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Sex Roles (2009) 60:174185 DOI 10.1007/s11199-008-9521-4
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Objectified Body Consciousness in a Developing Country: A Comparison of Mothers and Daughters in the US and Nepal
Mary Crawford & I-Ching Lee & Galina Portnoy &
Alka Gurung & Deepti Khati & Pinky Jha &
Anjana Chalise Regmi
Published online: 7 August 2008# Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2008
Abstract Self-objectification (Fredrickson and Roberts 1997) has been related to negative psychological consequences in U.S. women. However, little cross-cultural research has been done. We compared convenience samples of American and Nepali women on two measures of self-objectification. Pairs of Nepali mothers and daughters (N=23) and pairs of U.S. mothers and daughters (N=24) completed a quantitative and a qualitative measure of self-objectification. Cultural and generational differences were found. Nepali women engaged in less self-surveillance than U.S. women. Older women engaged in less self-surveillance than younger women. Women in both cultures had high beliefs in their ability to control the body. An additional dimension of body consciousness, termed Functionality, was particularly important to younger Nepali women.
Keywords Self-objectification .
Cross-cultural comparisons . Modernization . Globalization . Nepal . Nepalese women . Body image .
Body consciousness . Mothers and daughters
Introduction
In Western societies, the female body is often treated as an object for evaluation and consumption. Adolescent girls and adult women routinely encounter sexual objectification in the way they are appraised by others, and they also routinely observe other women being represented and treated as objects. When women are sexually objectified, their value as human beings is equated to their physical and sexual attractiveness. Objectification occurs through widespread cultural representation of women as sexually appraisable body parts and through interpersonal interactions that focus on a womans body and sexual desirability. However, in the literature, few studies have explored cultural effects on womens objectification (McKinley 1999). As a result, cultural impact on womens objectification has rarely been discussed. In this study, we compared the U.S. with Nepal, a culture relatively secluded from Western influence, in order to examine cultural effects on womens objectification of the body. Moreover, globalization is affecting even relatively isolated cultures such as Nepal (Liechty 2003; McHugh 2004). Thus, we compared two generations of women within each culture. By comparing generations, we assessed individuals self-objectification...