold negative consequences over time,” Amon added. The paper appeared in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.