Antioch University AURA - Antioch University Repository and Archive Student & Alumni Scholarship, including Dissertations & Theses Dissertations & Theses 2019 Sexually Objectifying Microaggressions in Film: Using Entertainment for Clinical and Educational Purposes Jackie M. Nelson Antioch University Seattle Follow this and additional works at: https://aura.antioch.edu/etds Part of the Clinical Psychology Commons, Educational Psychology Commons, Film and Media Studies Commons, Social Psychology Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Nelson, Jackie M., "Sexually Objectifying Microaggressions in Film: Using Entertainment for Clinical and Educational Purposes" (2019). Dissertations & Theses. 497. https://aura.antioch.edu/etds/497 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student & Alumni Scholarship, including Dissertations & Theses at AURA - Antioch University Repository and Archive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations & Theses by an authorized administrator of AURA - Antioch University Repository and Archive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. SEXUALLY OBJECTIFYING MICROAGGRESSIONS IN FILM: USING ENTERTAINMENT FOR CLINICAL AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES Presented to the Faculty of Antioch University Seattle Seattle, WA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree Doctor of Psychology By Jackie Nelson June 2019 SEXUALLY OBJECTIFYING MICROAGRESSIONS IN FILM: USING ENTERTAINMENT FOR CLINICAL AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES This dissertation, by Jackie Nelson, has been approved by the Committee Members signed below who recommend that it be accepted by the faculty of the Antioch University Seattle at Seattle, WA in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PSYCHOLOGY Dissertation Committee ______________________________ William Heusler, Psy.D. Chairperson Christopher Heffner, Ph.D. Monique Brown, Psy.D. ______________________________ Date ii © Copyright by Jackie Nelson, 2019 All Rights Reserved iii Abstract SEXUALLY OBJECTIFYING MICROAGRESSIONS IN FILM: USING ENTERTAINMENT FOR CLINICAL AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES Jackie Nelson Antioch University Seattle Seattle, WA Our culture is steadily becoming more aware, and less tolerant, of sexual harassment and misconduct. This is particularly evident in the wake of the viral Me Too movement beginning in 2017 which highlighted the breadth of personal experiences of sexual harassment on various social media platforms. Often the focus of these experiences is on overt sexual harassment and assault, but less attention is paid to the buildup that can lead to these terrible events. What is more, is that often these events are attributed to character flaws of the perpetrator without taking covert social norms into perspective. This dissertation takes a social constructivist perspective to concretely define sexually objectifying microaggressions (SOMs), a building block of sexual assault, as well as outline their clinical implications. This was done in the hope of expanding cultural competency of gendered microaggressions for both psychology professionals and students, exposing the potential impact SOMs may have on clinical presentations, and espousing the importance of utilizing modern media to better understand our culture. A qualitative content analysis was conducted on the seven top-grossing PG-13 rated films between the years 2010– 2016, beginning with a pilot study analyzing a clip from the top-grossing PG-13 rated film of 2009 to measure interrater reliability and construct validity. An extensive literature-based qualitative codebook was created to conduct this analysis. Results indicated that SOMs were present in all the films, but saturation longitudinally decreased. SOM targets were primarily iv protagonist characters with both men and women being equally targeted. The primary SOM perpetrator was found to be the audience or viewer of the films. An unexpected result was the high prevalence of idyllic hypermasculinity in the films. Implications and future research directions will be discussed. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA: Antioch University Repository and Archive, http://aura.antioch.edu/ and OhioLIINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu. Keywords: microaggressions, sexual objectification, gender studies, media, film, social constructivism v Dedication For my mother Carolyn Nelson You are the inspiration You are the fire You are the medicine vi Acknowledgments I want to first thank my committee. Bill, Chris, and Mo I could not have done this without you. Thank you for your support in this process and for helping me get into the endzone. I want to thank Chelsea Randall who acted as my co-researcher. I could not have done this without her thoughtful and diligent work. I want to thank my loving husband for his great ideas that continually sparked me along my path, for his love and care during the dark nights, and for his unwavering light and humor. I want to thank Ben Prior, AUS Provost, for providing me his Foucauldian wisdom. I want to thank Davey Erikson, BYU faculty member, for helping me get through my statistics and for general moral support as I settled into a new life in Utah. Last, but not least, I want to thank the AUS faculty, specifically: Jude Bergkamp, Cheryl Azlin, Jane Harmon-Jacobs, and Steve Curtis. You are the foundation that has helped me grow into who I am today. I am forever grateful. vii Table of Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Literature Review............................................................................................................................ 6 Social Constructivism ................................................................................................................. 6 Relevance to Clinical Psychology ............................................................................................. 12 Narrative Therapy ..................................................................................................................... 14 Therapeutic Practice with Female Clients ................................................................................. 17 Media as Both a Consequence of Power and a Narrative Tool ................................................. 18 Objectification Theory .............................................................................................................. 21 Sexual Objectification ............................................................................................................... 23 Microaggressions. ..................................................................................................................... 26 Research on sexual objectification in media ............................................................................. 28 Justification for Film Focus....................................................................................................... 34 Film as Public Pedagogy ........................................................................................................... 35 (Micro)aggressions in entertainment: The attraction of sexual violence .................................. 38 The reality of sexual violence ................................................................................................... 40 Sexual violence and mental health ............................................................................................ 41 Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 43 Research Questions ................................................................................................................... 43 Qualitative Content Analysis .................................................................................................... 44 viii Narrative Nature of Film ........................................................................................................... 46 Film Choices and Rationale ...................................................................................................... 47 Film Dynamics Codebook Creation .......................................................................................... 50 Character Dynamics Codebook Creation .................................................................................. 56 SOM Codebook Creation .......................................................................................................... 59 Scoring ...................................................................................................................................... 62 Process ....................................................................................................................................... 63 Pilot Study ................................................................................................................................. 65 Results ........................................................................................................................................... 67 Pilot Study Results .................................................................................................................... 67 Clip description...................................................................................................................... 67 Pilot statistical & descriptive