
We live in an increasingly hyper-sexualized society where the female body is used as a tool in advertising the same way other props are used by marketing firms. The most blatant use of women as marketing props is in ads for men’s hygiene products. Apparently, if I use Axe body wash I’ll have hundreds of women descending from everywhere and surrounding me because I’ll be “oh so irresistible”. On the other hand, fashion magazines and pop culture are selling a particular way of being to women that promotes a “flaunt it if you got it” type of attitude. At the same time, the same men who are being exposed to all of this are told to respect women, know they have minds, and that they’re not simply objects for sexual pleasure.
Since we are an interestingly unique species with an unmatched brainpower, and our interactions with each other are most effective when we understand each other’s minds, a curious question is how do men’s perception of women at the brain level change as they become sexualized.
The “theory of mind” is the ability to attribute mental states to others. In other words, it’s my knowledge that I have certain beliefs, intentions, desires, etc. and also knowing that others have beliefs, intentions, desires, etc., which could be similar or different than mine. It’s recognized in the field of cognitive neuroscience as a hallmark of seeing another entity as “human”.
What’s interesting about theory of mind is that research is showing it to be a flexible process. For example, sometimes people will attribute more complex mental states to themselves or their in group than to others. Other times some people may not attribute a mental state at all to another group. Think of this as a process of dehumanization to certain extents from just a little bit to completely. When a group of people is being prejudiced against another, they’re attributing a lesser mental state to them or not at all. Interestingly enough, this actually has a basis in the brain.
Having such flexibility in theory of mind, the questions in the field revolve around which social targets fail to engage the right brain regions associated with mental attribution. When we engage in social interactions with people we attribute minds to, i.e. recognize qualities that we use to confirm they’re humans, the medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate, and temporal poles of the brain are activated. One study showed that people usually “dementalize” social groups who elicit disgust such as drug addicts and the homeless. Showing images of people from these groups failed to activate the prefrontal cortex region of the brain significantly above baseline.
So what actually happens when it comes to women? Since sexualization and objectification are about seeing people in terms of how useful they are for sex, it’s been proposed that the ability to attribute a mind to sexualized females might be diminished. In other words, a man pondering upon his own intentions towards a sexualized woman may interfere with his ability to recognize that she is a human being with intentions, beliefs, and desires of her own. This proposition was put to the test by a group of scientists from MIT with some pictures, a questionnaire and an fMRI machine.
What’s unique about this study is that rather than using sexually explicit images, they used images similar to ones seen typically in advertisements and billboards. In addition, the images were for both males and females in the two states – clothed and sexualized.
Before the fMRI study, participants were asked to view pictures of clothed and others of sexualized men and women baring their skins. Associations between first-person or third-person action verbs were measured. How this works is by showing the images to the participant then keeping track of the type of verb used in the responses. A first-person action verb (“handle”) is used in the case of objects, because instruments are the objects of one’s own actions. A third-person action verb (“handles”) is talking about an agent, not an object, because agents have minds and can author their own actions.
Results from the responses of the male participants were not surprising. For the male participants, sexualized women were associated with first-person action verbs and clothed women were associated with third-person action verbs. What this means is that sexualized women were thought of more as objects, not agents, of action. Interestingly, female participants viewing the same images did not show the same pattern as the men. Not only that, but while sexualized women were seen as more attractive, pleasant, and emotionally arousing than sexualized men, they were perceived as having the least control over their own lives. On the other hand, clothed women were seen to have an equal level of control over their lives as their men counterparts.
The next goal was to see how the brain activity changed as images of clothed and sexualized men and women are presented. fMRI findings from male and female participants showed that neural activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate, and temporal poles was greatly reduced only when viewing sexualized women. In other words, the brain regions that normally become active when one engages in a social interaction with another individual that they recognize is a human being, were active in men when they viewed clothed women, but not active when viewing sexualized women. It’s quite interesting how selective the sexualization effect was in that it was dehumanizing only for the women but not for the men.
Much has been written about the sexualization of women and it was argued against using psychological and sociological academic theories. Neuroscience is now shedding light on how the brain behaves in response to sexualized women. More importantly, this study is showing that it’s in fact a triggered response that is specific; a decrease in activity of the brain regions responsible for giving the status of “human not object”, and thus ultimately resulting in viewing the sexualized woman as a means to an end (sexual gratification). These same inactive regions become active when the same woman is clothed.
While this study shows that men become pigs in response to sexualized women,
the researchers indicate that the results are not exclusive to one gender. There are multiple levels to objectification and future studies will identify the different modes used by women when they interact with men and what situations would result in women objectifying them. However, it seems that for now men’s brains are unconsciously programmed to objectify and dehumanize women to a much greater degree when they’re sexualized. It’s no wonder they can’t stop staring and their mind goes rogue when the view is alluring.