ATTITUDE TOWARDS SEXUAL OBJECTIFICATION OF THE FEMALE BODY, SELF-OBJECTIFICATION AND BODY SATISFACTION
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The aim of this paper is to examine relations among attitudes towards sexual objectification of the female body, body satisfaction and self-objectification in women in Serbia. The survey involved 462 women, aged between 19 and 45. The attitude towards sexual objectification of the female body (SOFB) was operationalized by a scale of nine statements, based on observations of the sexual objectification of women. Objectified Body Consciousness Scale (OBCS; McKinley & Hyde 1996) was designed to measure self-objectification in young women and middle-aged women and it includes three subscales: (a) surveillance, (b) body shame – internalization of cultural standards for physicalappearance , and (c) appearance control beliefs. The respondents were also asked three questions regarding the degree of satisfaction with the overall physical appearance of the body, the presence of desire and the willingness to change the body. The results show that the respondents support the view that sexual objectification of the female body in the Serbian public sphere is widespread. The most common form of self-objectification are the appearance control beliefs. Although satisfied with the appearance of their own body, the respondents have a desire / willingness to change / reshape the body, which indicates that they have doubts about how they should look. In general, the attitude towards sexual objectification was not related to self-objectification and body satisfaction. Satisfaction with the physical appearance of the body is negatively correlated with self-objectification in women in Serbia, and the most pronounced connection is with the body shame (feeling shame when the body does not conform to cultural standards for physical appearance).
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