Babes and the Woods: Women's Objectification and the Feminine Beauty Ideal as Ecological Hazards

Abstract

Abstract Pervasive sexual objectification of women in our culture trains women to take an observer's (critical) perspective on the physical self. This self-objectification preoccupies women with chronic body surveillance and shame as they evaluate the extent to which they fall short of the feminine beauty ideal portrayed in popular media—an ideal that requires substantial modification of the natural body. Connectedness to nature (CN) refers to the extent to which an individual's sense of self includes an awareness of himself or herself as part of the natural world. CN is positively related to proenvironmental attitudes and behavior. Two correlational studies and an experiment supported a theoretical model in which self-objectification and internalization of the feminine beauty ideal degrade women's CN—because they alienate women from their natural bodies and limit women's nature-embedded experiences—leading to less environmentally friendly behavior.