Daddy’s little princess : paternal relationships and self-objectification

In today’s society, women suffer from the objectification of the female body in the media and in everyday interactions. This objectification leads women to self-objectify by adopting a third-person perspective of their bodies. While the effects of mother-daughter relationships on self-objectification have been studied, there is minimal research examining the effects of father-daughter relationships on self-objectification, specifically during the period of adolescence. In this study, adolescent girls (N=102, M=16.5 years) completed a survey measuring perceived paternal closeness, perceived paternal benevolent sexism, and self-objectification. Analyses indicated that perceived paternal closeness was negatively correlated with self-objectification. Paternal benevolent sexism was not significantly correlated with daughters’ levels of self-objectification. Additionally, the Appearance subscale of benevolent sexism was positively correlated with the Control subscale of self-objectification; however, it was negatively correlated with the Body Surveillance subscale of self-objectification. These findings suggest that while paternal closeness may act as a protective factor against girls’ self-objectification, benevolent sexism in the context of father-daughter relationships may be more complex than in other male-female relationships.