Discovering Healthy and Risky Consumption of Self-Sexualizing Women

While treating a woman as a sexual object has been widely criticized, in the current highly sexualized culture, active and voluntary engagement in sexualizing behavior, self-sexualization, is often positively viewed as a sign of women’s liberation and empowerment. Researchers have studied several harmful consequences of the imposed or forced sexualization of women, but very little is known about voluntary self-engagement in sexualization and its potential effects on mental and physical health-related consumption, both healthy (e.g., taking workout classes, low-sodium food consumption) and risky (e.g., diet pill consumption, cosmetic surgery). To advance the well-being of women who self-sexualize, I will conduct mixed-method research to investigate their healthy and risky consumption choices concerning physical and mental health.