Sexual Language Use in U.S. College Students Across Twenty Years.

Study 1: Students (N = 256 women, 129 men, and 13 nonbinary individuals, 61.8% heterosexual) from the same college campus studied 20 years ago (Murnen, 2000) reported on terms they used to refer to male genitals, female genitals, and "having sex" either within the context of an intimate partnership, talking with friends of their gender, or talking with friends in a mixed-gender group. Terms for genitals were coded as degrading or not, and terms for sex as aggressive or not, based on the previous study. Whereas in the past almost three-quarters of men used a degrading term for female genitals, that amount decreased to about one-quarter in the present sample. On the other hand, among women there was a significant increase in the use of a degrading term for women's genitals in the intimate partner context, particularly among sexual minority women. Degrading and aggressive language use was predicted by pornography use and endorsement of gender stereotyped sexual attitudes. Study 2: Interpretations of sexual terms were studied among 29 sexual minority women, 81 heterosexual women, 16 sexual minority men, and 54 heterosexual men. We found that few terms were perceived as degrading or aggressive today (unlike 20 years ago) and that students believe that societal changes such as sexual education and the #MeToo movement were perceived as responsible for changes in sexual language use.

Gender differences in responses to thin, athletic, and hyper-muscular idealized bodies.

Recent evidence suggests that the ideal female body has shifted from an ultra-thin image toward one that is both thin and toned, or muscular. Furthermore, the ideal male body may be more athletic, characterized by moderate muscularity combined with leanness, than bodybuilder-muscular. Thus, we experimentally examined women's (n = 92) and men's (n = 106) cognitive processing style in response to idealized body types, i.e., thin images, athletic images (thin and muscular), or hyper-muscular images (moderately thin and extremely muscular). Results revealed that women in the athletic condition were the most likely to generate negative social comparisons. Women in the thin condition were more likely to generate counter-arguments compared to women in the other two conditions. Men in the hyper-muscular condition were more likely to generate counter-arguments than men in the other two conditions. Further, among women in the thin condition, negative social comparisons were inversely related to body appreciation but positively related to internalization of appearance ideals. Findings confirm that the athletic ideal likely poses problems for women's body image. Both women and men seemed to be able to "talk back" when exposed to their gendered body ideal.

The Cash effect: Shaping the research conversation on body image and eating disorders.

Cash and Deagle (1997) examined the associations between body image disturbance (BID) and the eating disorders (EDs) of anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN) in a meta-analytic review. They found almost twice as many studies employing perceptual measures of body size evaluation compared to cognitive-evaluative measures of body dissatisfaction, even though effect sizes were larger for studies with cognitive-evaluative measurement. We examined 109 "influential" (i.e., well-cited) studies that cited the Cash and Deagle meta-analysis. We found a slight, continued emphasis on research using body size evaluation measures that implied a biological correlate for perceptual differences (especially for those with AN). We found proportionally more studies using cognitive-evaluative measures than was true in 1997, and more variability in the types of measures used. In these studies researchers emphasized the role of sociocultural factors in the link between BID and EDs. Theory and research that integrate a variety of factors to conceptualize the association between BID and EDs are still needed.

Thin and sexy vs. muscular and dominant: Prevalence of gendered body ideals in popular dolls and action figures.

We examined the extent to which popular dolls and action figures were portrayed with gendered body proportions, and the extent to which these gendered ideals were associated with heterosexual "success." We coded internet depictions of 72 popular female dolls and 71 popular male action figures from the websites of three national stores in the United States. Sixty-two percent of dolls had a noticeably thin body, while 42.3% of action figures had noticeably muscular bodies. Further, more thin dolls were portrayed with more sex object features than less thin dolls, including revealing, tight clothing and high-heeled shoes; bodies positioned with a curved spine, bent knee, and head cant; and with a sexually appealing facial expression. More muscular male action figures were more likely than less muscular ones to be shown with hands in fists and with an angry, emotional expression, suggesting male dominance.

Is body dissatisfaction changing across time? A cross-temporal meta-analysis.

It remains unclear whether body dissatisfaction, a widely recognized predictor of eating-related pathologies and depressive symptomatology, is consistent across cohorts and time. This question is important to investigate because dominant theories propose that sociocultural influences, which may fluctuate, play an important role in the development of body dissatisfaction. Previous efforts for tracking body dissatisfaction across cohorts and time are limited by relying on data from a single institution or using assessments that lack psychometric support across genders. In this study, we utilized cross-temporal meta-analyses to examine changes in 2 dimensions of body dissatisfaction: thinness-oriented dissatisfaction as assessed with the Eating Disorder Inventory-Body Dissatisfaction subscale (data available across 31 years from 326 unique samples, n = 100,228 participants) and muscularity-oriented dissatisfaction as measured with the Drive for Muscularity Scale (data available across 14 years from 117 unique samples, n = 23,575 participants). Results revealed a significant interaction between year of study and gender in predicting thinness-oriented dissatisfaction: girls and women scored higher than boys and men consistently (ds = 0.51-1.17), although only girls' and women's scores decreased gradually across time (d = 0.49). Boys and men scored higher than girls and women on muscularity-oriented dissatisfaction (d = 1.72), with no significant changes across time. These patterns remained when controlling for age and geographic location. Overall, these findings highlight the importance of considering multiple dimensions of body dissatisfaction in research and offer evidence that sociocultural shifts in body acceptance and diversity may be countering thinness-related pressures for girls and women. (PsycINFO Database Record

Body ideals for heterosexual romantic partners: gender and sociocultural influences.

In the present study, heterosexual college women (N=327) and men (N=160) were asked about their body type preferences for (hypothetical) romantic partners. Participants chose a particular silhouette value as ideal for a romantic partner, and rated how important it was to them for their partner to have this ideal body type. Men placed more importance on the body silhouette they chose for a partner than women did, and men's importance ratings were positively associated with the rated sexual permissiveness of their peer group and their total media use. Consuming sports media and watching reality television were the best media predictors of men's judgments about women's bodies. Less variability was explained in women's preferences for men partners' bodies, but endorsing adversarial sexual attitudes was positively related to judging the ideals chosen for men's bodies as important. Results were interpreted within both evolutionary and sociocultural theoretical frameworks.

Development and psychometric evaluation of a quantitative measure of "fat talk".

Based on her anthropological research, Nichter (2000) concluded that it is normative for many American girls to engage in body self-disparagement in the form of "fat talk." The purpose of the present two studies was to develop a quantitative measure of fat talk. A series of 17 scenarios were created in which "Naomi" is talking with a female friend(s) and there is an expression of fat talk. College women respondents rated the frequency with which they would behave in a similar way as the women in each scenario. A nine-item one-factor scale was determined through principal components analysis and its scores yielded evidence of internal consistency reliability, test-retest reliability over a five-week time period, construct validity, discriminant validity, and incremental validity in that it predicted unique variance in body shame and eating disorder symptoms above and beyond other measures of self-objectification.

Drive for leanness: assessment and relationship to gender, gender role and objectification.

Three components of body image - drive for thinness (DT), drive for muscularity (DM), and drive for leanness (DL) - were assessed in 232 college students. A new measure of DL was developed. Data suggested that the new scale yielded valid and reliable scores. The relationships of gender, gender norm endorsement, and self-objectification to DT, DM, and DL were examined. The surveillance subscale of the OBC Scale was related to DL, DT, and DM in men and to DL and DT in women. Gender norm endorsement, specifically romantic relationships, moderated the relationship of surveillance to DT in women. Gender norm endorsement was directly related to DM and DT in men. DLS appeared to measure a distinct component of body image. Feminine gender role was only related to DT while masculine gender role was related to DL, DT, and DM, raising important questions about the gender differences in body image.

A meta-analytic examination of the relationship between child sexual abuse and eating disorders.

OBJECTIVE: This study had two goals. The first was to assess the magnitude and consistency of the relationship between child sexual abuse (CSA) and eating disorders (ED). The second was to examine methodological factors contributing to the heterogeneity of this relationship. METHOD: Meta-analysis was used to examine both questions. Fifty-three studies were included in the analysis. RESULTS: A small, significant positive relationship between CSA and ED emerged. The relationship was marked by heterogeneity. Effect sizes were largest when CSA was the grouping variable, the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI) or the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT) was used as the measure of eating disorders, and nonclinical groups were compared with clinical samples. DISCUSSION: Models of CSA and ED need to more clearly specify what aspects of ED (e.g., body image or binge eating) are most influenced by which types of CSA. These specific relationships then need to be examined empirically.

The effect of experimental presentation of thin media images on body satisfaction: a meta-analytic review.

OBJECTIVE: The effect of experimental manipulations of the thin beauty ideal, as portrayed in the mass media, on female body image was evaluated using meta-analysis. METHOD: Data from 25 studies (43 effect sizes) were used to examine the main effect of mass media images of the slender ideal, as well as the moderating effects of pre-existing body image problems, the age of the participants, the number of stimulus presentations, and the type of research design. RESULTS: Body image was significantly more negative after viewing thin media images than after viewing images of either average size models, plus size models, or inanimate objects. This effect was stronger for between-subjects designs, participants less than 19 years of age, and for participants who are vulnerable to activation of a thinness schema. CONCLUSION: Results support the sociocultural perspective that mass media promulgate a slender ideal that elicits body dissatisfaction. Implications for prevention and research on social comparison processes are considered.