Sexualizing women is a clear incident of objectifying them, but perhaps more literally than we think. A recent study found that when viewing images of women who are scantily clad mixed with images of clothed men and women, the part of the brain responsible for social recognition (identify humans, telling faces apart) didn't respond the same way. When viewing the scantily clad women, this part of the brain did not activate in sexist men, meaning, in a sense, that these men did not see the women as fully human, but as literal objects. Similarly, a different study had found that when focusing on a woman's appearance, both men and women described the pictures of women with less human traits. This disconnect from assigning women, particularly sexualized ones, human emotions and traits is very alarming, especially considering the rape culture ("she was asking for it," anyone?) and general objectification of women in society. And, perhaps the most frightening part, was a separate study that found people had less concern for the pain of more sexualized (and clothed) women.
SITE: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-big-questions/201008/sexualized-women-are-seen-objects-studies-find
