An investigation into whether the mass media has perpetuated the idea of women as sexual objects, and the impact this has had on the sexual harassment and assault of female travellers.

The phenomenon of sexual objectification has been ever-prevalent through the mass media; Television, Radio, Social Media, Film, Newspapers and Music. This study will provide insight and reasoning as to how and why women are more likely to be attacked or harassed whilst travelling abroad, a particularly significant topic given the current social and political climate. Sexual objectification is the reduction of a person to their body, body parts, or sexual function, which is done for others’ sexual desires and gratification (Fredrickson et al., 1998). This can range from depictions of an ideal body type to unwanted evaluations of their own body, such as wolf whistles and sexually inappropriate comments, or even sexual harassment and assault (Moradi, 2011). Access to sexualised and objectifying material is easily available in the 21st Century due to the internet; it is estimated that 12% of all internet websites are pornographic and 25% of all search engine requests, or 68 million searches per day, relate to sex (Weiss, 2013). It was found within a study that people who perceive women as objects, or as less than human, are likely to excuse treating them as less than human through emotional abuse, physical violence, and rape (Ohbuchi, Ikeda, and Takeuchi, 1994). It could be argued that within modern society, the mass media is responsible for a majority of sexism towards women. Men are portrayed as strong, tough, brave heroes, whereas women are portrayed as emotional, sexual, weak victims, with the vast majority being white. The media is both misrepresenting and underrepresenting everyone in general, not just women.

Valentine (1989) claims that women find their physical space frequently “invaded by whistles, comments or actual physical assault from strange men”. A study by Jordan and Aitchson (2008), found that there was a general concern from the women that local men might view them being alone in public as ‘an invitation’; the women were anxious due to their perceived vulnerability to sexual harassment or assault in public spaces, especially in the evening. This led them to alter their behaviour whilst travelling, using mostly ‘resistant practices’. Resistant practices were used to cope with harassment, these practices can vary from going out alone at only certain times in the day to modifying the way they dressed to deflect the male gaze and attention. Not reporting cases of sexual harassment and assault is not an uncommon social phenomenon (Orchowski and Gidycz, 2015). There are many reasons why this happens: it could be due to the victim blaming themselves for being in ‘the wrong place at the wrong time’ (Wilson and Little, 2008). Therefore, it is unlikely that there is an accurate number in terms of cases of sexual harassment or assault abroad. Due to the difference in socio-cultural and gendered constructs in each country or region, women travellers can put themselves at risk as they may be unaware of these differences (Falconer, 2011). When travelling to India, Lozanksi (2007) stated that of the western female travellers, either travelling alone or with companions, almost all were, to differing extents, sexually harassed by Indian men. Additionally, women were completely blamed for not conforming to the normative gender rules, or not behaving appropriately by taking unnecessary risks without the company of a man.

This study aimed to investigate the effect that the mass media has had on the sexual objectification and sexualisation of women, and the impact this has had on the cases of sexual harassment and assault of female travellers. It was found that overall, the media has a massive impact on the way the world views women, even women self-objectify. Although this study did not conduct primary research, research from other academic studies was utilised as it was seen as beneficial to the investigation. This is because in order to conduct a comprehensive, appropriate and accurate investigation into the sexual harassment of female travellers, more time would have been needed and more preparation as this is a topic that could offend the participant quickly. Sexual objectification is a huge and widespread issue within modern society, it has led to emotional abuse, sexual harassment, physical violence, and even rape in some cases. Currently, as a patriarchal society, women have inferior roles and privileges to men, and as such, sexism plays a central role in the continuing oppression of women. Although this sexism is nowhere near as bad as in past decades, women are still disadvantaged due to their gender, these disadvantages can range from being as aggressive as the potential threat of sexual assault or as simple as the unequal pay gap between men and women. Studies related to sexual objectification can help expose these issues as well as educating the population and change their attitudes and behaviour towards women.



Fredrickson, B. L. and Roberts, T. (1997) Objectification theory: Toward understanding women’s lived experiences and mental health risks. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21(2) 173-206.
Jordan, F. and Aitchison, C. (2008) Tourism and the sexualisation of the gaze: Solo female tourists’ experiences of gendered power, surveillance and embodiment. Leisure Studies, 27(3) 329-349.
Wilson, E. and Little, D. E. (2005) A ‘relative escape’? The impact of constraints on women who travel solo. Tourism Review International, 9(2) 155-174.

Firstly, this paper confirmed that sexual harassment certainly impacts the mobility of women, leading them to experience stressful experiences in their everyday life, as well as on vacation, which was also shown in the studies of Ceccato and Loukaitou-Sideris (2021). Although the level of sexual harassment and assault on female travellers can vary depending on the destinations they travel to, these types of unpleasant events keep happening to women in a lot of different contexts and regardless of the countries they choose to visit (Ceccato and Loukaitou-Sideris, 2021).

Furthermore, this paper’s author made a strong comment about the role of mass media in propagating sexism and harmful stereotypes about men and women, pointing out that female travellers often take safety measures to avoid unsolicited attention and sexual comments. However, oftentimes women find themselves sexualised and objectified despite taking these precautionary methods. This was demonstrated by Thompson (1994), who stated that street harassment when travelling is perhaps the most common form of sexual harassment towards women, throughout the world.

Additionally, the paper accurately suggested that street harassment can easily degenerate into sexual assault from men who perceive female tourists as vulnerable women. As a result, this becomes a serious safety concern, especially for female solo travellers in unfamiliar places. Wantono and McKercher (2020) researched this particular topic, focusing on the experiences of Asian women backpacking alone. The authors found that the female solo travellers were exposed to negative comments based on both gender and racial stereotypes. As well as this, because of sexual dimorphism, Asian women were generally seen as smaller and weaker compared to Westerners, which led men to perceive them as easier sexual targets (Wantono and McKercher, 2020).

In spite of these obstacles, I believe women should not feel discouraged, but rather find empowerment in tourism by challenging gender discrimination and double standards. Ultimately, it would be interesting to see more research on this topic, exploring the experiences of female tourists from different cultures, visiting various destinations.


References:

Ceccato, V. and Loukaitou-Sideris, A. (2021) Fear of sexual harassment and its impact on safety perceptions in transit environments: a global perspective. Violence against women, 1-23.

Thompson, D.M. (1994) The woman in the street: reclaiming the public space from sexual harassment. Yale JL & Feminism, 6 313-348.

Wantono, A. and McKercher, B. (2020) Backpacking and risk perception: The case of solo Asian women. Tourism Recreation Research, 45(1) 19-29.