This study explored how system-justification theory may explain the mixed psychological outcomes of women's self-sexualization. Specifically, it was hypothesized that gender-specific system justification would mediate the relationships between women's intentions regarding and enjoyment of self-sexualization and (a) endorsement of benevolent sexist attitudes; (b) environmental mastery; (c) general positive affect; and (d) general negative affect. Participants were 190 heterosexual-identified women over the age of 18, surveyed through college courses, social media, and email advertisement. Measures included the Sexualizing Behavior Scale (SBS; Nowatzki & Morry, 2009), the Enjoyment of Sexualization Scale (ESS; Liss, Erchull, & Ramsey, 2011), a gender-specific system justification scale (as modified and used by Jost and Kay, 2005), the Benevolent Sexism subscale of the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (Glick & Fiske, 1996), the Environmental Mastery subscale from the Psychological Well-being Inventory (PWBI; Ryff, 1989), and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule - Expanded Form (PANAS-X; Watson & Clark, 1999). Self-esteem was also examined as an exploratory criterion variable, using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory (RSE; Rosenberg, 1965). Data were analyzed through path analysis, and results indicated a number of significant direct paths between variables; however, none of the indirect paths was significant, indicating lack of support for the general hypothesis that gender-specific system justification would mediate the links between self-sexualizing and the criterion variables of interest. Implications of this study include illuminating the role of societal context in shaping the function of marginalized individuals' behaviors, as well as advancing feminist scholarship by bridging the opposing views regarding women's self-sexualizing behaviors.

Sexualization can affect individuals of all ages, colors, sexualities, and genders. Sexualization may affect women and girls more commonly and intensely, however. Sexualization occurs when one's value is placed solely on their appearance. Sexualization has been observed to happen through two main sources: the media and interpersonal relationships. Consequently, a third source may arise when girls internalize the sexualization. It has been demonstrated that sexualization can have negative and positive consequences for adolescent girls. Though sexualization may have positive consequences, such as sexual agency, the negative consequences seem to outweigh them. Despite the amount of attention this topic has received, there seems to be a lack of literature exploring ways to prevent or decrease sexualization among girls. However, research has shown that awareness-increasing interventions have been effective in changing health-related behaviors. The present study searched for common themes among previous awareness-increasing interventions. The results indicated 3 common themes: education, training, and monitoring. It is possible, then, that an intervention designed to increase awareness of sexualization, train the targets skills necessary for challenging sexualizing messages, and monitoring their progress could reduce sexualization. Finding a way to decrease sexualization aimed at adolescent girls could make more girls realize that their worth does not just lie within their appearance and not allow people to treat them as such.

Kvinnors kroppar och sexualitet har historiskt kontrollerats och styrts, men att leva som kvinna i Sverige idag innebär ur många avseenden ökade friheter och rättigheter. Samtidigt finns det fortfarande en mängd potentiella utmaningar för kvinnor att förhålla sig till relaterat till kropp och sexualitet i en, vad som kan beskrivas som, allt mer sexualiserad kultur. Syftet med studien var att få en djupare förståelse för hur unga kvinnor i Sverige idag resonerar kring sexualisering av kvinnokroppen. Den teoretiska grunden vilar på socialkonstruktionism och Butlers performativa genusteorier. För att besvara syftet genomfördes två fokusgruppintervjuer och fem individuella djupintervjuer med tretton kvinnor i åldrarna 21–35 år. Resultatet visar att kvinnornas syn på sexualisering och självsexualisering har varierat beroende på vilken livsfas de befunnit sig i. Samtliga ansåg att sexualisering av kvinnor fortfarande är ett problem i Sverige idag och att de inte betraktar kvinnors sexualitet som frigjord. Självsexualisering beskrevs delvis som stärkande och möjliggörande för kvinnors sexuella frigjordhet, men problematiserades också. / Women’s bodies and sexuality has historically been controlled and disciplined. However, for women in Swedish society today, there are greater possibilities to cater one’s freedom and civil rights. At the same time there are still several potential challenges for women to relate to in relation to body and sexuality, as the culture has become more sexualized than ever before. The main purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding about how young women in Sweden today reason about the sexualization of women’s bodies. The theoretical ground lies on social constructionism and Butler’s performative gender theories. Two focus groupinterviews and five individual in-depth interviews were implemented with thirteen women in the ages between 21 and 35 years to answer the study's main purpose. The result shows that the participants' view upon sexualization and self-sexualization has in great terms varied depending on where they have been in their life course. Every participant did consider sexualization to still be an issue for women in Sweden today, and did not consider women’s sexuality to be truly liberated. Self-sexualization was, in some ways, described as strengthening and enabling for women’s sexual liberation, but were also problematized.