Body objectivation, moral norms and risky sexual relationships: moral canons and aesthetic canons in heterosexual men and women

Abstract

This study aims to examine if objectification (body shame, appearance control beliefs, body surveillance) and moral norms are associated with strategies aimed at influencing one’s partner to have safe sex (direct request, risk information, deception, relationship conceptualizing, withholding sex, seduction) and with the intention to use a condom during sexual intercourses with casual partners. Participants were 188 young adults (94 men and 94 women).
The t test shows that women report higher scores on the strategies Risk information, Relationship conceptualizing and Withholding sex and on the dimensions Body shame and Body surveillance; men believe more than women they can control their physical appearance.
Among men, moral norms predict the use of the strategies direct request, withholding sex, relationship conceptualizing and deception; body surveillance is a statistically significant predictor of the deception strategy; appearance control beliefs are negatively associated with the intention to protect oneself. Among women, moral norms predict all the criterion variables; body shame predicts the use of the deception and seduction strategies. These findings are important for planning interventions that are tailored and different for the two genders in order to prevent risky sexual behaviors.